upper peninsula Archives - Page 9 of 25

Our Lady Of The Snows

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, upper peninsula .

I saw the Our Lady Of The Snows Catholic Church in Hessel in the southeastern Upper Peninsula. It caught my eye since it is a rather unique looking church. I was not able to find out when it was build or who the architect was that designed it. I see a lot of old and new churches while I am traveling around Michigan and this one is distinctive. I thought it was also interesting that it is Our Lady Of The Snows and I saw it on one of the hottest days of the year last summer. Hopefully I will get a chance to see it in winter sometime and get a pic of it with some freshly fallen snow. The Old Mission Indian Cemetery is next to the church but that is a post for a different day.

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

The Copper Harbor Chimney

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, upper peninsula .

This old chimney stands in the woods east of Copper Harbor and Lake Fanny Hooe. The old smokestack is all that remains of the Clark Mine. It was first dug in 1853 and operated by a few different companies until it closed in 1901. All that remains is this old chimney and an area covered in rocks and stone. It is a popular spot for rock hunters and not to difficult to find. If you take Manganese Road next to the Copper Harbor visitors center east it will curve into Clark Mine Rd. About a mile down the road you will see a wooden sign for the old mine.

Lost In Michigan Books are ON SALE at Amazon. You can see more by clicking HERE

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

The Store in Herman

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns, upper peninsula .

This old building stands along the tracks that pass through the Upper Peninsula town of Herman. It is located a remotes section of the Huron Mountains southeast of L’Anse. The town was named for lumberjack Herman Keranen who took up farming in the area. Over the decades the population has dwindled and it is mostly a ghost town. I am not sure what this old building was but it looked like a store that was supplied by the railroad at one time.

Lost In Michigan Books are ON SALE at Amazon. You can see more by clicking HERE

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

Boot Hill Cemetery

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Cemetery, upper peninsula .

South of the town of Seney in the Upper Peninsula is the old Boot Hill Cemetery. Most of the graves are marked with simple wooden crosses. They do not give names or dates only a reminder that someone is laid to rest in the old cemetery. They are early Yoopers that worked and lived around Seney long before trucks and snowmobiles. I can’t imagine how challenging life was for them a few centuries ago.

Lost In Michigan Books are ON SALE at Amazon. You can see more by clicking HERE

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

Wyandotte Falls

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in upper peninsula, Waterfalls .

Located along the Misery River the Wyandotte Falls are west of Lake Roland and Lake Gerald ( the Twin Lakes ) in the Keweenaw Peninsula. I am not sure why the Misery River has a sorrowful name but it was far from a miserable experience when I visited the falls. It was a beautiful hike through the woods as the sun shone through the enormous trees onto the moss covered rocks.

The falls are located about a mile off M-26 on Poyhonen Road near Twin Lakes State Park. It is a little bit of a hike from the parking area and the trail is covered in tree roots but it is worth the effort to see these waterfalls.

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

The Oldest Cemetery

Posted on March 28, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Cemetery, upper peninsula .

Many visitors come into the Upper Peninsula by crossing the Mackinac Bridge then turn left and head west down US-2 for the western part of the U.P. I wonder how many travelers notice the cemetery a few miles west of St Ignace. The Gros Cap cemetery is one of the oldest contiguously operating cemeteries in the nation.

In the 1600s, a large group of Ottawa Indians settled in the area and established a burial ground which is now part of the present day cemetery. Over the centuries both Native Americans and European settlers have been laid to rest in the cemetery. A wide variety of headstones and grave markers can be seen in this pretty little graveyard. From wooden crosses to modern granite marks it spans a lot of history. I wonder how many people just pass on by without knowing the history of this cemetery.

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

Spring at Fox River

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in State Parks, upper peninsula .

Between Seney and Grand Maris is a state forest campground along the Fox River. I needed to stop for a break on my travels around the Upper Peninsula and found this nice little quiet campground. I also found a pipe sticking out of the ground with water flowing out of it. I filled up my water bottle with the cool refreshing water from this artesian spring. This was a favorite fishing spot along the Fox River for Hemingway, and I wonder if he got water from this natural spring back in the day.

P.S. Michigan has several state forest campground throughout the U. P. and I think they are hidden gems if you are looking for a quiet place to camp.

Lost In Michigan Books are ON SALE at Amazon. You can see more by clicking HERE

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

Point Iroquois Lighthouse, A Spectacular Light on Lake Superior

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses, upper peninsula .

