Wednesday, June 26, 2019

2019-11 Houghton Michigan - The U.P. Northern Michigan


U.P.
Yooper
Upper Peninsula
Keweena Peninsula
Northern Michigan


Campground: Hancock City Beach/Rv park. $25 Electric and Water. Other sites have electric only and are cheaper. Some nice sites down by the Portage Canal.

Distance Traveled: 205 miles


Driving from Wisconsin into Northern Michigan, all highways are left behind. To the point that the first hour on the road was a closed in canopy of trees Gradually the roads opened up though remaining for the most part two lane county roads. Small farms in between miles and miles of forests.

The Lift Bridge between Houghton and Hancock
leads you to the Keweenaw Peninsula
the Copper Country

Houghton Michigan


I’ve arrived back to my hometown, Houghton and it’s sister city Hancock across the lift bridge. I’m visiting with my sister Ann and enjoying the area. Ann is in a very nice apartment building on the 4th floor. It’s well maintained and she has rent control based on her income. I’m always amazed at the number of people she knows. Every restaurant and shop we go into, she has to stop and talk to everyone. What a joy to see her surrounded by people she has grown up with.

Houghton County Courthouse
two block from where I grew up in Houghton

Houghton Ave, a block from
where I grew up

our family home, sold years ago
small windows now in first floor living and dining room

downtown Houghton/Hancock


I think that’s something Ann and I have in common, we enjoy meeting people and being surrounded by good friends. She from a lifetime of community and friends, me from years of living and working in Orlando and having met so many wonderful people through my RV travels.

My sister, Ann
doesn't like pictures taken of her


It’s nice to have time to drive around and see all the places I’ve grown up around, taking pictures of our family home (sold years ago) but still looking pretty much the same, except for smaller windows having been installed in the living room and dining rooms.. ps I had the coldest bedroom in the U.P.

One day at Cyberia Cafe, on the corner of Isle Royal St and Sheldon Ave, I met a guy who sat down at my table as we chatted over a cup of coffee. While I ended up going to Suomi College, he had been drafted a few years earlier to Vietnam. As his story unfolded, he told me about being so traumatized by the war and blocking much of it out of his mind. Leaving him with as he put it “no heart”. Ending in two divorces. Finally a VFW member contacted him and wouldn’t give up on him. Finally getting him additional money due him for his service and most importantly mental health care. Each time they tried to unblock those memories and help with his healing, he would block them. Finally the therapy worked and he told of how he cried for a week straight. Eventually learning to get through the trauma of war and learning to feel and love again. He found spiritual renewal as well. What a powerful message he had to tell.

Visit with highschool friend


I even met up with a former high-school friend. Mark Shebuski. I should say Doctor, as he shared his story of becoming a Dr and husband along with three children. Amazing the information one can learn in such a short time while enjoying lunch. He and his wife eventually moved back to Houghton to start his practice. Telling about the rough years getting established in a small town where the folks still remembered him as the kid delivering the Daily Mining Gazette. Eventually building a practice with more patients than he could handle. A full life with a few bumps along the way, he’s now semi-retired and has a winter home in Naples Florida. Does everyone living in Wisconsin and Michigan end up in Florida? :)

the old hospital I was born
now part of Finlandia University  Portage Campus

So many memories, where my father was for a year
recovering from 80% burns on his body,
to the time Mother was injured in an accident
and recovered after almost a year in Marquette hospital
not to mention the brain surgery she had after another accident


Background History


The Keweenaw Peninsula has an interesting geologic history. It is made up of an ancient lava flow way back from the Mesoproterozoic era as a part of the mid-continent rift… that’s like 1.096 billion years ago. Creating the only strata on earth where large-scale 97 % pure native copper is found.

Making it the first copper boom in the United States. As a kid growing up in the area, we would find copper in the old slag piles left over from the copper mining days. We’d clean it up mount it on small wood blocks and sell to the tourists coming into town from the cruise ships. Yes at one time there were cruise ships on the Great Lakes.

Native aboriginal Indians mined the float copper and traded it with other native Indians as far away as Alabama. The mountain ranges if one can even call them that are less than 1,300 feet in elevation having been ground down during the last ice age.

