Today in 1886, Michigan Mining School held its first classes in Houghton Fire Hall, evolving into Michigan Tech. Meanwhile, in 1878, Michigan's first phone book, "List of Subscribers," was published in Detroit with 124 listings, predating the US's earliest phone book by months.
TRANSCRIPT
The first classes at Michigan Mining School were held on Sept. 15, 1886, in the Houghton Fire Hall. The school started with four faculty members and twenty-three students. The Detroit Free Press reports that the school, which was created to train engineers, later changed its name to the Michigan College of Mines, then Michigan College of Mining and Technology, and finally Michigan Technological University. At one time Michigan Tech had a branch in Sault Ste. Marie, that branch became it’s own school: Lake Superior State University.
And in 1878, Michigan’s first phone book was published. “List of Subscribers,” it was called. The book listed 124 customers in Detroit. Though the earliest phone book in the US dates to February of that same year out of New Haven, Connecticut, and it was 50 listings published on a single piece of cardboard and didn’t have any numbers, just listed the names of the businesses that had a telephone.