Remains of the Triangle Ranch

North of Amasa, the impressive remains of the Triangle Ranch can be seen by taking the Triangle Ranch Road east from U.S. 141 a mile or so north of town. It is an unusually ambitious example of the many 1920s projects to develop cutover U.P. land. Judson Rosebush, an Appleton, Wisconsin, paper manufacturer, bought nearly 9,500 acres and hired an experienced Colorado cattle ranch boss. His aim: “to test out exhaustively the practicability of large-scale, capitalistic manufacturing methods in agriculture,” specifically, raising pedigreed Herefords. In the 1920s five enormous barns were built, plus pens, corrals, and houses, including a quite impressive manager's bungalow.
But feeding the cattle over the area's six-month winters required more fodder than the ranch could raise. Triangle tried other things. In 1927 it advertised itself as “the only dude ranch east of the Mississippi.” It raised sheep and poultry. It attempted “fur farming” by fencing in wild muskrats and beaver. None of these worked. Eventually most of the land was sold to Kimberly-Clark and reforested for pulp production.

If you're driving north on U.S. 141 and are up for an adventure, you could take a side trip and have a pretty good chance of seeing moose. And you could explore Finnish Covington, kept alive by native retirees. It's another little town that wouldn't die. For details, look under “Covington” in the Keweenaw section of this web site.

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