Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion gitche gumee oil company

Hi there

Anyone hered from gitche gumee oil company in Michigan

See the picure attached

From ,
"The big Lake they call GITCHE GUMEE"

Lake Superior..

Did a Google search ;
"Gitche Gumee", the Native American name for Lake Superior, which literally means "Big-Water".
db

I did a web search and found there are still at least two out there. Here is a Yellow page link and picture.
Chuck

Gitche Gumee Oil Co202 Ontonagon St Ontonagon MI 906-884-4107

Gitchie Gumee Oil CoUs 41 Baraga MI 906-353-6569.
http://www.yellowpagecity.com/sys/pageserver.dll?k=Chassell&b=6150&go=Orthopedic+Appliances

Here is a link to a picture.
http://img.geocaching.com/benchmark/lg/ed3f6671-50ab-476b-8190-917337ed4f7b.jpg

I grew up on lake Superior and the St. marys river, and even worked in Ontonagon for awhile and this is the first I ever heard of it. back then I wasen't into gas and Oil like I am today so I could have walked right by it with out ever seeing it. Looks like they were just a jobber in the early days or Home oil delivery with gas a station or two. it would be neet to find some stuff from the old Hunting grounds thats for sure.

That is about an hour away from me. They are still in business. I believe they were just a jobber...I am not sure what brand they sold back in the day. I have never run across anything form this company...yet?

1 week ago I bought a simular coupon book (with nr 440) on Ebay

Inside there is a slip where you can fill in the date (but there is already a format which starts with 193...
The slip worth 10$ and behind the slip there are several coupons for 50 c for gasoline.

I've never seen it and I wonder if it's orginal

I've tried to phone both of the numbers.

One number is not in working order and the other number is a BP gas station (for several years already and before that it was a Mobil station)

On http://lynn.boston-baden.com/lvb/tc/business.htm there is a story about early gas station which says

There have always been service/gas stations serving the area after motor vehicles became the new mode of transportation.The Thompson brothers had a livery stable in town which became Thompson's Garage when automobiles came into use Roland Thompson was the area's Standard Oil distributor. Roy Bessen took over this distributorship in 1952. In 1983 Roy sold the business to the Gitche Gumee Oil Company of Ontonagon and retired.

These coupon book were advertised in National Petroleum News around 1930. They were sold to any service station and different names appear on them. I have one around here somewhere, it has another name on it.
Jack Sim
Author, Gas Pump Identification book

Growing up around 1970 we had friends in Octonagon we'd visit in the summer and go to the lake (Superior) to swim. Just up the coast from us (east) was a big plant with smokestacks and Gitche Gumee something-or-other in big letters written on it. Possible refinery? I don't know, I was only 13 at the time. Went through the town a few years back, all cleaned up now and yuppified. Only other memory of town was walking down a muddy alley with dad and his friend and in the back door of some bar that had a full sized stuffed polar bear. Now that was neat!
Ken

I used to see/meet their tanker truck alot on Hwy 141 hauling from Green Bay tank farm to Ontonagon. That was in the 80s. The big smoke stacks are still there, Stone Container Co paper mill, not a refinery there I ever knew of. Nice town and area but unless you are into skiing stay away in the winter, never quits snowing.

Here is a similar coupon book I just saw on eBay. # 7243214995