Hancock, Michigan

Hancock is a city in Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,501 at the 2020 census.

Located on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Hancock is along on the northside of the Keweenaw Waterway opposite of the city of Houghton, and the two are connected by the Portage Lake Lift Bridge. Hancock is the northernmost city in the state of Michigan.

Hancock is considered a "cultural capital" for Finnish Americans. The city is home to the Finnish American Heritage Center and was home to Finlandia University from 1896 to 2023. In 2015, The Weather Channel ranked Hancock as the third-snowiest city in the nation with an average yearly snowfall of 211.9 inches (538.2 cm).

Hancock is located within Ojibwa (Chippewa) homelands and ceded-territory established by the Treaty of 1842. The founding of the settlement of Hancock began during the summers of 1847 and 1848, when a small group of prospectors laboring on a rugged hillside (later named Quincy Hill) discovered a sequence of prehistoric Ojibwe copper mining pits, stretching out for 100 feet along the local amygdaloid lode. Upon inspecting one, they realized that the Native Americans were able to take copper in small quantities through these pits. The discovery formed the basis upon which the Quincy Mining Company was created in October 1848, under a special charter granted by the legislature.

The earliest building in what is now the City of Hancock was a log cabin erected in 1846 on the site of the Ruggles Mining Claim, halfway up atop the hillside; it is no longer standing as the site has been taken up by the Houghton County Garage buildings. It was owned by Christopher Columbus (C.C.) Douglass, who came to live there in 1852. The Quincy Mining Company founded Hancock in 1859 after purchasing the land from Douglass and building an office and mine on the site. The city was named after John Hancock, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Hancock's first store was built by the Leopold brothers in 1858; the store also housed the first post office. Samuel W. Hill, an agent for the Quincy Mining Company, platted the Village of Hancock in 1859. On 20 August 1860, Bishop Frederic Baraga and Reverend Edward Jacker selected lots nine and ten of block eight in the village for the purpose of constructing a church. It was on the northeast corner of what is now Quincy and Ravine Streets. The Quincy Mining Company donated this ground, but for some reason the official paperwork didn't go through for it until 2 July 1875.

In Hancock's earliest days, the village had been within the borders of what is now the Portage Charter Township, but on 1 April 1861 the area was set off and organized into a new township called Hancock Township. The Portage Stamp Mill was also founded nearby at Portage Lake in 1861. In 1860, the Keweenaw Waterway was dredged, widening the then-Portage River to allow more aquatic transportation to Hancock and neighboring Houghton. The waterway was initially opened to ships in 1859.

Also in 1859 was the debut of the Hancock Mine, later called the Sumner Mine before being renamed the Hancock Mine once more. The mine was on Quincy Hill near both Summit and Franklin Streets in an area that is now part of Finlandia Campus.