The compensation for winning the lawsuit was that he asked for no fee, but only requested that the town involved in the case be named after him.

John Ankers opened Hurley's first saloon and served as the first clerk for the Town of Vaughn, first Justice of the Peace, and first fire chief.

In early November 1887, ten people were killed in a fire that started in a three-story theater and spread to other structures.

[7] The Gogebic Range Directory of 1888 states: "During the past summer, Hurley was twice visited by terrible fires.

These destroyed almost the entire business portion of the city, and at first it was thought that they would prove a crushing blow to its prosperity, but later events have proven that they were blessings in disguise.

The wonderful pluck and energy of its businessmen were fully demonstrated when they at once began the erection of fine brick buildings in the place of the wooden ones destroyed.

The Montreal River was mapped in detail in 1841 by Lieutenant Thomas Jefferson Cram of the United States Land Office Department of Topography.

Prohibition agents staged massive raids on Hurley, but each time the saloonkeepers paid their fines and went back to their usual business.

A 1931 raid closed forty-two saloons, resulting in the arrest of sixty people- one out of every forty Hurley residents.

In an economy dependent on revenues from drinking, gambling, and prostitution, local officers looked the other way and the city continued its business, with routine harassment by enforcement officials.

He commented that Hurley 'has the distinction of being the worst community in the State....Gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, and dope are about the chief occupations of the place.

'"[9] In the early 1960s, the US Air Force established a Strategic Air Command (SAC) Radar Bomb Scoring site atop Norrie Hill in neighboring Ironwood, Michigan to track and score high altitude and treetop level simulated bomb runs by B-52s and B-47s on targets in the Hurley area.

A monument is erected outside of Hurley to remember six crew members who were killed in two B-47 low level runs in 1961.

The building currently houses the Iron County Historical Museum, which features three floors of exhibits and a weaving room where volunteers use looms to make rag rugs.

Associated with them in the organization were John E. Burton, Alvin E. Tyler, Edward Ryan, Nathaniel J. Moore, James A.

Wood, and Shepherd Homans, all men prominent in the mining industry in the area in the early days.

[11] La Nostra Terra ("Our Land"), an Italian language newspaper, was published in Hurley from 1904 to 1913, when it merged into the Iron County News.

The first hotel was located at the corner of Second Avenue and Silver Street in a log building, with James Guest as the first landlord.

The Burton House was an immense four-story frame hostelry, which was a famous gathering place in the latter part of the 19th century.

Later he established offices in New York City and bought up other vast mining interests in Mexico and South America.

Many noteworthy people stayed at the Burton House: including Benjamin Harrison, in 1888, during his campaign for president; the actress Sarah Bernhardt, who made at least three appearances in Hurley; the financier Colgate Hoyt, nephew of James Boorman Colgate, son of the British-American industrialist, Charles Colgate; the actor Edwin Booth (brother of John Wilkes Booth); and author and playwright Edna Ferber.

The Burton House burned to the ground on February 2, 1947, as the result of an over-heated stove on the first floor VFW meeting room.

[12] It is across the state border and the Montreal River from Ironwood, Michigan, both cities located on the Gogebic Range.

Hurley has a cool humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with long, cold winters and short, mild summers.

The SISU Cross Country Ski Race is held each January in neighboring Ironwood, Michigan.

Hurley commemorates its Italian heritage at the annual Festivale de Italiano, held every Labor Day weekend.

Viola Turpeninen Day, held annually in the summer, commemorates the legendary Finnish-American accordionist and singer.

A fictionalized version of Hurley as well as the famed character and murder victim Lotta (Lottie) Morgan was the subject of Edna Ferber's 1934 novel Come and Get It.

[28] In 1954, Lewis C. Reimann published the book Hurley - Still No Angel,[29] in which he claimed that crime and corruption were still prevalent in the town.