Sunday Reflections - Flag Day

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections - Flag Day

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Memorial Day

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Family Fun - Part 3

Monday, August 12th, seemed to arrive quickly. Steve needed to spend part of the day on the property, but we had some time to kill in the afternoon and early evening while waiting for Carrie to get here. We picked more thimbleberries and headed back to Ten Foot Falls.

Grace loves it there, and she discovered a nice place to sit.

Carrie arrived (safe and sound), so we headed out to Calumet Waterworks Park before sunset. Carrie loves collecting rocks for the landscaping around her house, so we gave her a bag to take along to the beach. She picked up so many rocks that the bag ripped. Here she is walking with her dad.

After watching the Keweenaw sunset. . .

we went back to Calumet for some sleep. This was Carrie's first trip to the Keweenaw, and we had just 2 more days to give her the grand tour.

OK, next day - time for the tour to begin! We obviously couldn't pass by the Keweenaw Snow Gauge (a.k.a Snow Thermometer) without stopping for a photo or two.

This helps to put our snowfall amounts into perspective.

Ten Foot Falls was next on the agenda, and we snapped some great photos there. Love this mother-daughter shot.

Steve and I really enjoyed listening to Grace as she told her mom all about the Keweenaw. She even convinced Carrie to walk across some of the rocks at Ten Foot Falls. Our next stop was the falls just down the road in Eagle River - a bit skimpy at this time of year.

We picked up a few baked goods at The Jampot and headed to Copper Harbor. Our main goal for the day was to take the Copper Harbor Lighthouse Tour, but we had time to do some shopping and to stop at Fort Wilkins.

We were really excited to take the tour of the lighthouse next. It's something Steve and I had wanted to do for years, but the timing never worked out for us. Well, now was the time. The weather was great for a boat ride, and we were able to take the tour while building special memories with Carrie and Grace. I'll tell you all about it in Part 4.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

P.S.  I updated the construction photo log again last night.

More Fort Wilkins

We spent part of our 2012 Memorial Day weekend at Fort Wilkins in Copper Harbor, and I wrote 2 blog posts about our experience. I recently noticed 3 short videos about Fort Wilkins on the website for the Fort Wilkins Natural History Association, and I thought I would share them with you.

If you wish to first refresh your memory as to what I wrote about our visit to Fort Wilkins last year, scroll down the left column of this page, look for "Blog Archive," and click on "2012." Scroll down again, and click on "June." Scroll down again, and click on "Fort Wilkins - Part 1" and "Fort Wilkins - Part 2."

To watch the 3 short videos, click on the links below.

Fort Wilkins - Part I video

Fort Wilkins - Part II video

Fort Wilkins - Part III video

We won't be touring Fort Wilkins this weekend. Steve is finishing up some things on the property today in preparation for the excavator to return on Tuesday.

Let's not forget the meaning behind Memorial Day. For a brief history, click on the following link:

Memorial Day History

Break out your BBQ grills, and have a wonderful weekend!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Fort Wilkins - Part 2

If you haven't already read yesterday's post, please stop and do so before continuing.  This post is a continuation of that one. 

Everybody ready?  OK, we'll continue our tour of Fort Wilkins Historic State Park in Copper Harbor.

Ammunition for the fort had to be stored as safely as possible, so a Powder Magazine was a necessary structure.

It's a neat little building, isn't it?

Now a photo of the interior.

The Guardhouse was next.  This is located near the original entrance to the fort.  You can see the Guardhouse in the photo below on the left of the Powder Magazine.

This photo shows the interior of one of the cells in the Guardhouse.

Here's one of the original cell doors.

Here are some interior shots of the Officer's Quarters.  Plexiglas has been installed across the open doorways prohibiting entrance into the rooms, so reflections made photography a bit difficult.

The privies for the officers and their families were located in back of their quarters.  Chamber pots were obviously quite handy after dark!  Thank you, Lord, for indoor plumbing.

The Post Hospital was next on our tour.  This building has been restored to its 1870 appearance.  First, two photos of the doctor's office.

Secondly, the hospital ward located in the same building.

Now on to the Barracks.

Back before electricity and refrigerators, the Icehouse was needed.  The red arrow in the photo below shows the poor condition of the Icehouse in 1889.

Here's the exterior today.

The sutler maintained a store at the fort to sell provisions to the soldiers.

The exterior of the store is shown next.

Now, some interior shots panning from right to left.

What could your money buy?

Here's a nice diorama of Fort Wilkins.  The Married Enlisted Men's Quarters (first on our tour) are at the bottom right.

We were nearing the end of a beautiful day.  As we drove away from Fort Wilkins, we stopped briefly along the road to snap a photo of the Copper Harbor Lighthouse through a break in the trees.

We drove into the little village of Copper Harbor and turned left at the blinking light in the middle of town.  By the way, that blinking light is the only traffic light in all of Keweenaw County!  We meandered down the section of Hwy. 41 known as the covered road.

A pretty drive any time of year.  We made our way back down to Kearsarge and stopped for dinner.  Can you guess where?

