Menominee
French-Canadian voyager Louis Chaput (Chappee) came here during the late 1790s. Chaput, an agent for the American Fur Company, was the first white settler in Menominee, which was named for the Menominee Indians who inhabited this area. Within the next one hundred years Menominee developed into a prosperous city, built along the waterfront with money from the booming lumber industry. By 1890 twelve steam powered mills operated here. The fishing and paper industries and the production of pig iron contributed to a broadening economic base. By 1902 the population had reached thirty thousand. As the pine forests of the Upper Peninsula were deleted, the population declined. During the 1990s it stabilized at nine thousand.