{"id":2197,"date":"2021-05-30T19:13:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-30T19:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2021-06-09T20:53:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T20:53:19","slug":"ftv-weird-wonderful-obscure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2197","title":{"rendered":"FTV:\u00a0 Weird, Wonderful, & Obscure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those who know me best find the easiest gift giving solution to send my way for birthdays or Christmas are books, music, or more books.\u00a0 While sorting through last year\u2019s stash of new reading material, I happened upon a 2019 book by Kath Usitalo:\u00a0 <\/span>Secret Upper Peninsula – A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure <\/span><\/i>(Reedy Press).\u00a0 In her early life, she hailed from Detroit but Usitalo now resides in the eastern U.P. hamlet of Naubinway.\u00a0 The backpage bio says, \u201cShe explores, writes about, and photographs the Great Lakes State for print, online publications, and her own e-zine, <\/span>GreatLakesGazette.com.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>She has previously released two other Reedy Press books entitled <\/span>100 Things to Do. . . Before You Die, <\/span><\/i>one deadicated to . . . <\/span>in the Upper Peninsula<\/span><\/i> as a whole, and the other exclusively about . . . <\/span>on Mackinac Island<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I paged through <\/span>Secret U.P.<\/span><\/i> it dawned on me that I have been to a lot of the places she writes about.\u00a0 As the old song says, <\/span>I\u2019ve been everywhere man, I\u2019ve been everywhere, <\/span><\/i>so I decided to see how my U.P. travels stack up when compared to Usitalo\u2019s book.\u00a0 Perhaps I could make a CD mix for exploring and include Bob Seger\u2019s <\/span>Ramblin\u2019 Gamblin\u2019 Man<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 On the other hand,\u00a0 the Allman\u2019s <\/span>Ramblin\u2019 Man<\/span><\/i> would also fit the bill here as I haven\u2019t really been \u2018<\/span>everywhere\u2019<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0 I have been to enough places mentioned in <\/span>Secret U.P.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 to keep the traveling tales to brief so they all fit.\u00a0 I won\u2019t get into the places I haven\u2019t been or have just driven by in the past (with minor exceptions), so please bear with me as I ramble through Usitalo\u2019s latest book from front to back – I will identify the sections by the chapter number and name of the location or attraction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 1 – Fort Wilkins near Copper Harbor.\u00a0 This is a place I know well as Bruce Johanson and I hauled bus loads of seventh graders there as part of our annual junior high field trips.\u00a0 Each and every time I visit the fort, I learn something new.\u00a0 Now that I am retired, I still go there.\u00a0 My wife and I also made it a point to arrange a yearly trip as her brother Matt was a big history buff.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 3 – Alberta.\u00a0 Growing up in Marquette, I drove past this quaint little \u2018model town\u2019 (established by Henry Ford on US 41 south of L\u2019Anse) a zillion times between 1958 and 2016.\u00a0 I finally got a chance to tour the sawmill and gift shop in the spring of 2017 as part of\u00a0 tree farm group meeting sponsored by Green Timber Forestry (see FTV:\u00a0 Timber! 10-11-17).\u00a0 The informative display in the gift shop about birdseye maple and the sawmill tour offered make this a bucket list item for anyone who has only driven by it in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 4 – The Paulding Light – I took my first trip there in the daylight on another Johanson\/Raisanen field trip.\u00a0 We took our charges to visit Jerry Koski and his Forest Service crew as they restored survey corner posts in the Paulding area.\u00a0 We decided that as long as were were in the neighborhood we had to show the kids the Paulding Light viewing area.\u00a0 Soon after, my kids and I took a night trip to see the fabled ghost lights and to hear every spooky story Bruce could regale us with.\u00a0 Some years later, daughter Elizabeth and her friend Michelle launched a full blown, data gathering, report writing expedition about the light and yours truly was drawn into the study.\u00a0 The results of their little paranormal research trip remain unpublished so Paulding\u2019s mystery can remain a popular tourist drawing mystery.\u00a0 Let us leave it at that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 5 – Lake of the Clouds – I remember visiting this with my family when I was young.\u00a0 The next time I saw it was on a camping trip with some Marquette pals two months before being summoned to Ontonagon for a job interview.\u00a0 I have seen the view from both ends of beautiful Carp Lake (I mean, Lake of the Clouds) as the old mine and stamp mill site on the east end were also great field trip stops.\u00a0 I visited once on an early winter evening by snowmobile (several years before the path there became a groomed trail).