BIG BAY -- Big Bay is a quaint little town that could be on the verge of a major transformation--Kennecott's nickel and copper mine is starting construction about 10 miles outside of town.  This will mean hundreds of jobs and a major influx of money.

The mine will be good for business, but not everybody's thrilled with the idea.

When you think of Ford automobiles, you probably think of the factories in Detroit.  But if you step back about 100 years, you'd find that Big Bay played a major part in Ford's history.  Logging was a crucial part of Big Bay's economy and still is, and Ford capitalized on that when designing his 'woody' cars.

Greater recognition for the little town came in 1959 with the release of the hit movie 'Anatomy of a Murder.'

"The movie gathered so much history for the U.P. and for our little community here in Big Bay."

Darryl Small is a former owner of the Thunder Bay Inn, and he prides himself on the town he calls home.

"I bought the hotel back in 1986," he says.  "When we opened, we played up 'Anatomy of a Murder' to no end."

Parts of the movie were filmed at the Thunder Bay Inn, Perkins Park, and the Lumberjack Tavern, where the actual murder the movie is based on, took place.

But beyond that, though, Big Bay has long been a tourist attraction, even before it got electricity in the 1950s.

The Big Bay Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast, built in 1896 by the Coast Guard, is both a local landmark and a thriving business; it became a bed and breakfast in the 1960s.

"We would run 100 percent full," said owner Jeff Gamble, of the past.  "If you wanted a reservation in the summer, you had to have it in by March because we'd only have one or two rooms a month left over."

The recent downturn in the economy has changed things, though.

"The last few years it's just gotten tighter and tighter, people make shorter and shorter trips and plans," Gamble says.

And for a town that relies so heavily on campers in the summer and snowmobilers in the winter, recent years have been tough.  But many business owners and residents now are seeing a possible turnaround.

"This little dead end of the world has begun to recover," Gamble says.  "It's the kind of place that most of the country never sees; they just don't get a chance to walk in that kind of woods and see that kind of country."

But Big Bay is changing...it might be on the verge of a major change with a new mine moving in next door.  This sleepy little town, for better or worse, is starting to reawaken.

"I see Big Bay coming back," Small says.  "It's down a little bit right now in tourism, it's down economy wise, but I see when the mine gets going, creating a new turn, a new type of industry up here.  I see a different era starting that should last for many years."