Alpena's “North” Side

Located across the river from where you are standing is an area known historically as Alpena's Third Ward. The first dwellings there were erected in 1858 or '59 at the river's edge, while the majority of the land remained woods and swampland. The F.W. Gilchrist sawmill was built on the bay shore in 1867, occupying a large tract there until the mid-1890s, with loading docks fronting the river and Thunder Bay. Closer to the Second Avenue Bridge, a variety of ice-houses, fishing docks, steamboat landings and a flour mill lined the river. Ship traffic was intense. Lumber vessels, fish tugs, coastal freighters and side-wheel passenger steamers called constantly during the shipping season.
The population of the Third Ward grew steadily during the 1860s, '70s and '80s. A destructive fire, however, swept across the North side on July 22, 1888, destroying many homes and businesses. In spite of the devastation people rebuilt quickly, leaving few empty lots in the area just two or three years later.
The present Decorative Panels International plant (DPI) was constructed by the Abitibi Corporation in 1956 on the site of the old Gilchrist sawmill. The firm made fiberboard products and insulating board using various native trees. It was acquired by Louisiana-Pacific in 1999, and in turn by DPI in 2004. At that time the plant employed



230 people and produced pegboard and wallboard.

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Show me all markers in:  Alpena, MI  |  Alpena County  |  49707  |  Michigan  |  United States of America

Winter Layups
Alpena City Hall
The Ties That Bind
Treaty of Saginaw
Harbor Tug Ralph
Tragedy in the Mist: The Schooner E.B. Allen
Squeezing The Profit Margin
The Fletcher Coal Piers
Fast Steel Flyer: The Bulk Freighter Grecian
A Shipbuilding Revolution

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