Michigan - Day 29 - Presque Isle, Iron Museum, to Hancock

Hancock Recreation Area, Hancock
Monday, 29 July 2019

today's route

The Marquette campground is on the Dead River, which sounds awful but is actually very much alive as far as I can tell and very pretty.

As often happens after a weekend, the dumpster was full.  But for the first time in all these many months, I found that this campground posted several signs saying: Dumpster full, please deposit bagged trash in truck.  And there was a pickup truck parked right next to the dumpster, which is where I put my trash.  I've never seen such a sensible choice.  All the other campgrounds, in every state, just wait for the service to come while letting the trash pile way higher than the top of the dumpster, often falling out on the ground.

Presque Isle Park
This park is what you might call the crown jewel of Marquette.  It's on the immediate edge of town and isn't an island at all, but instead is a small peninsula out into Lake Superior.  About a hundred years ago, Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of NYC's Central Park, was in town for something else and the town fathers inveigled him out to the area, hoping he'd tell them how to develop it.  Instead he said, basically, Don't touch it.  Amazingly enough, they took his advice.

Sunset Point at Presque Isle

There's one 1-lane road around the perimeter of the peninsula with small pullouts at frequent intervals.  There are trails for pedestrians only and specific times of the week when no vehicles at all are allowed in the park - pedestrians only.

At the entrance there're a few picnic tables.  There's a small beach area.  Dogs are allowed only if they're kept in an enclosed vehicle.  Apparently they're supposed to charge an entrance fee, but nobody was around shortly after 8:00 this morning when we got there, so I got in free.  It's a lovely place, heavily wooded throughout the interior.  For those who enjoy hiking (without dogs) or jogging (I saw one), it'd be a great place to go.

Back in town

Cliffs Ore Dock

Just outside the park is this dock that I thought, at first, was closed down.  Then I noticed a whole line of rail cars the length of the dock, but still thought they were just left over from the old days.

There's a sign saying "Cliffs Ore Dock, 100 years of service 1912-2012."  So I figured it was closed several years ago until I got around to the other side.

There was a huge cargo ship there, belonging to the Erie Trader Co., which is who owned that ship I saw at Soo Locks the other day (odd coincidence).  And that ship wasn't left over from the olden days because the white stuff you can see in this photo above the ship is steam clouds - active clouds of steam rising from the ship.

On the other side of the road is a huge plant of some kind, and I'm wondering if it maybe processes iron ore and sends it over to the dock on a conveyor, which I think is what I drove under.  All speculation, though.

You can see in these photos how low the clouds are.  Not an auspicious beginning to the day.

We went from there to a laundromat, Loads of Fun Laundromat (what a name), that was a little spendy but still very decent.  Modern, clean, with the very pleasant and helpful owner hanging around to help explain these foreign-built machines to me.

From there we went down the road to the small town of Negaunee, which calls itself Iron Town USA.  It's the home of the Michigan Iron Industry Museum.

Michigan Iron Industry Museum

how iron was formed

early use

Michigan's iron deposits

Michigan had 3 iron deposit ranges: the Gogebic, 1883-1967; the Menomie 1873-1978; the Marquette 1846-present.

The Civil War greatly increased the Union's need for iron, but increasingly there was no labor available because the workers went to war.

rapids that inspired the Soo Locks

 early strap railroad

slide rules: a special calculator (this is how I got this over the explanation)

labor issues

explains the slide rules

WWII effect

the new product

From the beginning, labor came primarily from Europe.  First were the Cornish, followed by the Irish, French Canadians and Germans.  Eventually, over 40 nationalities were represented in the Michigan mines, including Scandinavians - especially the Finns, Italians, Poles, Hungarians, Russians, Croatians, Poles, and Austrians.  They worked 6 days/week and fueled the Industrial Revolution.

the difference 100 years makes

legal milestone for the tribes

Back on the road
When I turned the corner and started running up the Keweenaw Peninsula, the body of water I was seeing was the Keweenaw Bay off Lake Superior.  The water seemed multicolored, though that doesn't show up in this photo (below).

Keweenaw Bay off Lake Superior

I passed a business called Superior Screed Service.  I thought a screed was something like a harangue so can't imagine what this business was about.

Again, there were strong side winds, even though we'd changed direction from west to north.

I passed cornfields and tree farms.

The town of Chassell says it's the Home of the Strawberry Festival, which sadly was in early July.

I passed a Maranatha Church, which I wouldn't have expected to find up here.

I turned west again and came to Houghton, Birthplace of Professional Hockey, they say.  it's also the home of Finlandia University, which should tell you something about the ethnic background of the settlers in this area.

Just over the bridge crossing Portage Lake is Hancock.  As far as I can tell, the difference between the two is the bridge over the lake.  And the lake, at that point, isn't a lake - it's more a river that runs from Portage Lake into Lake Superior on the west side of Keweenaw Peninsula.

Tonight's campground is on this sort-of lake, owned by the town of Hancock.  The campground flies both an American flag and the flag of Finland at the office.

In case I haven't already said this, the Upper Peninsula has the highest concentration of Finns outside Europe, and it has the only US counties where a plurality of the residents have Finnish ancestors.  Which I suppose explains the flag.