The Old Michigan Lumber Town of Covington, in Baraga County

This little U.P. Town was a Baraga County station along the Duluth, S. Shore & Atlantic Railroad. It was founded by French-Canadians in 1885 in what would become Covington Township.

When a post office began operations, it was named 'Covington” after Covington, Kentucky, which happened to be the first postmaster's home town.

Even though there was plenty of mining in the surrounding areas, Covington's main source of income was from logging. Even so, once the timber began to decline, the town's survival began to depend on farming.

Settlers from Finland started arriving, soon overtaking the number of French-Canadians. Today, Covington is well-known for its Finnish Music Festival every 4th of July.

In a strange twist of fate, with the rising cost of living and dropping crop prices, many farmers had to do a turnaround and go into the mining business to survive.

One of the Finnish families, the Huttulas, owned one of the sawmills and made a good living from the lumber trade. They built a huge farm along what is now M-28, but as the decades wore on and family members passed away, some of the historic farm buildings were demolished and what was left was turned into the Rolling Meadows Rest Home.

Today there are a good handful of people living in the area, and many great old buildings still standing, waiting for your photo ops (SEE PHOTOS BELOW).
Add Covington to your next roadtrip!