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Keweenaw Time Traveler
Collaborative effort to develop the Keweenaw Time Traveler project
Fingerprints of the past extend up and down the Keweenaw Peninsula, illustrating the region’s past productivity in mining and lumbering. But how can this history connect the past to the present?
The Keweenaw Time Traveler launched in 2017 as a digital online atlas of Michigan’s Copper Country to forge these connections. The project digitally connects over 2,000 archival maps with historical data sets including building data, censuses, city directories, and school and mining company employment records. Led by Michigan Technological University researchers and students, the effort brings together the efforts of local residents and several local and regional heritage organizations. “Citizen Historians” helped to develop the look and feel of the online digital atlas.
The project has mapped and linked the homes and schools for every resident of the region from 1870–1940, connecting these with oral histories and building inventory records for every structure from this period.
Since its inception, the project has included a deeply integrated public engagement program, which includes in-person programming at local festivals, schools, senior living facilities, public libraries, and with many of the heritage sites throughout the region. The online version of the atlas brings Keweenaw history to curious minds around the world.
The Keweenaw Time Traveler is leading the way in fostering conversations about how this region’s industrial past continues to affect lives and identities today.
The Governor’s Awards for Historic Preservation recognize standout projects across both peninsulas, exemplifying the collaboration and deep impact preservation can have in Michigan communities. Congratulations to: Michigan Technological University, Department of Social Sciences and Geospatial Research Facility; Michigan Technological University Archives; Monte Consulting; Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw; Keweenaw County Historical Society; and Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission
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