It has been called "the Gilded Age."

Mark Twain as he appeared in 1899. He
gave the name - to an expansive period of
U.S. history.

The term is credited to Mark Twain, who wrote a best-selling book with that title in 1873, just a few years before the Enterprise was established at Northport.
Fifty years later, the book was less popular than any of the other words Twain had produced, but the title "stuck" and term is still often used to describe the decades following the Civil War through 1900.

Twain saw the era, which was one of steady growth and elimination of frontiers, as not a better one, but one with merely a veneer, or "gilt," applied to it. At the core of it, Man was still Man.

"Man is the only creature that shows embarrassment," the world-famous humorist once remarked.

"Or needs to," he coyly added.

And the Enterprise chronicled the "Gilded Age" – in part, at least, as it actually unfolded. Once the Civil War had resolved the sectional issues that had been so divisive, "settlement" between Mississippi River and Pacific Ocean proceeded apace.

There were, understandably, ongoing clashes between Native Americans and the U.S. Army. The most famous casualty of these was George Armstrong Custer, a Michigan man whose wife owned property in the county. During the Civil War, in which he was the Union’s youngest general, Custer briefly visited Leelanau, landing at Northport.

Leelanau was still something of a collection of "frontier" settlements itself, but the Enterprise, portions of which were preprinted in Chicago, was able to give its readers a glimpse of the larger, "outside" world via the pre-prints.

The "Gilded Age" has also been called the "Age of Excess," but the "excess" was enjoyed by a relatively small number of privileged who often liked to flaunt their wealth. For the ordinary working man, unless he had a special craft or skill, many hours of labor for minimum compensation was the norm.

As the county became ever-more industrialized, labor unrest manifested itself in various places and was duly reported in the Enterprise.

Advertisements for patent medicines were very common in the 19th century Enterprises. The medicines were early examples of products that were successfully marketed nationwide. They might claim to cure just about anything, but were actually purchased simply because of their high alcoholic content.

The transition to huge companies, selling to customers across the entire country, was well under way. The transition would pretty much be completed in the 20th century.

Meanwhile, "the country was dotted with tiny plants producing pig iron or or nails or flour, and selling to a local market," historian Ray Ginger wrote.

Indeed, Leelanau County was home to the Leland Lake Superior Iron Company until it ceased operations in 1884. The "local market" for its output (about 40 tons per day) was Detroit, which was probably appropriate inasmuch as capital from the city financed the operation in the first place.

Expressions still commonly used in the later 19th century reflected a slower-paced society where the horses had not yet been displaced by the automobile.

Expressions – like "hold your horses," "don’t change horses in the middle of the stream," "that’s a horse of a different color," and "don’t look a gift horse in the mouth" – were part of regular speech.

And then there was what the Enterprise called "Americanisms" – expressions unique to this country. "Yum-yum" was given as an example.

The various expressions were simple enough, but manufactured items were needlessly decorative and homes, steamboats, and even railway locomotives commonly had considerable "gingerbread" ornamentation. Even the tin ceilings commonly found in commercial buildings had fancy patterns stamped into them. And they were often covered with a gold or silver gilt as well.

The American Heritage Dictionary tells us that the definition of gild is, 1.) To cover with or as if with a thin layer of gold; 2.) To given an often deceptively attractive appearance to.

Twain perceptively saw through "gild" and often exposed the real substance (if there was any at all) in a humorous manner. It was part of what made him not only this country’s leading author, but one of international standing as well.

"It is somewhat remarkable that so characteristic an American humorist as Mark Twain is should be able to stand the test of translation," an article on the October 1899 issue of McClure’s magazine related. "But his numerous works have gone into French, German, Russian, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian and Magyar (Hungarian) editions."

And the words of Mark Twain have continued to endure, although any sparkle the "Gilded Age" may have once emitted has long since become dull.