Historic Houghton Virtual Tour

This site complements the walking tour located in downtown Houghton. Covering a span of 15 blocks, the tour illustrates the roles of various influences that built and changed our city. Many local businesses share our pride in our heritage and have posted historic photo displays that enhance the tour. We invite you to enjoy this virtual tour but to really experience our historical treasures, one should stop in and walk around. Walking Tour Map

This virtual tour is media intensive and requires a version 4.0 or later browser. It is illustrated with pop-up displays and Flash animation(flash) showing old scenes and in many cases, the same area today.
For optimum performance it is suggested that you close these display windows before continuing to the next display.

The city of Houghton is located in Northern Michigan's beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula. Most people have heard of our cool climate that affords spectacular winter activities and our location to Lake Superior's forests beckons the summer vacationer. But our area also has a rich heritage and history left from a livelihood much different from today's. Houghton 1900 / 2001 Panoramic View (flash) 675kb

The rest of the Keweenaw has just as rich a history as Houghton and may be experienced through the following attractions:
• City of Hancock - Historic walking tour and on-line photo gallery
• City of Calumet - Historic walking tours of the industrial core and business district - Contact:
  Keweenaw Tourism Council
• Coppertown USA museum
• Keweenaw National Historic Park
• Fort Wilkins State Park
• Keweenaw Underwater Preserve
• Houghton County Historical Museum Complex. M26, Lake Linden. (906) 296-4121

The Historic Houghton tour was funded by the Michigan Coastal Management Program / MDEQ and made possible by the efforts of the City of Houghton Preservation Committee:
Lou Helman
Fran Rutz
Kim Hoagland
Don Savera
Scott MacInnes
Ralph Raffaelli
Erik Nordberg
Mike Stockwell
and the generosity of Michigan Technological University Archives and Houghton County Historical Society.

Comments and suggestions can be directed to The City of Houghton Preservation Committee:
history@cityofhoughton.com

Historic photo research and text provided by Erik Nordberg.