Bay County, Michigan - Chapter 7: Natural Resources and Advantages of Bay County, 1905

Climate - Easy Water Communication Provided by the Rivers and Saginaw Bay - A Paradise of Fish and Game - Rich Mineral and Agricultural Resources - Pine and Hardwood Timber - Extensive Underlying Deposits of Salt and Coal - Rich Soil and Fruitful Farms - "Garden Spot of Michigan."

Bay County is situated at the head of Saginaw Bay, and has a shore line of about 30 miles. It has an area of 437 square miles, and is probably the only county in the State without a single natural elevation. No figure of speech is used in applying the word "valley" to this region. The watersheds where the head waters of the Saginaw have their origin are many hundreds of feet higher than the river valley in Bay County. The altitude of the counties to the south, where the Flint and Shiawassee rivers, tributaries of the Saginaw, have their beginning, is between six and seven hundred feet above that of Bay County. A similar condition in greater or less degree, exists as to the counties west of Bay. Bay County is thus protected in no small degree from the severe wind-storms Avhich sometimes sweep across the State. While the winters are long and cold, the variations in temperature are not extreme, and the climate is much milder in winter than that of many portions of the State lying farther south. The summers are usually hot, owing to the county's peculiar location; the modifying influence of Saginaw Bay and the Great Lakes cause a late autumn and all crops have ample time to come

Besides numberless smaller streams and creeks, four large rivers, - the Saganing, Pinconning, Kawkawlin and Saginaw, - flow through Bay County. The last named river is formed by the Tittabawassee, Cass, Flint and Shiawassee rivers, and has a total length of 18 miles, being the largest river within the State. It enters the southern part of the county between Frankenlust and Portsmouth townships, flows north through Greater Bay City and between Bangor and Hampton townships, emptying into Saginaw Bay three miles north of Bay City. The season for navigation usually runs from the ist of April to about December 1 0th. The ice has been known to go out of the Saginaw River as early as March 17th, and in the season of 1857-58 the ice was at no time thick enough to hinder the passage of tug boats between Bay City and Saginaw. The ice on river and bay during the winter of 1904-05 was from 18 to 28 inches thick. In the early days a sand-bar stretched across the mouth of the Saginaw River and seriously obstructed navigation. This has been dredg-ed away by the Federal government and now vessels of the deepest draft can enter the harbor and land their cargoes at any dock along Bay City's seven miles of water front.

There are few sections of this country of equal area which have such wealth and variety of natural resources. Long before the first white man penetrated this wilderness, the aboriginal Indian tribes waged many a war for the possession of its primeval forests abounding with wild game and its rivers teeming with fish. While the larger game has been mostly killed off, or has sought refuge in retreats less accessible to man, there still remains sufificient small game to afford the man with a gun the pleasure he is seeking. The rivers of the county and the waters of Saginaw Bay continue to furnish immense quantities of edible fish, thus sustaining an industry in which hundreds of men are employed and thousands of dollars are invested. It is in winter that the fishing business reaches its greatest activity. At that season, hundreds of commercial fishermen and workingmen out of employment go out on the ice in the bay, erect huts and live for several months luring the finny tribe from the clear blue waters. The fishing grounds along the bay and ri\er are generally owned by the firms engaged in the business, their riparian rights extending to the center of the stream. Along these grounds nets are set, and lifted daily if necessary. It is not unusual to draw up from one to three tons of fish at a lift. New York City is the great mart for Bay County's fish output.

No doubt the early adventurers were attracted hither by tlie trade in furs ; but among the pioneers of this section were those who recognized the almost limitless wealth to be cut from the boundless tracts of pine timber. There now remains but one tract of this virgin growth of pine, and that is being manufactured into hunl)er as rapidly as modern methods and machinery can do so. However, large tracts of hardwood timber, including the different varieties of oak and ash, elm, maple, beech, tamarack and other valuable woods are still standing. There is a constant and increasing demand for hardwood lumber to be used as interior finish and in the manufacture of cabinetwork : and while, of course, the lumber industry will never again be the mainstay of the county's industries, it will contribute largely to the wealth and prosperity of this section for many years to come. All the remaining sawmills have timber supply and contracts for from 1 5 to 25 years.