\u00a0 It is hard to imagine traveling the whole distance and back without seeing another snowmobile these days, but that is how it was in 1976.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 6 – Point Abbaye – now this is a little trickier because I haven\u2019t driven past Point Abbaye or even driven the road to the end of the peninsula.\u00a0 I have seen it from the waters of Huron Bay, flown over it,\u00a0 and driven across the peninsula\u2019s base traveling between our camp and Pequaming.\u00a0 The name comes from the French phrase that identifies it as a \u2018point between two bays\u2019, so forget any romantic ideas about some belle named \u2018Abbaye\u2019 being responsible for the name.\u00a0 The facilities there have been recently upgraded for those who venture to the tip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 8 – The Italian Hall Arch – in Calumet.\u00a0 I have seen it and still marvel at this horrific tradgedy.\u00a0 Hearing Arlo Guthrie sing his dad\u2019s song about the event at the Calumet Theater was an honor my wife and I got to be part of twice.\u00a0 The first time, Arlo intrupted himself part way through and noted, \u201cI messed up.\u00a0 I told the guys we should have practiced this more.\u00a0 We can\u2019t play in Calumet without playing <\/span>1913 Massacre<\/span><\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 They restarted the song and played it with no further hitches.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 9 – Mount Arvon – This one is another tricky entry involving Bruce Johanson.\u00a0 Soon after it was named the highest peak in Michigan (a new elevation survey stripped the title from nearby Mt. Curwood in 1982), we mounted a small expedition to climb it with a few students.\u00a0 My experiences hunting and snowmobiling there made me the ideal guide (almost). \u00a0 After climbing to the top on a hot and humid June day, we took a good look at the map.\u00a0 I discovered what I had called Mount Arvon all my life was the firetower hill between Curwood and Arvon.\u00a0 Bruce has pictures to prove he has now been at the top of the \u2018real\u2019 Mount Arvon (it only took him 30 years) and I will get there one of these days:\u00a0 there are nice blue signs pointing the way now!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 10 – Copper Peak ski flying hill – A breathtaking view awaits at the top.\u00a0 I also discovered one should not discuss the dynamics of having a ski lift cable break while riding to the top of the hill with one\u2019s spouse.\u00a0 If it is windy, the tower also sways a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 15 – Big Louie Moilanen – On one of our seventh grade field trips through the Copper Country, we made it a point to stop at the Houghton County Historical Museum where they have a nice display about the 8 foot 3 inch, 560 pound giant of a man.\u00a0 I will now make it a point to find the marker erected in his honor near Hancock\u2019s Finnish American Center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 17 – Douglas Houghton Memorial in Eagle River – if you are thinking this sounds like another likely field trip stop, you are correct.\u00a0 We would annually gather at the base of this large stone monument and have a student read the story on the marker plate.\u00a0 A nimble student would climb to the bend between the base and upper section of the monumennt so Bruce J could have them point to the spot where Houghton lost his battle with the lake.\u00a0 The marker mentions that his dog was able to make it back to shore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 23 – Jacobsville Sandstone – This is a subject we frequently discussed in my class – I always enjoyed explaining how this rock formation came to be.\u00a0 Many do not realize Jacobsville Sandstone was used for many buildings still in use today.\u00a0 It was fascinating to hear the late Vera Laakko of Mass City talk about her early life in the community of Jacobsville.\u00a0 I am surprised the book didn\u2019t mention the Arvon Slate Quarry on the opposite shore near the head of Huron Bay.\u00a0 Many of the buildings made from Jacobsville Sandstone were also roofed with Arvon Quarry slate.\u00a0 The sandstone formation itself dips under the Great Lakes and should one want to see where the southern part resurfaces, one will have to travel to Kentucky.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 24 – The 1978-79 snowfall record marker on US 41 – one can not miss this when passing it on the way into Keweenaw County.\u00a0 I have sent postcards of this monument to others and shown the marker to many students on trips.\u00a0 It also reminds me of the vast amounts of snow I shoveled at my soon-to-be mother in law\u2019s house in Mass City.\u00a0 The record was set the winter before we married.\u00a0 It even impressed my wife\u2019s uncle from Finland and if a tourist marker like this can get a reaction from an engineer of Finnish extraction, then count it as a winner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 25 – Nee-Gaw-Nee-Gaw-Bow – If the name doesn\u2019t ring a bell, this is the name of the giant carving located on the shores of Sunday Lake in Wakefield.