PORT

See also:

• HURON
• HURON (a French term, from huge', bristled, early used as an expression of contempt, signifying "lout ")

HURON  , a city and the county-seat of Saint Clair county, Michigan, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Saint Clair and Black rivers, and at the lower end of Lake Huron, about 6o m . N.N.E. of Detroit . Pop . (1900), 19,158 of whom 7142 were foreign-born ; (1910 U.S. census) 18,863 . It is served by the Grand Trunk and other railways, and by steamboat lines to Chicago and other ports . A railway tunnel, 6025 ft. long, under the Saint Clair, connects the city with Sarnia, Canada . The tunnel, which has an inside diameter of 20 ft., was constructed by the Grand Trunk railway in 1889-1891 at a cost of about $2,700,000, and was designed by Joseph Hobson (b . 1834) . Port Huron is laid out with wide streets, on both sides of the Black river and along the shore of Lake Huron; it has attractive parks and mineral water springs, and is a summer resort . Among its buildings are the court house, the city hall, and a Modern Maccabee Temple--Port Huron being the headquarters of the Knights of the Modern Maccabees (1881), a fraternal society which, in 1910, had a membership of 107,737 . Until 1908 Port Huron was the headquarters of the Knights of the Maccabees of the World (founded in 1883; 283,998 members in 191o) . Port Huron has large shipping interests, and since 1866 has been the port of entry of the Huron customs district .

In 1go8 its exports were valued at $16,958,080 and its imports at $4,859,120 . The city has shipyards, dry docks, large shops of the Grand Trunk railway,

publishing houses, and manufactories of agricultural implements, steel ships, automobiles, foundry products, paper and pulp, and toys . In 1904 the city's factory products were valued at $4,789,589 . In 1686 the French established Fort St Joseph, a fortified trading post, which came into the possession of the British in 1761 and was occupied by American troops in 1814 . The fort was renamed Fort Gratiot in honour of General Charles Gratiot (1788-1855), who was chief-engineer in General W . H . Harrison's army in 1813-1814, and was chief-engineer of the U.S . Army in 1828-'838 . The settlement which grew up round the fort, and was organized as a village in '84o, was also known as Fort Gratiot, and was annexed to Port Huron in 1893 . The fort was abandoned during 1837-1848, during 1852-'866, and, permanently, in '879 . The earliest permanent settlement, in what later became Port Huron, was made in 1790 by several French families . This settlement, distinct from that at the fort, was first called La Riviere De Lude, and, after '828, Desmond .

It was platted in 1835, incorporated as a village in 1840 (under its

present name), and chartered as a city in '857 .