Michigan's Upper Peninsula is littered with ghost towns, monuments to the lumber and mining industries that flared in the last century and then quickly burned themselves out. One of those towns, Fayette, a little iron mining town near Escanaba with a colorful but short history, has been restored and now mines tourists instead of iron ore. 
Back in the days when the charcoal-smelted iron industry was flourishing, Fayette had a population of a thousand souls. A 1930 article in The Detroit News reported that "former residents say it was the closest that any community ever has come to measuring up to the standards of the mythical Utopia." Some doubt this depiction of the town's "idyllic life," pointing to records that show there was plenty of hardship.
Fayette was founded in 1867 and boomed for about 20 years. Like lumbering, the charcoal iron industry left a trail of towns fallen on hard times when it faded. The industry dwindled with the depletion of the hardwood timber from which charcoal was made. The charcoal furnaces could not compete with the soft coal smelters established in the Pittsburgh, Pa., and Gary, Ind., districts. It was more economical to ship ore to the lower lake mills than to transport coal to upper Michigan and then ship the pig iron back. Incidentally, the term "pig iron" came from the shape of the molds into which the molten iron was poured. They looked like piglets with a sow. 
Fayette was named for Fayette Brown, one of the directors of the Jackson Iron Company, which constructed the town's first blast furnace. The first pig iron was cast on Christmas Day in 1867. 
A brochure from the Fayette State Park tells us that Fayette was a "company" town. The Jackson Iron Co. built and owned the homes of the employees - the hotel and the boarding house for single men, as well as frame dwellings and log cabins for married employees. It also built the general store, butcher's shop and barber shop. The employee accounts were kept in the company office, and boarding costs, food and other purchases, as well as company doctor fees were deducted from paychecks. The store was an example of the benevolent paternalism practiced by the company. 
Most of the workers were semi- or unskilled and worked long hours. They made $l-$l.50 a day, decent wages for the time. There were the inevitable periods of unemployment. Some stretched their food budgets with gardening and fishing or took in boarders. Ladies' coats were $6, skirts and corsets $l.25. Men's suits were $l7. Shirts 85 cents to $4.50; trousers $4 and suspenders 40 cents. Toys were 50 cents for a doll, a dish set went for 31 cents, marbles 65 cents, toy cart 80 cents. 
The town changed hands several times before it was purchased in 1959 by the state. A Detroit News article by James Kerwin in October 1979, told of the restoration of Fayette:"Only experts can tell that any restoration work has been accomplished; most tourists believe the dwellings are perfectly preserved.
Compiled from articles in Detroit News and other sources.
