GC 489: Human Impact Upon the Environment; AuTrain Watershed Project

    This semester, students from Professor John Anderton’s class,  GC 489: Human Impact Upon the Environment, conducted research in the Archives using the Cleveland- Cliffs Iron Mining records. The class will author a study that examines the historical human impact on the AuTrain Watershed in Alger County, Michigan. Their project seeks to determine the human impact upon the natural environment, prehistoric and early historic use, historic use of timber resources, dam building, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and contemporary land use.  The Students will present the results of their research to the Alger Conservation District, and the general public. <To see our collection of Cleveland Cliffs Mining Records, click here>




        Scholars have never attempted such an in-depth study of the AuTrain area. Using resources from the Northern Michigan University Archives, Peter White Library, and the Archives in Alger County, the class seeks to answer why the AuTrain Watershed looks the way it does; what has been done to the environment to make it look the way it does today? This project will go in depth to learn more about AuTrain logging history, the history of the dam, and will compare the terrain from before AuTrain was settled to afterwards.  After compiling all of this data, the class GC 489: Human Impact Upon the Environment will present their findings to the Alger Conservation District and to the public in the Alger County Courthouse at the end of the semester.