1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Marquette

MARQUETTE, a city, a port of entry and the county seat of Marquette county, Michigan U.S.A., on the south shore of Lake Superior. Pop. (1900), 10,058 (3460 foreign-born); (1910), 11,503. It is served by the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic, the Marquette & South-Eastern, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago & North-Western, and the Lake Superior & Ishpeming railways. The city, which is situated on a bluff 100 ft. above the lake, in a region characterized by rounded hills and picturesque irregularities, has a delightful climate, and is a popular summer resort. Presque Isle park (400 acres), a headland north of the city, is one of its principal attractions. Marquette is the seat of the Northern State Normal School (established 1899) and of the state house of correction and branch prison (established 1885). A county-court-house, the Peter White library, and the Federal building are the most prominent public buildings. Marquette is the seat of Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal bishoprics. The city is best known as a shipping centre of one of the richest iron-ore districts in the world, and its large and well-equipped ore docks are among its most prominent features. Marquette is the port of entry of the customs district of Superior. In 1896 its imports were valued at $358,505 and its exports at $4,708,302; in 1908, imports $1,845,724 and exports $7,040,473. Foundries, railway machine-shops, lumber and planing-mills, brewery and bottling works, and quarries of brownish-red sandstone contribute largely to the city’s economic importance. The charcoal iron blast-furnaces of the city manufacture pig-iron, and, as by-products, wood alcohol and acetic acid, recovered from the smoke of the charcoal pits. The value of the city’s factory products increased from $1,585,083 in 1900 to $2,364,081 in 1905, or 49.1%. The first settlement was made about 1845, and in 1849 it was named Worcester; but “Marquette” was soon substituted in honour of Jacques Marquette. It was incorporated as a village in 1859, and chartered as a city in 1871.