One of the most interesting tokens of Gogebic County, Mich., is the Tula Lumber Co. five cent piece. Ever since I first became interested in collecting tokens I had hopes of acquiring one of them. I knew of just a handful, all owned by local persons, noncollectors, and not for sale. Even a two month ad in a shopper newspaper didn’t bring any out. It seemed this Tula token was about equal to the 1913 V-nickel in availability!

Tula is now a ghost town in every sense of the term, even though it is still shown on some maps. There are people living in the county who have never heard of it. The old mill, company store and houses were burned out, torn down or removed years ago. The house I lived in was once in Tula. The Tula townsite is located approximately six miles northeast of Wakefield on M28.

The Tula post office was established on February 5, 1907 and Josiah Lane was appointed postmaster. Tula may have been named for one of the places of the same name in Mexico or Russia. In the book "I Married a Logger," author Julie Anderson claimed that Tula might have gotten its name from an old Finnish folksong, "Tula Tullalla." Sung by Finnish woodsmen or section workers in the area.

In researching the history of Tula, I was fortunate in being able to talk to a local man who lived there from 1909-1913. Dave Bellmore told me that his father, Adolph Bellmore was killed in an accident at iron mine near Bessemer in November 1908 and the family soon after moved in with Dave’s brother Fred, who worked for the Tula Lumber Co. as a sawyer and filer, among other things. Dave Belmore was a paperboy in Tula, worked as "bull cook" and remembers fishing for trout – with no limit – bagging 40-50 rabbits in a week and producing 40-50 gallons of maple syrup ever year. A hunting camp in the area would usually hang up 30 deer in a season. The Belmore moved in to Wakefield in 1913.

During the summer of 1912 the Wakefield Township built a new road out to Tula appeared in the 15 February 1913 issue of the Ironwood News Record:

"Tula On The Map"

"New Town in Wakfield Township is Rapidly Forging Ahead.

The following article from the Cloverland Press of Ewen, refers to a promising new town on the South Shore railroad in Wakefield township, the connecting of Wakefield village and Tula with a good highway only eight miles in length being a certainty the coming summer.

The Tula Lumber Company, which is operating a saw mill and conducting a general lumber business at Tula, expects to make many improvements within the next few months.

Tula is situated in Gogebic County, a few miles from the Ontonagon County line. The village came into existence by the organization of the Tula Lumber Company, the business of the firm being under the supervision of A.J. DeVries. The sawmill cuts about 40,000 feet a day – a one circular mill. It is expected that a day and night run will be inaugurated this spring.

The company has a first-class general store and has about completed a fine hotel, which has electric lights, steam heat, and will be modern in every way. Several new homes will be built this coming spring so that the men employed in the mill can find places to keep their families in comfort. The company at present employs about 125 men.

J.D. Foster, son of the president of the company, resides in Tula and looks after the books and other clerical work. Mr. Foster states that the company is buying considerable timber and timber lands and expects to be able to induce a number of farmers to take advantage of the fine farming lands which the firm now owns and which will be sold to settlers."

Logging activity at Tula was carried on in the "old days" by the following companies or individuals, as best as this author could determine: South Side Lumber Co., Foster and Son, 1911-16; Lewis Jenson, 1916-19; John Schroeder Lumber Co., 1919-25; Turpeinen Lumber Co., 1920s-40s; Weidman, Mattson, and Christian & Louis Anderson, 1920s-40s.

A.J. DeVries was apparently the second and last postmaster in Tula. He was the manager of the company in the years before 1916.

By 1915 Tula had a population of some 100 and at least two dozen buildings, most located on the South side of the present highway M28. According to the Wakefield tax assessment records of 1915, the Tula Lumber Co. owned over 3,700 acres, on which the taxes average $25 per forty, or $1,325 per year. The 1915 taxes on the company’s stock, lumber and buildings came to $121.03.

The mill at Tula was destroyed by a fire in the summer of 1916 and the Tula Lumber Co. lands were taken over by Lewis Jenson. The Tula post office was discontinued on December16, 1916.

This amusing story appeared in the March 13, 1915 issue of the Wakefield Advocate:

"Didn’t Understand."

"Tula."

Agent Gill, of the C. & N. W. depot, looked at the coin under the ticket window and gave in exchange the desired pasteboard and the proper change.

"Two to Tula."

As deftly did the C. & N. W. man handle this order, and he slid the same number of tickets to a redfaced man whose head appeared at the window, and he gulped twice and then said:

"Tu – Tu – Tula."

When he saw the two tickets he shook his head. Gill also looked askance at the coin he had received – it was not enough to pay for both.

"Tu – Tu – Tula," gasped the man. "Yes, sir; they’re both there, but this isn’t enough," said Gill, holding up the coin to show its denomination.

"I – I – I w – want one t-t-t-t-t-ticket to (he stopped to wet his lips and whistled, then gulped) Tu – Tu – Tula."

"Oh, all right sir; my mistake," said Gill, and put one ticket back in the case.

Several trappers carried on their business in the woods around Tula. Joe fisher, George Munn, Jack McCall, and Pete Spruce are some recalled by Dave Bellmore. They lived in shacks and were called "shackers."

Unmarried lumberjacks lived in boarding houses in Tula. One of their favorite pastimes was a drinking spree in Hurley. In going through old slot machine tokens from Hurley, several Tula Lumber Co. tokens were found by this author.

August Bye was the book and storekeeper when the Schroeder Lumber Co. ran the mill. The company store also cardboard cards to keep track of customers’ purchases and credits. The Tula Lumber Co. token is brass, 21mm, with a tiny center hole. I have only seen a 5 cent denomination. It would be an R7, 10-20 pieces known.

Nothing is left of the former lumber town, and today it is sometimes remembered when people jokingly refer to "Tula Tech," the well-known school of lumbering or hard knocks.