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Ontonagon is located at the junction of US-45 and M-64 in Ontonagon County. Ontonagon - place of the bowl. Ontonagon was visited by voyageurs, Jesuits, and prospectors seeking copper from the late 1600’s until the mid 1800’s. The famous Ontonagon Boulder was found upstream and is now on display in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. Its site lays in the claim pre-empted by prospector James Kirk Paul in 1843. He built his log cabin here and began to plat the town, recording his plant in 1854. Incorporated as a village in 1885. It was in Houghton County until Ontonagon was organized in 1853. The name Ontonagon was first found on a Jesuit map of 1672, identifying the river which flows through the area and taken from the Chippewa word Nan-ton-a-gon, meaning bowl, from the shape of the river's mouth. Above Informational excerpts from Michigan Place Names, by Walter Romig, L.H.D.
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