Local History

The first settler came here in 1884.  George M. Wakefield, one of the fee owners of the Brotherton Mine in the area, surveyed and platted the village in 1885-86 and it was named for him.  A station on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.  It was in Ontonagon County until Gogebic was organized in 1887.  Incorporated as a village by the supervisors in 1887 and by the state in 1893 and as a city in 1919.

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

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