upper peninsula Archives - Page 22 of 26

The Other Sand Point Lighthouse

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses, upper peninsula .

Michigan has two Sand Point Lighthouses in the Upper Peninsula. One is in Escanaba HERE, and this red brick lighthouse is near Baraga. It was constructed in 1872 and sits on L’Anse Bay across from the town of L’Anse. In 1922 a light was placed on top of a metal skeletal structure and the old brick lighthouse was decommissioned. It was sold to private hands and is now in the ownership of the Keweenaw Bay Indians. When I visited it the grounds were open to the public and it is a nice place to stop if you are traveling between L’Anse and Houghton on US-41.

P.S. if you are wondering L’Anse is French for “the cove”

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The Upper Peninsula Pickle Barrel House

Posted on August 11, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, upper peninsula .

Eccentric people have built interesting looking houses around the county and this Upper Peninsula house is one of the most unique. In downtown Grand Marais is a giant barrel with a long and fascinating history. The Pioneer Cooperage Company of Chicago designed this small vacation cottage, which stood on the shores of nearby Sable Lake from 1926 until about 1937. It was built for William Donahey, creator of the Chicago Tribune cartoon story The Teenie Weenies. The house was constructed as a typical barrel would have been, only on a much larger scale. The main barrel contained a living area on the first floor and a bedroom on the second. A pantry connected this barrel to a smaller single-story one, which housed a kitchen. Donahey spent ten summers at the cottage with his wife, Mary, herself a noted author of children’s books. The structure was then moved to its current site and used as a tourist information center.

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Finlandia’s Old Main

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Schools, upper peninsula .

When thinking of colleges in the Upper Peninsula many people think of Michigan Tech in Houghton. Across the river is the city of Hancock and Finlandia University. It started out as Soumi College and this building was the first one on campus. The historical marker in front reads:

Suomi College was founded in 1896 by the Finnish Evangelical Church of America. The cornerstone of Old Main, the first building erected at Suomi College, was laid on May 30, 1898. Jacobsville sandstone, quarried at the Portage Entry of the Keweenaw waterway, was brought here by barge, cut and used to construct Old Main. Dedicated on January 21, 1900, It contained a dormitory, kitchen, laundry, classrooms, offices, library, chapel and lounge. The burgeoning college quickly outgrew this building, and in 1901 a frame structure, housing a gym, meeting hall and music center was erected on an adjacent lot. The frame building was demolished when Nikander Hall, named for Suomi’s founder, J. K. Nikander, was constructed in 1939. The hall was designed by the architectural firm of Saarinen and Swanson.

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The Chief’s Dock

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in upper peninsula .

If you have ever been to St. Ignace you have probably seen the lighthouse at the end of the pier at Chief Wawatam Park. The park was named after the SS Chief Wawatam which was named after an Ojibwa chief of the 1700s; he was said to have rescued trader Alexander Henry during the Ojibwa uprising at Michilimackinac in 1763.

The massive concrete blocks are what is left of the dock where the ferry would tie up and offload rail cars. Built in 1911, the ship was a special combination icebreaker and ferry designed specifically for the Straits. It’s entire life it traveled back and forth from St Ignace to Mackinaw City. It continued to operate after the Mackinac Bridge was built because it carried train cars. By 1984 the railroad ceased operating the ferry and sold it to a Canadian company that converted it into a barge.

I don’t remember the days of ferries transporting cars and trains across the straits but I do remember the tracks and railyard that used to be in Mackinaw City. They were removed to build the Mackinaw Crossings Mall. The old depot still remains and is now a restaurant. I wish I had taken a photo of the old rail yard to remember what was. I guess that is why I take so many photos of random forgotten places. I figure it is nice to remember what used to be, not that I want to go back but I think remembering the past is a good way to help guide decisions for the future.

P.S. The story of the lighthouse at the end of the dock can be found HERE

You can learn more about the Chief Wawatam ferry at their website HERE

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Zeba Mystery Church

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Forgotten Places, upper peninsula .

Not far from the town of L’anse is the small town of Zeba and close by is this little church. It stands along the shoreline of Lake Superior’s L’anse Bay Lake Superior. I am sure it was a church with the cross proudly mounted to the top of the steeple. Other than that I don’t know anything about it. I can only imagine it has seen some beautiful sunsets over the bay and some ferocious winter snowstorms all while holding services inside for funerals, weddings, and baptisms.

