Attractions

Delta County Historical Museum

Heritage through our Ancestors

Mulcahy, Michael

Local History

The settlement was first called Sandy Point from its location on a sandy point jutting out into Little Bay de Noc.  Given a post office as Esconawba, with Alden Chandler as postmaster, on December 7, 1853, changed to Flat Rock on June 28, 1864, restored to Esconawba on the same day, until changed to Escanaba on June 1, 1875.

It was named the county seat in 1861.  The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad began operations here in 1863 and built the first ore dock.  The dock builder, R. A. Connolly, came later that year and built the first frame house, a hotel.  The railroad was completed in 1865 and the first light house in 1867.

Incorporated as a village in 1866 and as a city in 1883.  Named from the Chippewa word for flat rock, first given to the river which flows over a bed of flat rock and is the "rushing Esconawba" of Henry Longfellow's Hiawatha legend.

Informational excerpts from Michigan Place Names, by Walter Romig, L.H.D.

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