One Room for a Whole Town, A Tiny School with a Big Impact

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Copper Harbor, Michigan, population 108, may be small, but it’s known for many things: its beautiful deep-water harbor and rugged north woods; its world-class mountain biking trails; its Isle Royale Queen, the daily ferry to Isle Royale National Park; and for Fort Wilkins, built in 1844 to protect copper miners from a non-existent threat from local Ojibwe people and now a state park and campground.

But for the year-round residents of Copper Harbor, something less known is well loved: the town’s one-room school, nearly 170 years old.

The Copper Harbor School was established in 1850. The initiative to create and fund a school fell to the local copper mining families. The school, the farthest north in Michigan, first served students from the first through eighth grades, and opened with about 30 attending. Today the school still serves students through the eighth grade, but it also offers kindergarten plus preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. It’s rumored that the school had to close for two years in the 1930s, when there were no children in town, but otherwise its been a community mainstay.

All but two teachers averaged two-year tenures – a remote location on the shore of Lake Superior is not everyone’s cup of tea, especially when winter further isolates the area. One teacher, George Nousiainen, who taught circa the early 1960s, stayed more than 10 years, had six children and ran the local grocery in summer. The story is that he was known as “Mr. G” because the children had trouble pronouncing his last name.

The school really brings the community together in many different ways.”

Diane Trudgeon, though, has broken all longevity records. She retired in January 2018 after 37 years as the sole teacher at the schoolhouse. “When this position opened up, I was teaching in the Calumet school system,” says Diane. “There were 50 applicants for the position, and I didn’t think I’d get it, but I did. And it’s been wonderful. I’ve had as few as two students and as many as 16, and I’ve taught all grades.”

Challenges of teaching in a one-room school include the different ages, fluctuating numbers and sheer physical labor to keep a school open in winter. Many of Diane’s predecessors did double duty as a janitor – shoveling snow and stoking the wood stove.

“But there are some real advantages to teaching here,” Diane insists. The school follows state curriculum, but can tailor teaching to the children. “Whatever the child needs, we have the time to work with them more in-depth because we don’t have 25 or 30 students in a classroom. And because Copper Harbor is such a small community, I was able to talk to the parents immediately, explain what they can be working on, or to get one of the aides to address it. It’s certainly been wonderful.”

If she had to pick a downside, it would harken to her early teaching days when she was the only adult there all day. “Before there were any teacher’s aides or para-professionals, the challenge was teaching all the different grades at one time.”

The Copper Harbor School provides more than education for the town’s children. It’s also a community hub even for its residents without children.

The most recent large school project, the new playground, was organized by Miranda Kilpela Davis, office manager for the Isle Royale Queen, and Marty Faassen, a horticulturist retired from the wholesale nursery industry. Miranda is now president of the Copper Harbor School Board, but when she got involved with the playground, her eldest was only 18 months old. Marty also had no tie to the school, having retired to Copper Harbor from the Chicago area after selling his business.

The project sprouted when Miranda took her daughter to the school playground and discovered rickety swings from the 1950s and a climbing wall with cinder blocks beneath it – no safety surface or even grass. “I thought, ‘Well, I can complain about this, or I can do something about it,’” Miranda says.

She had a vision for a good playground, and Marty volunteered to help with the nuts and bolts. Together they formed a plan, got other residents involved and raised roughly $150,000 – their entire fantasy budget. (That’s about $1,388 per resident, if you caught the earlier population count.)

“We didn’t know if we could raise any money, let alone the whole budget,” Miranda says, “but whatever we got would be it. We could always scale back at the end, but why not aim high and see what we got?”

Miranda and Marty wanted the playground to be community installed, and the equipment company told them they’d need 40 people.

“We put out a call and had no idea how many people we’d get, but on the day of the installation – August 24, 2013 – more than 100 people showed up. People came and cooked for us, so we always had food available to keep us going, and we had pizza from The Mariner. We got it done in one day. Barely,” Miranda adds, “but we did it.”

The playground is the largest, most visible example of Copper Harbor’s involvement with its school. But it’s only one example.

“So many, many people contribute to this school,” Diane says. “When we have any kind of program: Halloween, Thanksgiving, the potluck for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s or Easter, we have so many people who attend. The school really brings the community together in many different ways.”

Copper Harbor residents have always contributed time, expertise and resources, she adds. “Carolyn Wescoat helped out in the classroom for years and was invaluable. She recently died, and we dedicated this past Christmas program to her. And Clyde and Lloyd Wescoat allow the students to use their property for our ‘school forest.’ … We’ve planted a school garden in their Community Garden and have walked many trails observing various animal habitats through the seasons. We’ve viewed frogs, fish, birds, beaver and otter in the ponds, and planted milkweed for butterfly habitat. We’ve also discussed the Copper Harbor watershed and snowshoed on winter days. All because they let us use their property … right behind the school.”

Over 160+ years in a small school, you might expect to see multiple generations of families attending. You’d be right. The Jamsen Protzel family is a case in point.

Christine Jamsen Protzel, owner of The Fisherman’s Daughter, a local gift shop, attended all eight grades of the one-room schoolhouse in the 1950s and ’60s, starting when she was 6. Her son, Alex Protzel, attended part-time in fifth grade. Her daughter-in-law, Jill Protzel, is the new teacher, hired in January when Diane Trudgeon retired. Jill and Alex also own Jamsen’s Fish Market and Bakery, next to the Isle Royale Queen dock, and The Fisherman’s Daughter.

Christine’s granddaughter, Norma June Protzel, age 2, will soon be attending preschool.  

Christine remembers her school years in a positive glow. The teacher – Mr. G – was larger than life, very musical, and his own children attended the school. He encouraged the children to value education. “He was always talking about the importance of education and going to college. Nearly all of us went to college, and five or six of us became teachers.”

Back then, as now, nature studies figured prominently in the curriculum. “We did a lot of nature things because it was all around us.” And the winters of Christine’s youth were just as long and cold as they are now.

“Besides wearing flannel shirts and flannel-lined jeans to school, we’d pull our desks around the pot bellied stove to stay warm. We liked to reach out and press our crayons against the stove and watch them start to melt. We thought that was so cool,” she adds.

Nowadays a bus takes the older children to the larger Calumet school, about 30 miles away. There was no bus in Christine’s time. “When we finished eighth grade and went on to high school, we had to board with families in Calumet during the school week, coming home only on the weekends. So I pretty much left home when I was 13.”

As the new school teacher, Christine’s daughter-in-law Jill appreciates becoming part of the town’s history, which is also their family history.

“I am completely honored to have the opportunity to be the teacher at this historic institution, and I am so proud to get to soon be Norma June’s teacher,” Jill says. “Her great-grandfather was school board president, her grandmother attended through grade eight, her father was a student here briefly, and now her mom will be her teacher as she begins her journey. I feel honored and proud to be a part of this history.”

On June 8, when the Copper Harbor School lets its four children out for the freedom of summer, it will complete its 168th year. That there will be 170 and many more years is not in doubt, as long as there are young local children to teach.

As one Copper Harbor resident said: “We’ll never close that school; it’s too important.”

Lesley DuTemple of Eagle Harbor, while not a school teacher, knows what children need and want as a mom and as a children’s book author.