Our first stop was at the Houghton City RV Park but it was full. However, the lady told us to go 10 miles up the road to Lake Linden Village to their campground. What a beautiful unadvertised campground. We went to city hall to make a reservation for the next day and then continued on to Copper Harbor.
The road up, especially the last 10 miles, was absolutely gorgeous. I can only imagine how spectacular it will be in the fall.
We drove to Fort Wilkins State Park and toured the fort. Nineteen buildings are there, 12 of them original. The other seven have been rebuilt/restored using original materials where possible. Much information has been preserved because there were many army documents. There were people in period costumes and the whole presentation was very well done.
Here is Ted trying his hand at keeping time with the bugle calls that announced specific activities.
This clear creek flows into Lake Fanny Hooe that flows into Lake Superior.
We stopped to take a picture of the Snowfall Record of 390.4 inches during the winter of 1978-79.
We drove back to Bruce Crossing and visited with the other campers. Some fellows working in the area told us to ride south on 45 to see Bond Falls. We keep finding these out of the way, unadvertised beautiful spots to visit. Such serendipity!
We moved on to Lake Linden Village campground on Wednesday and got set up before the rains came. It is the first daytime rain we’ve had since we left home. There has been plenty at night though. We are parked next to Torch Lake in an awesome campground. These are views out our back window.
Thursday we drove to Calumet to tour the Calumet Theater, built in 1900, which has been restored. When the theater was built, Calumet was the richest Michigan county after Wayne County (Detroit) due to the copper mines. There were 100,000 residents, most of whom worked in the mines. We took a tour and the docent did a terrific job.
The seats are original and the molding was hand done in wet plaster though the original gold leaf is now just gold paint. The balcony seats still have wire racks underneath to hold a gentleman’s hat.
There were five original canvasses in the stage arch but only two remained when the restoration started. Through research, the five originals were determined and redone by a Milwaukee company and once again fill in the arch over the stage. They represent painting, drama, sculpting, music and literature.
There are two box seats on each side of the theater. The one low backed chair is original.
Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Russell, John Phillip Sousa, Douglas Fairbanks and Jason Robards, Sr., as well as many others, performed in this theater. It is in use for live performances once again.
Our next stop was the Heritage Museum housed in the decommissioned St. Anne’s Catholic Church. We learned there were almost 40 different nationalities that came to the U.P. to work in the copper mines. Representatives of the mine companies would go to New York to meet ships coming into Ellis Island to recruit laborers. Italians, Austrians, Finnish and US citizens were the largest groups.
Our next stop was the Mercantile. It had an old Dayton scale (forerunner to National Cash Register Co.), an old coffee grinder and barrels and barrels of candy. We saw Mary Janes, Necco Wafers, candy cigarettes, Dots and many other “penny candies” we bought as kids. They made fudge and it was right next to the cash register where you couldn’t help but smell it! But I didn’t give in.
We came home and took a walk along the lake. We stopped for a picture at the highest point and one back towards the campground.
We have neither cell phone nor wi-fi service here. We can walk to the end of the campground for so-so cell service. There are a couple places in the village that have wi-fi. I use my I-Pod to get e-mail if we are near a restaurant or motel that has wi-fi and our phones get service sporadically as we drive around and messages and texts come through. It’s been very hit or miss. We have two TV stations ABC and CW. But we get good reception. Now we know why we keep seeing telephone booths, something we haven’t seen in a long time.
Friday we drove into Hancock and toured the Quincy Copper Mine #2 Shaft house. First thing we did was don hard hats and jackets and rode a cog railway down to the mine shaft opening.
Then we boarded a wagon for a ride into the mine. We went several hundred feet and then had to walk.
It was cold (42 degrees), damp and the floor was slippery from the water dripping.
We were shown a guide to all the shafts and levels when the mine was in full operation. We were on the 7th level and every level below (85 in all) has filled with water since the closing of the mine in 1945 after 100 years of operation. The #2 shaft reached a maximum depth of 9,260 feet. Conditions were awful and 252 recorded deaths and many accidents occurred.
Our next stop was the Hoist House where the Nordbery Steam Hoist was installed in 1918. It was the world’s largest hoist and was used to move men in and out, and ore and water out of the mine. The man cars, ore carriers and water carriers were interchangeable on the two shafts. As one went down, the other came up.
By 1945, labor unrest and lower cost strip mining for copper in other locations caused its and other mines’ demise. It was a very interesting tour and I’m glad we went even though I could see my breath and my nose was cold!
Since it was after 4:00 and we hadn’t had lunch we decided to eat at Lindell’s Chocolate Shoppe here in the village. The inside is just as it was built with solid oak and stained glass throughout. Everything was home made; no Sysco frozen foods here.
Ted found the gun club Saturday morning but they shoot on Thursday so we made our way to Laurium instead to tour the Laurium Manor, a home built in 1908 by Thomas H. Hoatson, owner of the Calumet and Arizona Mining Co. It has 45 rooms, 13,000 sq. ft. and housed his family that included six children. At a time when miners were making 25 cents an hour, $50,000 was spent on this house and an additional $35,000 on the furnishings.
The icebox is 80 cu. ft. It is made of glass, oak and marble. Ice could be loaded from the back porch so the iceman did not have to enter the kitchen.
The dining room fireplace is made of hand-carved oak and a glass tile surround that may have been a custom Tiffany design. The Celtic knot pattern matches the design on the ceiling, walls, stained glass and hardware.
This is the parlor or music room with a vaulted dome ceiling covered with canvas that is hand painted. The light is original.
When built, the house was wired with electricity and still retains the original push button switches that work. We were encouraged to turn the lights off and on as we entered and left the rooms on our self guided tour.
This pedestal sink and medicine chest are original and are in one of two maids’ rooms.
There are dozens of huge homes still in Laurium from copper’s hey day and are still in use.
We went to St. Joseph Church in Lake Linden and then came home for dinner. We sat outside and chatted with our neighbors. Many locals use this park and their English sounds as if it is their second language with an accent. In reality, it is how they learned to speak English with a Finnish or Cornish accent. We’ve had a very good time here in Lake Linden.
Sunday we did laundry and then went for a steam train ride at the Historical Museum.
Here is a picture of the trestle we rode over and a shot of our campground in the distance and the marina that we see on the opposite side of the lake from the campground.
Today we drove to Superior, WI. We spent a little bit of time at Canal Park in Duluth but we were tired and decided to get info and go back tomorrow to spend the day. We now have wi-fi and phone service.