\u00a0 Artist Peter Wolf Toth set off to put one of his <\/span>Trail of Whispering Giants<\/span><\/i> carvings in all fifty states and we are lucky enough to have one of them in our neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 28 – Quincy Mine – Once upon a time, we took the seventh graders to the first version of the Adventure Mine tour in Greenland.\u00a0 When the Adventure was between owners, we began testing other mine tours.\u00a0 The Hoist House next to the iconic Quincy Shaft house is truly impressive and worth a stop.\u00a0 Usitalo doesn\u2019t make mention of the Delaware Mine a little farther up the road, but that was another one of our must stop destinations for a period of years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 29 – The Bishop Barage Shrine – also known as the Shrine of the Snowshoe Priest.\u00a0 I distinctly remember when this was being assembled as support cribbing inside part of the statue burned and it made big news.\u00a0 It was dedicated in 1973 but it took me twenty years before we took the time to drive off US 41 and take a peek.\u00a0 If there is a better memorial to pioneering missionaries, I would like to see it.\u00a0 For some reason, Usitalo places the statue \u2018near Assinins\u2019 but it is really located between Baraga and L\u2019Anse, on a bluff of Jacobsville Sandstone overlooking the head of Keweenaw Bay.\u00a0 Assinins is located off US 41 north of Baraga.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 30 – The A.E.Seaman Mineralogical Museum –\u00a0 The new museum was opened just off Sharon Avenue in Houghton in 2010.\u00a0 It sits atop two shafts of the Mabbs Vein, a mine started by two brothers in 1864.\u00a0 I have yet to visit this location.\u00a0 The original Seaman Museum was located on the seventh floor of a building located on the part of the Michigan Tech campus located closer to the Portage Canal.\u00a0 We always made this our first stop on our trans-Keweenaw field trips.\u00a0 We warned our students we would be spending a full hour there so don\u2019t act bored (they never did because the place is fascinating).\u00a0 We would give the field trippers a scavenger hunt and send\u00a0 them into every section searching for displays featuring specimens from Ontonagon County.\u00a0 Bruce and I laughed at how quickly some of the \u2018whiners\u2019 gave up searching but the local history geeks loved finding items from our area.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The most memorable stop there was in 1987 when the original Ontonagon Boulder was displayed there.\u00a0 It had already been brought to Ontonagon and seen by everyone who attended the annual Labor Day Festival parade.\u00a0 The famous Boulder was displayed on the back of a high bed truck replete with armed guards, but seeing it up close and personal at the Seaman Museum was different.\u00a0 Yes, there were the usual rope-like barriers surrounding the iconic chunk of copper, but to be close enough to touch it was something else (and yes, I will confess to having touched it\u00a0 when no one was looking).\u00a0 When one can again stop at the Ontonagon County Historical Society Museum in Ontonagon, there is an exact replica of the boulder on display there.\u00a0 Word has it that some years ago when Johanson was the president of the local society, he received a letter from the Smithsonian asking for the OCHS museum to surrender the replica.\u00a0 I am not sure what the reason was, but I applaud Bruce for his tactful reply:\u00a0 \u201cSure.\u00a0 You send the original back and we will send you the replica.\u201d\u00a0 As of this writing, neither side has budged.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One last note about the old Seaman Museum.\u00a0 If you encounter Fred Rydholm\u2019s excellent book <\/span>Michigan Copper – The Untold Story<\/span><\/i>, flip it open to page thirty.\u00a0 On one of our field trips, I had Bruce snap a picture of me near a 500 pound slab of float copper in the courtyard near the building.\u00a0 It was included with a group of photos I had sent to Fred with an open offer to use them as he saw fit.\u00a0 It is a younger, thinner me, but it is also one of my favorite memories of visiting the Seaman Museum on our yearly round of touring the Keweenaw with the seventh graders.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I find myself thirty entries short of my goal so the rest of my personal <\/span>Secret Upper Peninsula <\/span><\/i>tour will be concluded in Part 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 At little travelin’ music!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those who know me best find the easiest gift giving solution to send my way for birthdays or Christmas are books, music, or more books.\u00a0 While sorting through last year\u2019s stash of new reading material, I happened upon a 2019 book by Kath Usitalo:\u00a0 Secret Upper Peninsula – A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions\/2216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}