77 today. Drove the Copper country trail - 33miles each way- to northern tip of this Michigan peninsula. Calumet -small town with many neat, old rock buildings. Lots of churches. One was a twin spired one built in 1906 as St. Joseph's Catholic. In 1966 it became St. Paul the Apostle Church. One has been turned into a greenhouse and another one is now the Habitat for Humanity Restore. As we see in every town, some of the Victorian or later houses are in pristine condition, but others are rotting where they sit. Some money each year would save them, but some probably haven't been painted in 30 yrs. Huge old railroad depot is boarded up and tracks have been removed. I've read that many railroad beds in these states, as in others, are now bike and hiking paths. Old copper smelting works buildings. This is the weekend, so don't know if they are still used. Several residential streets have signs saying they are made of the oldest concrete pavement in Michigan-laid in 1906. In bad shape now. Look like large bricks of gray.
At a wayside there is a huge snowfall gauge. Winter of 1978-79 holds record for largest amount - 390.4". Close to a ski area, so that's good. Most State highways are tree lined on both sides because the roads were cut through the northwoods. Pine type trees are intermingled with mainly green, leafy type trees. Of course farms are laid out in between. Next burg was Phoenix, but don't blink. Its cemetery was established in 1843. Eagle River -in 1800's a German man opened a factory that produced 25,000 feet of fuse daily for the mines. Passed a tiny waterfall with a sign saying Jacob's waterfall. Then the road winds back to lakeside. Some protected sand dunes so beach access is prohibited for a little ways.
Drove to the top of Brockway Mtn. 726' above the lake and 1350' above sea level. The side of the hill was small rocks and Tom said at some point this must have all been under a sea because Mother Nature doesn't make stones like that without water. We could see a ski resort on the next mountain. In 1563 the Indians told explorers the hills were full of copper, but mining didn't start until 1844.
Ft. Wilkins State Park was built by the Army in 1844 to keep the peace in this copper mining area. Beautiful day, but other visitors said this week there is often still snow on the ground here. Funds from State owned mineral deposits have paid for the preservation or development of over 46,000 acres since 1976. As we drive on we listen to Tom's new cd of guitar music and the tide.
Delaware Copper Mine tour: 100 steps down. We walked 1000' of the 1800' comprising 2 tunnels. It is 1400' deep, with 10 levels. We walked on the top level. The other 9 are filled with water. Here in the 1860's the wages were 14 to 25 cents per hour. There were no mechanical drills. Three man teams worked together, with one holding the drill and the other 2 alternately hitting it with 12# sledge hammers. This is unreal: 98-1/2% of what they removed was rock, with the other 1-1/2% being copper. They removed 8 million pounds of copper! We asked the couple there if they owned it and she said yes. He grew up in the area and thought it would be neat to buy a mine for tourists to see. He looked at several maps and drawings and thought the smaller ones may not be appealing, so bought this large one. That was 33 yrs ago and he continued doing some engineering work until 1985 and then it sounded like this was their only job. I'm sure they are younger than us. They live in a doublewide there in the summer and in Fla in the winter.
No luck finding a pasty anywhere. Back to campground at 5:15. Left at 8:30. Another great day!
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