#Lore of Nicolet Bay

43 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

worldly parrot
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@tough isle

tough isle
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yay

tough isle
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Oh i'd also like to add that John's last name is Wilson, and they started a real estate/tourism company called Ashland-Wilson Housing Co.

worldly parrot
tough isle
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thanks!

worldly parrot
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wait what if we call it the WABH (Wilson- Ashland Board of Housing)

tough isle
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?

worldly parrot
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was a typo

tough isle
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oh ok

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yeah WABH is good

pseudo eagle
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? Nicolet Bay is in the South part of Superior

Across from Mackinaw City

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worldly parrot
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thanks for letting me know

pseudo eagle
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Np 👍

worldly parrot
glad grove
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Except the area very much was a trade post between French trappers, trader and missionaries, and the Ojibwe locals 😅

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I think Phil even mentions this in the opening episode

worldly parrot
glad grove
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Possibly even more Canadian history 👀

worldly parrot
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This is going to be very hard

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Thanks phil

worldly parrot
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Wait
The area was previously inhabited by the Wyandot, as well as the Ojibwe and Ottawa tribes of Native Americans. St. Ignace soon became the center of fur trading with the French. It was incorporated as a village in 1882 and a city in 1883. The Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians is headquartered at St. Ignace, and the city continues to have a high population of Native Americans.

pseudo eagle
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Mackinac County has the highest American Indian population in the UP so that checks out

worldly parrot
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I ran out of characters 🤣

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Coulliard is a thriving town located in the southern area of the State of Superior, a few hundred kilometers away from Ashland

The earliest account of Coulliard was a French one, whereby they supposedly traded with the locals at a peninsula where a big sea surrounded it, with a island to the west and a landmass to the south (the island is now present day Mackinac Island)

Legend has it that the French were the first build a permanent settlement there during the 1790s, possibly to trade with the Native Americans for goods and items, although it hasn't been proven yet, some day the ruins of the settlement lie underneath present day Nicolet Bay

Present Coulliard was never one of these towns with early beginnings, it would be founded due to one key resource that would power America for the rest of the century

Oil

In 1929, oil was discovered in Nicolet Bay, prompting people to flock to Coulliard in the thousands, hoping for a better life as the Great Depression kicked in

During the Second World War, the town helped to supply the US Army's oil in their fight against the Germans and Japanese.

However after the war, the unthinkable happened.

The oil ran out.

One by one, settlers began to leave the once prosperous city of 15,000, and floods from the nearby lake destroyed even more homes.

Coulliard, once a city with so much potential, had now been reduced to a shadow of it's former self, with the last settlers leaving by the late 70's

John Willson, a former worker of the Lewis Lumber Co, saw the potential of the trees and the historical value of the area, so with Cassidy Ashland, a descendant of the Ashland Family in tow, they decided to try to do the impossible:

They wanted to bring back Coulliard, and restore it to it's former glory

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They asked around for investors, but most scoffed at the idea, calling it "impossible" or "idiotic"

Their last chance was the founder of the Lewis Lumber Co himself, and after much convincing, he agreed to set up shop in Nicolet Bay, while John and Cassidy set up the Wilson-Ashland Housing Co. in order to house the new workers

The town was back in business

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@glad grove how about now?

glad grove
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Makes it sound a bit like a pre-fracking town.
Actually the UP is very much known for ore; usually in the west, though. Largely iron and copper. In fact it was so important that one of the primary targets of the German Amerikabomber project (that of course was unfeaseable and not pursued like most of the wunderwaffen) in WW2 was the Soo Locks—highly important for ships to traverse the St. Mary's rapids, especially in massive ore self-loader/unloaders, so long they can't exit the great lakes.

pseudo eagle
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Something to also note is that the name of the city is "Couillard"
Nicolet Bay is the name of the bay / region

glad grove
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Yeah I wasn't sure since Phil had said "city of nicolet bay" at the beginning but he also says "city of Clearwater county"
I'm not sure if it's supposed to be Nicolet Bay County, or just Nicolet County?

worldly parrot
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Lol idk much about this region, thanks for your help

glad grove
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I wouldn't say some sort of oil industry would be so far out of reality, though. But also much of the eastern UP is also environmentally protected under the Hiawatha National Forest, so too much exploitation of the land for drilling, mining, or development purposes would be strictly limited. Whether said forest was desegnated as such in the 20s... I don't know.
I will say economic opportunity in the area was always highly tied to tourism. My grandfather would live and work winters in Florida, even as he ran his drive-in business: they would close for the winter as well, one of the locations staying open a bit later during deer hunting season, but they were still all closed by the end of November and didn't reopen until April, even though his original location was much more for locals than tourists.

worldly parrot
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Ahh

worldly parrot
glad grove
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I'd say there's believability behind it

worldly parrot
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Well, it's a good start

pseudo eagle
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New lore drop
Nicolet Bay takes place sometime during/after 2026
Which means the Superior-Michigan split happened sometime before that

worldly parrot
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Says superior was created in the compromise of 1850

pseudo eagle
worldly parrot
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ohh thats why its 54 states