Red Jacket and Calumet
 

Origin of the name Calumet (Wikipedia):


Calumet is a Norman word [calyme], first recorded in David Ferrand's La Muse normande around 1625–1655.[1] Its first meaning was "sort of reeds used to make pipes", with a suffix substitution for calumel.[2] It corresponds to the French word chalumeau, meaning 'reeds' (Modern French also means 'straw', 'blowlamp').[3][4] The term was used by Norman-French settlers in Canada to describe the ceremonial pipes they saw used among the First Nations people of the region.[5]

What is now Calumet was settled in 1864, originally under the name of "Red Jacket",[8] named for a Native American Chief of the Seneca tribe. Until 1895 the name "Calumet" was used by the nearby town of Laurium, Michigan; present day Calumet was not legally named so until 1929.

Until 1895, Laurium was known as "Calumet" (not to be confused with the present nearby town of Calumet, Michigan, which was known as "Red Jacket" until it adopted the name Calumet in 1929). In 1895 the legislature changed Calumet's name to Laurium, after the famous mining town in ancient Greece

The name change was due to the keen desire by the Village residents for their own post office. There had already been an established post office by the name of Calumet which served the Village of Red Jacket and the various mining company locations. 

Indian Pipes

Like Keweenaw itself, Calumet’s name has its roots in the First Nations, the people who discovered copper and traded it everywhere in North America. Red Jacket was the Chief of the Seneca Tribe and Calumet is a word linked to the ceremonial “peace pipes”. The location of the post office named Calumet moved from Laurium to Red Jacket Rd in 1929.

Maps of Locations CCEhttp://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/wp-content/uploads/clips/calumetlocations.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0

Jesuit Father Louis Nicolas is credited with creating this ink sketch circa 1701. The caption reads, "Captain of the Nation of the Illinois, armed with a pipe and a dart." Nicolas' illustration is the earliest known image of the Inoca. (Codex Canadiensis, Gilcrease Museum, © Public Domain. Courtesy of the Gilcrease Museum of Tulsa, Oklahoma.)