Until i860 lumbering and fishing were almost the only industries. In that year the attention of capitalists and the community in general was called to the existence of vast reservoirs of salt in this section, and as an experiment a salt-well was put down in Bay City. This venture proved successful, and from that time on, with the encouragement of a small State bounty, the production of salt increased rapidly. The salt-blocks were usually operated in connection with sawmills, because in this way the exhaust steam, which up to this time had been wasted, could be profitably utilized, and steam could be generated from the refuse of the mills. Under the Saginaw \'alley, at a depth ranging from 600 to i.ooo feet, lies a vast salt basin. The immense deposit of rock salt from which the brine used in our salt works must come has not yet been touched. Many attempts have l>een made to drill down to it, but after going to great depths, drill after drill has been broken, and up to this time all such ventures have been abandoned on account of the financial loss sustained. The brine from our salt-wells stands 96 and 98 by the salinometer, and is freer from troublesome impurities

- "bitter waters," the operatives call them - than the brine of most other localities. While we all realize the importance of salt, not many are aware that soda is largely made from it. There are also many b3'-products of the manufacture of salt and soda which have considerable value as articles of commerce, such as bromine, which is much used in photography and other arts and in pharmacy; chloride of magnesium, which is also used in pharmacy; and chloride of calcium, used in the manufacture of artificial stone. With the decline of the lumber industry, the manufacture of salt also fell off to some extent, but many hundreds of thousands of barrels are manufactured each year, the North American Chemical Company alone producing about i .000 barrels per day.

The discovery of coal in Bay County does not date beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, but it goes back many years. With the sinking of the first salt-wells came the discovery of the presence of coal ; but in those days the matter was not considered worthy of particular attention. The drills would always pass through what the workmen were pleased to term the black mud or shale, but it was not supposed that coal existed underneath the valley, and no effort was made to mine it. In more recent years came reports from the northern part of the county (now included within the boundaries of Arenac County) that coal had been found while a well was being put down. A company soon went to work on the land where the discovery was made, and the news w-as sent broadcast that a good vein had been found. Then the company went to pieces, and that was the end of the Rifle River coal boom. It is scarcely 11 years since workmen, sinking a well in Monitor township, ran their drill through a vein of fine quality. The news of this discovery reached the ears of Frank and Alexander Zagelmeyer, who organized the

Monitor Coal Company, the first company of the kind in the county. Subsequent investigation has shown that the entire county is one vast bed of pure bituminous coal of the finest quality, the veins varying from 34 inches to seven or eight feet in thickness. The problem of cheap fuel has been solved, for the Bay County product can be placed right at the doors of factories in the city, in the matter of freight alone, at nearly a dollar a ton less than Ohio coal, which heretofore has had a monopoly of the trade in this county. With miles of deep-water navigation, excellent railroad facilities, and fuel right at our doors, the future of Bay City as a manufacturing center is assured, for these inducements can be offered to manufacturers by no other city in the State. Other valuable minerals which are found in paying quantities are gypsum, and shales and clays well suited to the manufacture of Portland cement. Many varieties of brick clay have also been found in operating the coal mine shafts and are being worked at a profit.

For many years after the settlement of the county, scarcely any attention was paid to agriculture. The clearing of farms began in the early "seventies" and it may truly be said that this industry even now is only in the early stages of its development. Probably threefourths of tiie men who originally cleared up Bay County farms worked at one time in the fishing industry, in the sawmills or in the salt- Ijlocks. They were thrifty and frugal, investin their savings in land, which they cleared in the winter season. The money received from the sale of the timber paid for the land, which is now worth in many cases from $50 to $200 per acre. It was necessary to drain a large part of the county before the land could be used for agricultural purposes. Thousands of acres of rich river bottom and swamp lands have been reclaimed bv dredging and dyking. This work, wliicli is still going on, is not difficult, as use is made of the many streams which traverse all parts of the county. In the southern and western portions of the county a rich black loam with a clay subsoil is found, while in the northern townships the soil is more sandy in character. Anything can be grown here that can be grown in other localities, and many crops flourish here that cannot be grown elsewhere. All fruits, with the possible exception of peaches, do as well here as anywhere in Michigan, and there is no better wheat, corn and hay land in the State. At first the farmers gave their attention more particularly to the growing of grains and hay, but in more recent years much of the land has been devoted to market gardening, sugar beets, chicory and fruit growing. The raising of stock is fast becoming an important branch of farming here, the expense of raising cattle being less than in many localities. In the summer season the meadows, pastures and wild lands produce the best of feed for stock, and in the fall and winter, beet pulp, which is an excellent feed for cattle, sheep and hogs, is given freely by the sugar factories to the farmers who will haul it away. The products of Bay Count}' farms are sent to agricultural fairs far and wide, always winning prizes and premiums, and the "Garden Spot of Michigan," as it has been called, is conceded to be the banner county of the State.