Sep 12, 2011

A history of migrants in N. Michigan

Seasonal farm employment in Michigan spans more than a century.

Michigan farms used seasonal farm workers before 1900. Many were of European descent and recruited to Michigan farms from poor areas of large Midwest cities to help with sugar beet, fruit and vegetable production. Some early seasonal workers, unlike today, were able to buy land to establish their own farms and became residents of the communities in which they worked. Traverse City Record Eagle

Read more of the story here.