Courtesy Photo This historical monument marker, located next to Van Lare Hall on the campus of Alpena Community College, designates the site as used by Native Americans in Alpena more than 5,000 years ago.

ALPENA — Dotting the landscape of northern Michigan in parks, riverfronts, businesses, churches and other areas are markers highlighting the history of Michigan.

They are sometimes the iconic Michigan historical marker boards, or can be as small as engraved stones, but they’re there and many do not give them a passing glance or look into their meaning.

Most visitors to Rogers City know the iconic ship’s anchor and propeller at the entrance to the Rogers City Marina, but some may not know the significance.

Presque Isle County Historical Society Executive Director Mark Thompson said the items called the Sailors Memorial are to memorialize two shipwrecks that affected the community, the Carl D. Bradley that went down in 1958 and the Cedarville that went down in 1965.

Both ships had many people who were from Rogers City and the surrounding area, according to Thompson.

“It is not the anchor or the propellor of the Bradley,” he said. “But they memorialize the people who died in the wrecks. The anchor is for the deck department and the propellor represents the entire crew.”

Thompson said every year the wrecks are memorialized during the Rogers City Nautical Festival.

Another Presque Isle marker is located in Metz and represents the Metz fire of 1908.

“That’s the site of the third largest forest fire in the history of the state,” he said.

Thompson said people died in the fire, and the village of Metz was wiped out entirely.

He said at the location of the memorial there are interpretive signs to show what it was like following the fire. Thompson said a committee is working to get a railroad car, which were used as relief shelters in the area, following the fire.

“They were built by the Detroit and Mackinaw Railroad so people could have a place to live,” he said. “The fire was in the middle of October and there wasn’t enough lumber in the area to even build things.”

More information about the memorial can be found by visiting www.metzfire.com.

Alcona County has a unique approach with its markers. Linda Klemens, president of the Alcona County Historical Society, said historic sites or monument locations are often marked in the county with a set of organized signs that discuss the significance of the area.

“Ten years ago our historical society started a county historical site designation program, and we have marked more than 50 sites in Alcona County,” she said.

The sites include everything from public buildings, private residences and other locations or monuments in the county.

“We produce three pamphlets that are available free of charge online or on our web page so that people who are driving through can pick one of those up and spend half a day and an entire day driving around and checking out the sites in one or two areas,” Klemens said.

The various sites are nominated and picked by the society, she said, adding that it was important for the community to catalog such sites for the future.

“One of the reasons is to preserve and to make sure that this history is not lost but the second reason is to help educate current residents and also visitors to the history of our area, and then the third reason is to create an enjoyable experience,” she said. “The site designation events are always very well attended, so there are fun events, and the last reason is also fun for people to go out and discover the history.”

Information about the sites, and other memorial markers and historic spots can be found by visiting www.alconahistoriclsociety.com.

Linda Arbogast, secretary for the Lewiston Area Historical Society, said there are more than a few monuments and historical items that can be viewed in the area. Arbogast said many times people pass markers and do not know what they really say because people do not stop to read them.

This is true with the Congregational United Church of Christ in Lewiston.

“The church itself was made in 1891,” Arbogast said. “It’s the oldest building in Lewiston that is used for its intended purpose.”

The church was built so lumbermen and their families in the area would have a place to worship. Arbogast said most who pass the church and see the marker assume that is why it is there, but it is not.

“We could not get the marker for the building because we had added on it, but we could get the marker for the congregation (being a continuous congregation),” she said. “Everyone thinks it’s for the building but it’s not.”

Another monument, created to honor Michigan during the Great Depression of the 1930s is located at the site of the Civilian Conservation Corps. site known as Camp Lunden, Arbogast said.

She said the crews were tasked with creating fire lanes, planting trees, and doing other conservation efforts.

“At one point they built a replica of Michigan, complete with the Great Lakes,” she said.

The lakes were hand dug and filled with water from an artesian well.

The camp is gone now but the monument to the Great Lakes can still be seen, according to Arbogast.

“It’s one or two miles east of town on County Road 612,” she said.

Several sites, and at least one monument, in Alpena area recognizes the site of Native American activity that dates to more than 5,000 years ago, according to Kat Tomaszewski, media and outreach coordinator for the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan.

This includes a historic site marker on the campus of Alpena Community College recognizing the area as a native site. The marker is located next to Van Lare Hall, she said.

“When the Europeans first arrived in the Thunder Bay area 180 years ago, the area we now call Alpena began to change dramatically,” said Richard Clute, Besser Museum’s curator of anthropology. “Large sand dunes lined the corridor of what is now Johnson Street and were excavated and leveled off for the construction of Alpena’s residential and commercial areas. A very large amount of prehistoric evidence was displaced and lost to interpretation. This monument is a commemoration and a tribute to the native peoples whose legacy will live on in this land that we call home.”

On display at the Besser Museum are a few of the artifacts recovered from this prehistoric landmark, Tomaszewski said.

Another marker is the Word of Life Church on Bagley Street, Tomaszewski said.

“The location was a magnificent Lacustrine dune. The church was built on an archaic cultural period site that is more than 3,000 years old. When the lake level was higher, the area south of the church was a large flat shallow submerged fish spawning location. Many Native American families came to harvest fish from this location. Archaic Native Americans were regionally nomadic, following their food sources throughout the year,” she said.

She said one of the neat things about Alpena is no matter what street a person is on, or the location, there is bound to be some sort of monument or historical marker in the area.

“Alpena’s history is 5,000 years in the making, no matter what building you’re in ,what street corner, there is history there, that is one of the main reasons I love Alpena,” she said.

More information about the history of the community, and a guide to a walking tour of the town, can be found by visiting www.bessermuseum.org.

Jason Ogden can be reached via email at jogden@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693. Follow Jason on Twitter @jo_alpenanews.