Nordberg, Erik C. 1965-

Houghton is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and largest city in the Copper Country on the Keweenaw Peninsula. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 7,010. It is the county seat of Houghton County. West Houghton is the site of more recent construction compared to the other neighborhoods in Houghton. The area has a more modern, suburban feel to it than the other areas. This includes larger middle class houses built with large wooded lots between them. Most prominent in this area, however, are the retail stores which are becoming the new commercial heart of the city. These include Wal-Mart, ShopKo, and several recent strip malls, with numerous small stores housed under a single roof. Several prominent beach areas are located on this side of the city. It is often referred to by locals as "ShopKo Heights," the "neighborhood behind ShopKo," or "ShopKoville."

Founded in 1987, The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for use in preventing new HIV infections, and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world. Each "block" (or section) of The AIDS Memorial Quilt measures approximately twelve feet square, and a typical block consists of eight individual three foot by six foot panels sewn together. Virtually every one of the more than 40,000 colorful panels that make up the Quilt memorializes the life of a person lost to AIDS. As the epidemic continues claiming lives around the world and here in the United States, the Quilt continues to grow and to reach more communities with its messages of remembrance, awareness and hope.

Erik Nordberg is currently employed (1995-) as university archivist at the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections in Houghton, Michigan. The MTU Archives is the largest archival collection of historical material in Michigan₂s Upper Peninsula and serves as a regional history center for the Keweenaw Peninsula, collecting a wide variety of published books, newspapers and maps, the original records of local copper mining companies, and a collection of over 100,000 photographic images. Nordberg holds a master's degree in library science and certificate of archival administration from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Nordberg grew up in metro Detroit, but has been a resident of the Keweenaw since 1994 (ten years in Houghton and in Calumet since 2004). He has served on the Michigan Humanities Council, Michigan's State Historic Records Advisory Board, the board of the Mining History Association (and hosted their 1997 annual conference in Houghton) and served locally on the board of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association and City of Houghton Historic Preservation Commission. He is interested in the rich history of mining in the Lake Superior basin and how this region interacted with other mining districts in the development of technologies, corporate management techniques and worker communities. Erik Nordberg enjoys travel and camping. He is also a great fan of Michigan Tech hockey, traveling to games throughout the region.

F. Lewis Orrell was born December 27, 1916. He died November 7, 1999. He was a member of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). He was a passionate researcher and writer on the subject of mining.