A full parking lot is always a good sign.  We were in the mood for a good burger at The Hut, as it sounded like a nice American thing to eat on Memorial Day weekend.  DELICIOUS!  We really love it up here. 

If you would like to read a bit more about Fort Wilkins, click on the green links below:

Living History at Fort Wilkins State Park

Fort Wilkins Historic State Park - Wikipedia

These are the same links that were included in yesterday's post.

Until next time. . . All is well in the Keweenaw.

Fort Wilkins - Part 1

We couldn't think of a better way to spend our first Memorial Day weekend in the Keweenaw than by touring Fort Wilkins in Copper Harbor.  We also wanted to try out our Michigan Recreation Passport, which has replaced the old state park window stickers.  The Recreation Passport is really just a tiny "P" on our license plate tab, but that "P" gets us into our state parks without paying admission.  We considered that a bargain for just $10 per year.  I have a feeling the park workers aren't thrilled about bending down to look for the little "P" on the license plate tabs.  It must have been much easier to look for a window sticker.

Anyway, back to Memorial Day weekend.  We hit a few rummage sales on the way out of Calumet, but we didn't find anything we couldn't live without.  We headed to Eagle River to check out an estate sale, but we struck out there, too.  That wasn't the focus of our day anyway, so we headed back up scenic Hwy. 26.

We stopped at The Jampot again.  They promised to have a batch of Steve's favorite muffins ready that day, and they didn't disappoint.  Since we had a thermos of our special Hamilton's House Blend coffee with us, we had to pause at Great Sand Bay for a quick snack of coffee and muffins. 

Did you catch the Lake Freighter in that last photo?  You can probably see it better in the next one.

We headed to Eagle Harbor next, and we finally stopped at the gift shop there that we've been talking about stopping at for a few years.  We didn't buy anything, but we enjoyed our talk with the owner.  We started back up the road toward Copper Harbor; however, it was such a beautiful day that we had to stop at Esrey Park. 

There's that Lake Freighter again.

We haven't climbed the rock stairs at Esrey Park for quite a while, so we took the time to do that.

Here are some views of the coastline from on top of the rocks.

Here's our Traverse from that same vantage point.

Take a look at the next photo.  Someone should really tell them their roots are showing.

OK, on to Copper Harbor.  Fort Wilkins Historic State Park is located on a narrow strip of land nestled between the waters of Lake Superior's Copper Harbor and Lake Fanny Hooe.  The park includes two campgrounds, but we were interested in touring the old fort.

Fort Wilkins was built in 1844 and was occupied by the U.S. Army until 1846.  It was reoccupied briefly (after the Civil War) from 1867-1870 before falling into a state of disrepair. 

People started using the abandoned Fort Wilkins as a destination for weekend outings especially after the invention of the automobile.  We have the Great Depression and the WPA to thank for the restoration of the fort in the 1930's.  Remember, the Works Progress Administration provided jobs and income to the unemployed during those troubled years. 

Fort Wilkins is now beautiful and serene.  We understand that costumed historical interpreters are positioned throughout the fort during the summer months.  I believe they are students from Northern Michigan University in Marquette.  They portray characters who lived in this army community during the final summer of 1870.  It will be interesting to see them when we return to the fort in the upcoming months.  If these actors are anything like those I've seen at other historical sites, they will converse with us, but they will not break character.

After walking past the park store, we first came upon this sign showing us a map of the fort. 

We headed past the log buildings that were the Married Enlisted Men's Quarters.  These buildings were positioned just outside the walls of the fort.  They were not yet open for the season, but the exterior views were impressive.

Just after passing through the fort's walls, we came upon The Bake House on the left.  This was an important building, because bread was an important part of the soldier's diet.

Here's the sign describing the bakery.

Here are some shots of the interior.

The Blacksmith Shop was next. 

As you can see, Steve was very interested in this building.  He loves looking at old tools (and new tools).  Here's a sign posted in that area.

Two shots of the interior for you.

We walked a little further and came to the kitchen.

We are truly spoiled when it comes to work surfaces and counter space in our modern kitchens.  They had very little back then.

The Mess Hall where the soldiers ate is in the back half of the kitchen building.

We then headed across the Parade Grounds, and I talked Steve into posing with the cannon and flag.

The flag pole is located very close to the shore of Lake Fanny Hooe.  Isn't this a pretty view?

Here's Steve again.  You can see the base of the flag pole on the left.

I stood with my back to Lake Fanny Hooe and took three photos from my right to my left.  The grassy area in the center is the Parade Grounds.

We walked on the covered porches of the buildings at the left in the last photo.  If we were tired, there would have been plenty of places to sit.

We went around the side of those buildings and made our way toward Fanny Hooe Creek.  We came upon the following sign.

This was the site of the Storehouse.

Check out this photo from 1912.  The woman is on the base of the flag pole.  The steps are no longer there.

We'll end here for the day, as this post is getting to be rather large.  We'll continue the tour with you in Part 2 tomorrow.

If you would like to read a bit more about Fort Wilkins, click on the green links below:

Living History at Fort Wilkins State Park

Fort Wilkins Historic State Park - Wikipedia

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Another Reminder:  Click on any photo to see larger versions.