MARQUETTE, Mich.—The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University will offer a special presentation titled “Buildings of the Copper Country” by Jane Busch, an architectural historian and preservation consultant. It will also unveil a newly expanded and improved website for the U.P. Heritage Trail. Both activities are scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, June 27, in 105 Cohodas Hall. They are free and open to the public.

Busch will discuss buildings discovered during the Copper Country Survey, which started in 2009 and will be completed this year. It is a comprehensive survey of above-ground historic resources in Keweenaw, Houghton, Ontonagon and northwestern Baraga County.  Some areas of the Copper Country have received considerable attention, while others have received little. The survey was designed to look at everything and identify places that are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.  Busch is principal investigator for the survey. She will show a variety of structures during her talk, from mine buildings to lighthouses and mansions to worker housing, along with commercial buildings, barns, churches, railroad depots, county courthouses and more. 

Busch established her consulting business in 1998 and is based in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She previously worked as a planner in the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), where she had oversight of planning and local government programs.  Before joining the SHPO, she was assistant professor of material culture studies at the Cooperstown Graduate Program for History Museum Studies, where she taught history of American architecture and other courses.  Busch now assists communities with their historic preservation programs. 

The Upper Peninsula Heritage Trail Network website expands and updates what was formerly the Western Upper Peninsula Heritage Trail Network website, which launched in 2000. The new site includes historic sites in each U.P. county, based on research conducted by students at NMU and at local school districts in Alger, Dickinson and Menominee Counties.   The website will be maintained by the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at NMU.  The Western Upper Peninsula Heritage Trail Network will still have oversight for the following counties: Baraga, Gogebic, Iron, Keweenaw, Houghton and Ontonagon.  This oversight includes selecting sites to be featured and providing relevant text and images. The rest of the counties in the U.P. will be overseen by the Beaumier Center.