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Port Hope

Port Hope

The Cass Expedition of 1820 was organized to access the lands along the Lake Huron and Lake Superior Shores. Their log reported having to take refuge on a point near what is now Port Hope, “having found a shallow rocky shore and land covered with a beautiful green forest.” An 1837 geological expedition was sent to investigate the report of salt springs along the Lake Huron Shore. Their report described the Thumb’s northern coast line as rock bound, affording no harbors and thickly wooded with evergreens, forbidding and gloomy. Their expedition also exposed fictitious towns and fraudulent land sales by Detroit land promoters. While William R. Stafford was living in Lexington, Michigan, he became closely associated with Reuben Dimond. An 1851 recorded deed shows the purchase of a parcel of land, now part of Port Hope, by Dimond and Stafford. With financial assistance from a New Hampshire friend, William Southard, Stafford also began purchasing military land warrants from the US. Government. These forty acre parcels of land were set aside as pensions for the veterans of the War of 1812. A few years later, Southard came to Michigan to check on his investments. Traveling by schooner, he was let off at some distance from shore due to a pending storm. This left them to row their way to shore in a skiff. Struggling in the raging storm, Southard vowed that if made it to shore he would name the spot the Port of Hope. Stafford, Haywood and Jennesss formed a partnership for the purpose of harvesting timber and selling lumber in the Cleveland area. In 1858, there was a company dock and lumber mills in operation. The chimney from the old mill stands at the shoreline, the last standing chimney in Michigan from the lumbering era. By 1872, Stafford became the sole operator of the company. Port Hope had two lumber mills and two salt manufacturing companies operating over a period of time. One was operated by Wm. Stafford and the second by Dr. R.C. Ogilvie, whose business was located just north of Stafford’s lumber mill. In 1871, fire did extensive damage to the towns in the Thumb but did not totally destroy the lumber resources. In Port Hope, the Stafford and Ogilvie companies were destroyed, including their docks, as the fire swept along the shore. By this time new homes and businesses were being built on the bluff and these were spared. The great fire of 1881 was the most devastating on record. It covered three counties in the Thumb and took an untold number of lives. Whole towns were consumed. It was the demise of the lumbering era. Port Hope village, on the bluff, survived because of a wind shift, but tragedy struck again at the shore consuming docks, lumber mills and a flour mill. Within a short period of time, Port Hope’s livelihood changed to agriculture. Areas that had been forest became productive farm land. Stafford rebuilt his dock and the flour mill and added an elevator to serve the local and expanding agricultural market. Port Hope was incorporated in 1887. The rail line was extended to the community in 1903. Today, Port Hope enjoys sharing its heritage. There are 13 historic sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A walking tour of Port Hope is available for visitors.