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Camp Sidnaw

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, upper peninsula .

The small town of Sidnaw in the central-western Upper Peninsula was home to one of several POW camps throughout Michigan. The camp was originally built as a CCC camp and after the capture of thousands of German soldiers in Africa, they were sent to the United States to be held as POWs.

Because of the large number of American men serving in the war the lumber industry requested POW’s be used to help with the labor shortage. 251 Germans were held in Sidnaw from February of 1944 until April of 1946. The camp did not have a fence around it just a couple of guard towers to watch the prisoners. It was not much of an issue. Most prisoners were young men who were drafted into the Nazi Army and would rather work in the sawmills than be shot at by the allied troops. One issue that did have was with the conservation officers who complained about the guards using machine guns and hand grenades to hunt deer while they POWs were out logging. The U.S. government sent limited supplies to the camp and some fresh venison was a welcomed meal.

Nothing from the camp remains. The guard towers stood for a long time, but they are gone now. I saw this old shack next to the tracks in town, and I can only imagine this little building saw many trains pulling in and out of town with POWs and supplies.

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Near Brimley is the remains of another former POW facility called Camp Raco, you can read my post about it HERE

If you want to know more about the POW camps in Michigan I highly recommend reading the book by Gregory D. Sumner titled Michigan POW Camps in World War II. It was compelling to read, I did not know so many POWs were sent to Michigan to work in the fields and forests. You can check out his book on Amazon HERE

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Munising Falls

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in upper peninsula, Waterfalls .

A few miles northeast of Munising Is the Munising Falls. It is a beautiful waterfall that is fed by a spring a couple of miles upstream. The water cascades over the stone cliff as it flows into Lake Superior. A parking lot and visitor’s center is located on Sand Point Road and it is a beautiful walk to see the waterfall. If you are in the area be sure to check them out. One of my favorite things to do in the Upper Peninsula is looking for waterfalls. Some are easily accessible and some are hidden deep in the woods. If you like waterfalls be sure to check out www.gowaterfalling.com they have a lot of great info about the many waterfalls in Michigan. you can find their website HERE

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The Redridge Bridge

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Bridges, Dam, upper peninsula, Waterfalls .

When I first saw it, I was not sure if it was a bridge, dam or waterfall, or a little bit of all three. On the Salmon Trout River near the town of Redridge is this massive steel structure. It has water flowing underneath and from its rusty girders, it looks as if it has been standing for a long time. It was one of only three steel dams of its type in the United States and it was constructed in 1901. The dam was built to create a reservoir for the Atlantic Stamping Mill in Redridge. The mill is gone but water still flows over the dam.

Redridge is in the Keweenaw and west of Houghton, It’s not far from the ruins in Freda, you can read about them in my post HERE

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The Bizarre Ruins in Freda

Posted on May 15, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, upper peninsula .

Along the shoreline of Lake Superior are a tall smokestack and concrete ruins. It is near the town of Freda west of Houghton in the Keweenaw Peninsula. The maze of weathered concrete and rusty rebar is what remains of the Champion Mill that processed the copper-rich rocks. Trains would pull into the mill and dump their cars filled with copper infused rocks. The mill would pulverize the rocks and mix them with water from lake superior creating a sludge rich in copper. It was then taken by train to Houghton for further processing and then poured into ingots and shipped around the world.

The mill closed in 1967 and it was stripped of any metal for scrap. I made the trip to see the ruins, but the road stops at a cliff that overlooks the remains. A barbed wire fence restricts people from getting to close. It was interesting to see but unfortunately, access for visitors is not allowed. It was not a wasted trip since I also stopped to see the waterfalls and old train bridge in nearby Redridge, but that is a post for another day.

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Michigan’s Little Lighthouse

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses, upper peninsula .

At first glance looking at this photo you might think it was Point Iroquois Lighthouse near Brimley but upon closer inspection, something seems a little bit odd. The house is actually a small replica located next to a pond near Bay Mills Community College on West Lakeshore Drive. I am not sure what the story is or who built it but I noticed it a few years ago. If you take the trip from Brimley to the T-Falls be sure to look for this little lighthouse. It’s across the road from the Native American cemetery. I would tell you about it but that’s a post for a different day.

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You can read my post about Point Iroquois Lighthouse HERE

I am curious, have you seen this little lighthouse? If so leave me a comment below.

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