Michigan Tech University
the new face in Houghton

MTU

Looking at Houghton from Portage Canal






Old mining bldg near Laurium

Mining bldgs
Quincy Mine




Quincy Mine a part of the new Heritage national park
my Grandfather Anderson worked here (above ground)




RV Tip:


If you are looking for consistent cool temperatures in the summer the U.P. has normal highs of 70 degrees. The Keweenaw Peninsula is a great place to start you adventures. I would recommend staying in either Houghton, Hancock (nice safe park) or Lake Linden (petty crimes, don’t leave anything out) they all are City campgrounds. Houghton being the most expensive. Note: I would not recommend towing any big rigs up to Copper Harbor, the last 10 miles is through a canopy of trees and a bit windy road

Calumet Walking Tour


I drove up to Calumet to take a walking tour of the old mining town through the National Park visitors center. I wouldn’t recommend the walking tour at this time as the park ranger gave little to no information on the walking tour. Though it was a pleasant sunny day for a walk around the town that looks pretty depressing from my viewpoint. Though it has some interesting historic buildings, I didn’t find any information about them on this tour. As I was walking my way back to the visitors center a local stopped me on the sidewalk and said, pointing at my T-shirt, “your a long way from home. “ The T-shirt read “Bar-Harbor Maine” as I wear T-shirts from all over the country. I mentioned that the landscape was very similar to the U.P. without mentioning I’m a Yooper. He said, “Oh no, it’s not, this is God Country” as he poked his finger at my chest. Looking around the town with so many abandoned and empty buildings in bad repair, as much as I am a Yooper and agree with his sentiment especially regarding the land, the lakes the trees. The towns, not so much.

The Calumet/Heckla Mines didn't
pay much, but they had well kept
mine homes 

A national park celebrates our heritage in the U.P.

downtown Calumet, they call it in a transition phase

our walking tour guide didn't even know
these were miners homes

the Theater also contained the police and fire dept at one time

The Calumet Theater has been revived
and is quite active today 

not a word about most of the buildings we passed

many buildings have been demolished

I think I read that there were 36 churhes at one time
one green one is now an arts center across from
the National Park visitor center


Keweenaw Peninsula Driving Tour


One of my favorite things to do while in the area is to drive up the center of the Keweenaw Peninsula on US-41 to Copper Harbor, walk around the seaside village. A stop at Jamsen’s Fish Market and Bakery on the waters edge for the best coffee and maybe a past. To be enjoyed while sitting out at a picnic table overlooking the bay and Lake Superior. Tour the town or Fort Wilkens, then a drive up Brockway Mountain Drive for some great views of the Keweenaw Peninsula, inland lakes, forests for miles and of course Lake Superior with ore boats slowly making their way across the lake.

From their, reconnecting with US 26 will take you to Eagle Harbor and Eagle River, lighthouse views, a sandy beach and sand dunes along the lake shore drive. A perfect day trip.




the last 10 miles to Copper Harbor
is a canopy of trees

at the end of US-41, Lake Superior

Perfect morning for coffee looking out the inlet to
Lake Superior

my heart was singing with views like this




Brockway Mountain drive, the views were crystal clear


views of Copper Harbor from Brockway Mt drive 
a lake on the edge of Lake Superior



man with a view

an ocean of fresh water, Lake Superior

Wait.... I think I can see Canada from here....

Lupine was blooming everywhere throughout
the U.P. this year

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse


all lighthouse shots taken from 1/2 mile across
the cove


Books:


While on the road I enjoy reading a wide range of books. My latest is a travel book. Which may seem odd since I travel all the time. The book, “The Wonder Trail by Steve Heley follows his journey traveling from LA south through the America’s to the bottom of Chili, Patogonia and Ending in Punta Areenas. It’s a trip I doubt I would venture on even in my younger years. So being able read his travel journal enables me to take the journey as an armchair traveler… while traveling around the U.S. Kind of a cool thing to do.

and I finally got a shot of my sister, Ann
your the best....

More photos:






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