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.
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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.
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Houghton County Courthouse
two block from where I grew up in Houghton |
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Houghton Ave, a block from
where I grew up |
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our family home, sold years ago
small windows now in first floor living and dining room |
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| 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.
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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? :)
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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.
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Michigan Tech University
the new face in Houghton |
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| MTU |
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| Looking at Houghton from Portage Canal |
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| Old mining bldg near Laurium |
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Mining bldgs
Quincy Mine |
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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.
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The Calumet/Heckla Mines didn't
pay much, but they had well kept
mine homes |
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| A national park celebrates our heritage in the U.P. |
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| downtown Calumet, they call it in a transition phase |
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our walking tour guide didn't even know
these were miners homes |
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| the Theater also contained the police and fire dept at one time |
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The Calumet Theater has been revived
and is quite active today |
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| not a word about most of the buildings we passed |
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| many buildings have been demolished |
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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.
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.
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and I finally got a shot of my sister, Ann
your the best.... |
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