Point Iroquois and its light near Brimley On Lake Superior mark the division line between Whitefish Bay and the western end of the St. Marys River. It was named for the Iroquois warriors massacred there by the Ojibwein 1662. Native Algonkians called the point “Nadouenigoning”, composed of the words “Nadone” (Iroquois) and “Akron” (bone).
In 1620, French explorers Étienne Brûlé and Grenoble became the first recorded white men to the area. “From that time, Point Iroquois became a familiar landmark” for French explorers, fur traders and missionaries who followed. Sault Ste. Marie was the first white settlement in what became known as Michigan.
In 1853 Congress, which had approved the construction of the first Soo Locks on the St. Mary’s River, and appropriated $5,000 for the construction of what would be the first lighthouse at Point Iroquois.In 1855-1856 the United States Lighthouse Board built a wood and rubble stone lighthouse at the Point; this aid to navigation commenced operations on June 18, 1856. The first Point Iroquois light was a 45-foot-tall rubble stone tower with a wooden lantern deck, outfitted with a flashing white fourth order Fresnel lens. Only eleven years after the first light went into operation, a government inspector was questioning the construction quality of the first light station and preparing the ground for its replacement.
In 1870, after the first lighthouse and keepers’ quarters building were torn down and the second and current Point Iroquois Light was constructed, this time at an estimated cost of $18,000. The present Cape Cod style white brick lighthouse was built and ran continuously for 93 years, guiding ships in and out of the Soo Locks. It has a 65-foot tower height.
In 1885, a bell tower was erected, which incorporated a Stevens automatic bell striking machine. In 1890, the bell tower was torn down, and a fog signal building was built with steam whistles installed. In 1926 they were replaced by Type F diaphone fog horns.
In 1905, a two-floor extension was added to the 1871 building, providing living space for another assistant keeper, bringing the staff to three Lighthouse keepers. At peak operation, the station was manned by a Head Keeper and two Assistant Keepers. The children of the keepers and local fisherman were enough to populate a local school on the grounds for a period.Other buildings on the site included: an assistant keeper’s quarters, fog signal building (now gone), three barns, a chicken house, boat house, oil house, outhouse and well house.
The station was deactivated in 1962, replaced by the Canadian operated Gros Cap Reefs Light, an unmanned buoy-type beacon in the St. Marys River channel.
In 1963, the original lens was sent to the Smithsonian Institution. Currently the lighthouse is now a museum and visitors can climb the stairs to the top of the tower, although the light is gone the view is spectacular.

If you love lighthouses I hope you will take a look at my new Lighthouse book HERE

I hope you will Subscribe to Lost In Michigan

The Sandstone Courthouse

Posted on March 10, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in courthouses, upper peninsula .

The town of Bessemer is in the southwest part of the Upper Peninsula. As mining production increased so did the population of the town. In 1887, Bessemer became the Gogebic County Seat and this sandstone courthouse constructed that year at a cost of $50,000.

The Upper Peninsula had several sandstone quarries and in the late 1800s the stone was popular in the construction of buildings and large houses. The stone was easy to cut into large squares and also well suited for carvers to create antiquate designs. In the early 1900s sandstone fell out of favor for other materials such as brick and steel. The historic Gogebic sandstone courthouse still stands as a reminder of a time when stone from the U.P. was used to construct magnificent buildings.

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In Michigan, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.

The New Old Train Depot in Brimley

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Train Depots, upper peninsula .

When visiting Whitefish Point and the T-falls I like to go through the town of Brimley and follow the Lake Superior shoreline. After getting something to eat at Clyde’s Drive Inn on US-2 in St Ignace, Brimley is a nice place to stop for a bathroom break and pick up a bottle of Faygo Redpop for the trip to see the falls. The community on Lake Superior was founded by European Americans in 1887 as the town of Superior. It was renamed in 1896 for a local postal official to avoid confusion with a station in Minnesota on the same railroad line that was also named Superior.

I love the little train depot in town, and I had to stop and take a pic of it to go with my collection of train depot pics. I did a little research on the internets to find out the history of the depot, and what I found out is that it’s a new depot. It was built by the historical society as a replica of the old depot. I thought it was a brilliant idea to build an important building from the past like this nice little train depot.

P.S. Sorry my posts got mixed up today and you got a double notification of yesterdays post about the canton school. Sorry for the inconvenience and confusion. Hopefully my posts are back on track now.

If you like my posts I hope you will Subscribe to Lost In Michigan

« Previous Page