06/16/2026
This weekend the Copper Country Finns and Friends, as well as the whole community is celebrating Finno-Ugric culture to celebrate Hancock's designation as the first North American Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture. Come and join us. The Hungarians, who are also Finno-Ugrians, have a place in Copper Country history as well.
Hungarians in the Copper Country
Immigrants flocked to the Lake Superior Copper Country in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries in search of economic opportunities in the mines and mining communities of the Keweenaw. Immigrant groups of some nationalities are still well known in the Copper Country today, such as the German, Cornish, Irish, Finnish, Croatian, and Italian. Immigrant groups of other nationalities are less well remembered today, partly because they were historically represented in smaller numbers, partly because they left the area in proportionally greater numbers as the local mining industry declined, and partly due to varying rates of Americanization and cultural diffusion across various immigrant groups. Hungarian immigrants had a small but significant presence in the Copper Country historically, which is being recognized this year as part of the celebration of the City of Hancock as the world Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture for 2026.
Zoltan Fejos and Gergely Toth have studied the history of the Hungarian immigrant population of the Copper Country most extensively to date. In his 2020 book (in Magyar), Kaper Kontri: Magyar rezbanyaszok Amerikaban (Copper Country: Hungarian copper miners in America), Fejos indicates that it is unclear when the first Hungarian immigrants arrived in the Copper Country. There were still fewer than 100 residents of the Copper Country who were born in Hungary in the early 1890s. This number grew quickly in the first decade of the 20th Century, reaching 1,079 in Houghton and Keweenaw Counties at the time of the 1910 census. This number may have continued to grow until the time of the 1913-14 strike. Most Hungarian born workers worked underground at the time, many as trammers and laborers. Some who started out working underground later went into business once they had saved enough capital. Hungarian owned businesses in the Copper Country included the Boston Store, a clothing store on Hecla Street in Laurium next to the village hall which was owned by Jacob Arnovitz, and Yoo & Reshofsky, a clothing store on the 400 block of 5th Street in Calumet, owned by Steven Yoo (Istivan Joo) and Antoine Reshofsky. Yoo had previously owned a saloon in Renova Location near Allouez as well.
The Hungarian population of the Copper Country was largely concentrated in North Kearsarge, Wolverine, and South Kearsarge Locations, but there were also substantial numbers who lived in the Calumet/Laurium area, Allouez, and Mohawk. Smaller numbers of Hungarian immigrants were found in the Hancock area. Because many of them were recent immigrants concentrated in low wage, high risk jobs in the mines, Hungarian underground workers tended to support the 1913-14 districtwide strike in the Copper Country, which they were well known for at the time. A small Magyar language section was included in issues of the Miners Bulletin, the local newspaper of the Western Federation of Miners, the union which organized and supported the strike. As with other pro-union groups, many Hungarian women and children were active in their support of the strike. An infamous incident occurred during a strike demonstration on Labor Day, September 1 1913, in North Kearsarge. Fourteen-year old Hungarian American Margaret Fazekas was shot in the back of the head running away when mining company employees deputized as Houghton County Deputy Sheriffs opened fire on a group of picketers she had been part of. Fazekas was operated on by Doctor Roach and survived the incident; according to Gary Kaunonen and Aaron Goings in their book Community in Crisis: A Working-Class History of the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Stike and the Italian Hall Tragedy, she later married and moved to New Jersey.
Some of the Hungarian immigrants who came to the Copper Country were Jewish, some were Catholic, and many were Reformed. Like many other immigrant groups, Hungarians had their own ethnic/national church. The Hungarian Reformed Church was located on Church Street in Wolverine Location. It was a wood framed building, constructed in 1908. As the Hungarian population of the area declined, the church was closed and eventually demolished. The parsonage still stands; the cornerstone of the church is displayed in the yard of the house, which is now privately owned. Some descendants of Hungarian immigrants still call the Copper Country home, and other tangible reminders of their historic presence still exist in the museum and archival collections of Keweenaw National Historical Park, including oral history interviews, materials associated with the Hungarian Reformed Church and local Hungarian families donated by the Lutz family, and a large silk parade banner for A Red Jacket Mich. Elso Magyar Betagsegelyzo Egylet (First Hungarian Sickness Association of Red Jacket Michigan), a mutual benefit society established in Red Jacket July 4 1897. Although the Hungarian church, society, and businesses have all disappeared, the impact of Hungarian immigrants on the history of the Copper Country endures.
Written with the assistance of Jeremiah Mason - Archivist, Lake Superior Collection Management Center at the Keweenaw National Historical Park.
Experience blazing bonfires, electrifying Finnish Music and dance, soul-cleansing saunas, an ice-cold Long Drink Beer Garden, and an unforgettable weekend of revelry and SISU – the Finnish spirit of resilience – on the shimmering waters of the Portage Canal! Check this page out for the full list...
