Another brief sojourn on Lake Superior with a stop-in at Houghton, UP

Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2024

A photographic record of whatever leapt out at us

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Another brief sojourn on Lake Superior with a stop-in at Houghton, UP

1-3 August 2024

We're back! 'South Beach' on Lake Superior. Who knows what adventures await us?

After two squawling hours in the car, Choupette's ready for a short nap.

Melvin's off to view the beach from atop the sandbank protecting the cottages -- a few weeks ago he stared long down the bank and backed off. This time he just leapt into space and landed triumphantly.

Choupie's still doubtful, though. Next year.

The lake's still here, that's good.

+

Wait, there's someone out there on our beach.

It's okay, it's Kristin.

It's time for an early dinner in beautiful Ontonagon, Michigan, five miles back down the shore.

There's the Ontonagon Historical Museum. We'll have to give it a try someday. Pretty sad, though, probably.

Across the street from one of the few restaurants, or the only one pretty much, we have the Anytime Fitness.
Comes along a little late for some of us.

A casual dinner in Roxey's Bar & Grill. 'Nuff said on that note.

A hasty pass by the home of Ontonagon's own Demonstrative Moron, who takes pride in . . .

. . . keeping up with the latest trumperoonies. Poor choice of hobbies.

But he's been good for many quiet, headshaking laughs over the past few years.

The next day, not as pleasant as might be wished

Shall we suntan, or shall we not?

-- Why don't we drive up to Houghton instead, yeah?

But that's an hour each way, and for what, do tell.

If 'consensus' makes sense with only two people on the scene, in any case a consensus has been reached, and we must soothe Choupette's dismay at being left indoors again for a few hours.

So here we are at our destination (except for the fish sandwiches, later). Houghton is a small city of ca. 8,000 citizens (though it's the 3rd largest in the UP), located more or less at the base of the Keweenaw Peninsula. It's poised at the conjunction of an artificial canal north to Lake Superior, the Keweenaw Waterway opened in 1873, with Portage Lake leading to Lake Superior's Keweenah Bay to the south. Thus making the peninsula into what's often called 'Copper Island'.

Houghton was only incorporated as a city in 1970, even though it's known as the birthplace of professional ice hockey in the USA, with the Portage Lakers in 1903.

We operate a lovely Volvo (parked on the left there), very suitable in every way, except that there are not many dedicated Volvo service shops around and not much headroom for some of us, but it does have one irksome feature. It's somewhat over technologically protective, and many of its warning lights and messages are misleading, ill-timed, or wrong.

The most irritating one is the insistent alert that the tire pressure is low, sometimes even specifying graphically which tire is the victim. This has happened before, and the tires have been fine (though last spring it turned out that there really was a nail through one of them) -- but to restore any sense of emotional calm, one has to get them checked.

This fine establishment (called Firestone here but Bridgestone on Google maps), just above the lift bridge, checked all the tires and pronounced them all correct, and refused any payment. In this day and age!!

Sans paroles

It's time for a brief Houghton perambulation. Shelden Ave seems to be the main drag in town.

Very nice flowers

A glance at the pointy-topped building down the street reminds us that, actually, we've been here before.
But that was in the rain.

Black Ice?

That preponderant is the Douglass House, first built in 1860 and soon the 'social center of Houghton'; the original frame building burnt down in 1901, and the present hotel replaced it in 1902. It was converted to apartments in 1984.

This is Houghton's fine cinema theatre, now apparently showing U.P.Financial, a film we haven't seen yet, probably very good.

Oh look, some more nice flowers. And the turn-of-the-century sandstone architecture is also very nice.

The 'Sandstone Bedrock Lakeshore', from the Porcupines to Munising, is a thing; the 'Red Bed Sandstone' in this region in particular was heavily quarried between 1880 and 1920 (we're told).

Lots and lots of red sandstone buildings, in fact.

We'll turn down on Isle Royal St. and visit the waterfront.
(That looks like where we parked last time we were here.)

Just across the street from The Library Restaurant & Brew Pub

A zoom-view across Portage Lake, and . . .

. . . there's the imposing Portage Lake Lift Bridge inaugurated in 1959, replacing a series of early swing bridges starting in 1875 -- it's said (by Wikipedia) to be 'the world's heaviest and widest double-decked vertical lift bridge'. The lower level was originally for trains heading north up the Keweenaw Peninsula (the so-called 'Copper Island'), but since rail service ended in 1982 it's now reserved for snowmobile traffic.

That's the Grace United Methodist Church just up the road a bit; nice sandstone!

Fantastic, a rail station. A train line from Marquette was laid on in 1883 to ship out all the copper (maybe iron and timber, too, and whatever else could be carried off for quick profits). The service was discontinued in 1982.

An odd logo, one would have thought, but if one really needs to 'escape Houghton', perhaps . . .

. . . that spiral escape route could be helpful.

Just a block above the rail station, the Suomi Restaurant, in red, recalls the influence of Finnish-speaking immigrants in the 19th century; Suomi ('swamp land') is the Finnish name for Finland.

Just behind the camera in that last shot is the Portage Lake District Library, which was created in 1909 (not in this building, of course) -- as perfervid fans of US libaries and how they're arranged, we should have a quick look in.

Well, it's certainly homey, for starters -- and imagine if we were in a northern Michigan winter just now.

Attractive, spacious, plenty of room to walk about, though . . .

. . . not too much room for books. Checking the history section, we found only three shelves' worth, but . . .

. . . there's lots of fiction and children's lit, and not only does Michigan have an envied interlibrary loan system, Michigan Tech University (founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, now with 70 graduate programmes) is just down the road.

There was a reading session for a group of kids finishing up here when we came in.

'Sky Sushi'?

Tattooing in the left door, Piercing in the right one

The Waterfront Walk, next to . . .

. . . The Print Shop

Joey's Seafood & Grill (featuring chicken, ribs, steak, pasta, you name it).
Michigan Made beer & wine, with a 'sale rack' of shirts out front. Neat.

If a small American town needs a motto, how about 'Guns, Gold, Silver, & Tools'? People will feel right at home here. (Or maybe instead, 'Quik Ca$h'.)

We're crossing the famous lift bridge now, headed up through Hancock on the other side for a fish sandwich. Two fish sandwiches, that is.

For sale. Now renting.

Downtown Hancock ('founded in the 1850s by early copper explorers . . . a progressive and welcoming city of 4,500 residents on the north shore of Portage Lake')

Hancock got in on the sandstone boom as well.

And it seems to have had its own heyday, too, back in the day.

Just 2½ miles up the hill, just past the Quincy Mine ('old copper-mining facility with tours'), we've arrived . . .

. . . at Peterson's Fish Market, and also . . .

. . . the 4 Suns Fish & Chips shop. Time for lunch.

It's a very popular place, evidently, and . . .

. . . with a sense of humor.

Awaiting our fish sandwiches, which . . .

. . . we'll devour out on the green.

And then drive an hour back on Route 26 to Greenland, then 38 to Ontonagon, and then . . .

. . . dining in tonight.

Next up: Driftwood marvels on the Lake Superior shore, & a worthy 'celebration' for our special friend Cousin Rob