Houghton (Michigan)
| Houghton | |||
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| Nickname : Hoton, Ho-Town | |||
 Shelden Avenue, Houghton (2008) |
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| Location in Michigan | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1854 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Michigan | ||
| County : | Houghton County | ||
| Coordinates : | 47 ° 7 ′ N , 88 ° 34 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) | ||
| Residents : | 7,010 (as of: 2000) | ||
| Population density : | 625.9 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 11.8 km 2 (about 5 mi 2 ) of which 11.2 km 2 (about 4 mi 2 ) is land |
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| Height : | 196 m | ||
| Postal code : | 49931 | ||
| Area code : | +1 906 | ||
| FIPS : | 26-39360 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 0628661 | ||
| Website : | www.cityofhoughton.com | ||
| Mayor : | Eric Peterson | ||
 Houghton County Courthouse in Houghton |
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Houghton is a city in the US state of Michigan and the largest city in the so-called Copper Country of the Keweenaw Peninsula . It is located in Houghton County and houses its county seat .
The city lies on the southern shore of Portage Lake, a spur of Lake Superior ( English : Lake Superior ), across from the Twin Cities Hancock . It is named after Douglass Houghton , who, from a Eurocentric point of view, was long considered to be the “discoverer” of the copper deposits in this area. However, the copper deposits were mined and used thousands of years earlier by the Indian inhabitants of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The great copper boom among European immigrants lasted from around 1890 to 1920, the last copper mine was closed in 1960.
The descendants of European immigrants now make up almost 90% of the city's population, the majority of whom are of German and Finnish descent. More than a third live below the poverty line .
Houghton is home to Michigan Technological University (MTU), which began teaching as the Michigan Mining School in the Houghton Fire Hall in the 1880s .
sons and daughters of the town
- James Peter Davis (1904–1988), Archbishop of Santa Fe
- Barbara Beyenka (1911–2006), religious sister, theologian, translator and writer
- Eugene N. Parker (* 1927), astrophysicist
- Barbara Ferries (* 1944), former ski racer
- Jeff Finger (* 1979), former ice hockey player
