Upper Peninsula

Lakes freighter Herbert C. Jackson at Sault Ste. Marie; June of 2005. There's often someone maintaining or repairing the self-unloading boom as ships pass through the locks.

Champion Mine, Painesdale, Michigan, 1990. The structure's in better repair , now.

Stern details of lakes freighter Herbert C. Jackson, at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; June of 2005.

With flag. Herbert C. Jackson at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; June of 2005.

Nana G2006 says it's a Bunchberry , which looks right. Thanks! Shot along the Sand Dunes Trail (actually an XC ski area, with a half-dozen or so overlapping trails), near Brevort, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We walk these delightful trails every couple years, usually in mid-June. This time, though, we took out several ticks, which was perhaps not what we bargained for. No harm done, but seriously annoying.

Sand Dunes (XC) Ski Trail , near Brevort, Michigan. Explored! (#329 on Wednesday, January 9, 2008.) Thanks! (No longer in the top 500.)

Champion Mine, Painesdale, Michigan; scanned from a slide taken in September of 1990.

The falls--both upper and lower--were really quite spectacular today. This color is really quite close to accurate. Upper Falls of the Tahquamenon River, Paradise, Michigan.

As the photo came out of the camera....

Our plan for the afternoon was a hike out past Clark Lake at Tahquamenon Falls State Park, but the skeeters put paid to that notion. So we made our way to the Point, and found (as you can see) fog. We walked the beach a bit. To our surprise and delight, the foghorn was sounding. As was a passing ship, invisible through the haze.

Tahquamenon River, Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

St. Ignace (Michigan) Car Show, 2005. I've been digging through some old pix. More will likely show up.

Think I took this in August of 1990, likely with my Chinon Genesis III. Never really liked that camera, but it took some good photographs for me. All that gear in the background is the Escanaba ore dock's shiploader. In the distance, you can sort of see Lake Michigan.

At the Seney Wildlife Refuge in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Taken at Twin Lakes State Park on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula some years back.

Shaft 4's rockhouse in the foreground, with the machine shop back behind. An abandoned (since 1967) underground copper operation at Painesdale, Michigan, later the local waterworks. Quite well preserved, considering, but in constant danger of deterioration. Anyone know whether they're still trying to turn the site into a museum? The PM&S website doesn't exactly look dead, but there's been no recent maintenance.

I tend to vacation in mining areas.... Cliffs Shaft Mine, in Ishpeming, was perhaps the most important of all Michigan iron mines. There were a few mines which shipped more ore, but this was the first great Marquette Range mine, and it was an important producer for decades. Now a museum, and definitely worth the stop. Our guide was a retired Cleveland Cliffs engineer, and most informative. To me, the most interesting thing he said was that he doesn't believe the Negaunee/Ishpeming mines will ever reopen, despite significant remaining deep-underground deposits, because the economics seem unlikely ever to justify the effort. I've heard other opinions from apparently-knowledgable people, but this guy seemed to have impeccable credentials.

This pretty bridge is between Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula (the long finger of land that sticks far into Lake Superior; Copper Harbor's pretty much the last thing, going north). This is the upstream side of the bridge. On the downstream side is the waterfall , which is quite delightful.