Michigan Industry in the 1800s
The first commercial enterprise in Michigan was fur trading.  Indians and early explorers hunted and trapped animals for their skins, or pelts.  The furs were then traded or sold and made into clothing and hats.  In 1817, John Jacob Astor opened the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island.  Fur trading was big-business for about 200 years.  

In the mid-1800s, loggers came to harvest Michigan's bountiful woodlands.  For almost 70 years, they stripped large amounts of trees.  Forests have been replenished and now cover more than half of Michigan.

Copper and iron mining were also important.  The mining boom started in the mid-1800s in the Upper Peninsula.