 Records of the Huron Mountain Club , an exclusive private organization with large land holdings in northern Michigan , show that Henry Ford visited the Upper Peninsula many times , including at least once with Harvey Firestone and Thomas Edison on Ford 's yacht , Sialia . Many of these trips involved research to keep his operations supplied . His UP land provided wood for the manufacture of Ford automobiles such as the Model T , which required 250 board feet ( 0 @.@ 59 m3 ) of lumber per car . Ford , who was considering becoming the " owner – producer – handler " of the resources he needed , invested in sawmills in Alberta and Kingsford . He also bought the entire town of <unk> , along the shores of the Keweenaw Bay . The town belonged to Dan Hebard , who also sold Ford a sawmill , tugboats , a 14 @-@ room bungalow , and land near the Huron Mountain Club . Hebard retired to spend his summers at a cabin on the Pine River on land belonging to the Club . 
