RACO

Region: Sault Ste. Marie

Originally a 1930s Civilian Conservation Corp camp built in the 1930s to give work to Depression-era unemployed, the buildings were used during World War II as a German POW camp. They were razed in 1954.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Civilian Conservation Corps camps near Raco and Strongs gave employment to young men from Hamtramck and Detroit. They worked on projects like pine plantations, tourist campgrounds, road-building, stream improvement projects, fish planting, and fire suppression. A self-guided auto of CCC sites of places near Raco and Sault Ste. Marie can be found online by searching "Civilian Conservation Corps Hiawatha National Forest" and then choosing "Sault Ste. Marie."

First a pre-WW II air field, this exotic spot just west of Raco is now used to test new tires and auto engines under severe winter conditions.

Today, the largest business around is Smithers Scientific's Winter Testing Center just south of the highway west of town. The company exploits the harsh winter conditions in the area to test motors and tires for manufacturers like Ford. The location is a former Army Air Force airfield from before World War II that later was used in several ways: as a base for 75 mm guns used to protect the locks at Sault Ste. Marie from bomber attacks, as a missile base, and apparently as an airfield for long-range US bombers or cargo planes, which would explain the 3 mile-long runways forming a triangle. In the middle of that triangle was later built a circular track for testing autos.

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