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Nice pictures! Morning all

I remember a pair of those snowshoes hanging in our garage--say, I don't know where they went, could they have ended up in that pic?

Some good news for cell phone users in Calumet-Laurium this morning... Over the past month, both local cell phone providers (Alltel and Cellular One) have installed new equipment in town! Last night I had the unique experience of having a conversation from inside Pat's foods in Calumet. The Alltel tower is just south of the new State Police Post on the way toward Hancock, and Cellular One mounted their equipment on the old State Police tower on Calumet Avenue. (I couldn't tell you if they have turned up that transmitter yet.)

Pasty.NET has had broadband Internet HotSpots around town for a couple of years, but many of our activites downtown have been inconvenience by poor cell phone coverage. The commercial providers have finally put Calumet-Laurium on the map! Now if we could just invite them up to Copper Harbor...

Does that mean that I can use my cell phone when I visit the UP? To date it has been dead air time up there.

Charlie,
Thanks for passing on the info about the cell phone upgrade...at last. Checked my phone, 3-4 bars! Great news.
No school at CLK today.It was first reported to be on delay but someone must have gotten a good look outside and changed their mind. Don't know how the bus would have picked up the rural kids in this weather.

It's going to be a White Christmas, no doubt. Painesdale received over two feet of snow this weekend. Some of the drifts were much higher than that! Rule in our house is the first one to leave for work gets the 4 wheel drive. I got to drive it today. Thanks MDOT, the highway was definitely driveable.

It is coming over the scanner that the Laurium Tea Room is completly engulfed in flames. Laurium and Calumet depts are on scene.

So sad about the Tea Room -- definitely a Laurium landmark. Although it's been apartments for some time, it was quite the place to go with my mother when I was a little girl. All the buildings are so close together there, too. Bad fires on horrible winter days...

I feel terrible too. Lake Linden and Hubbell have been paged out now. Sounds very bad.

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS SITE WITH SIMILARITY TO
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WITH RESERVATIONS ABOUT LENGTH. THERE IS A LOT OF ITEMS TO FOR BENEFIT OF ALL. WE COULD DONATE TO THIS SITE FINANCIALY. IT IS UNIQUE TO HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH & HAVE A PLACE TO EXPRESS ONES IDEAS.--JUST DISCUSSING PHOTOS ISNT ENOUGH--?

No bigger news on the scanner. 4 departments working very hard. Praying for everyone's safety.

Hello everyone. I try to visit this site at least 3 times a week. I have noticed in doing this that it seems like there are a ton of fires reported. Is this true? Or does it just seem like there are a lot of fires? I remember a restuarant not too long ago - and a few other places that people mention as landmarks....all burning down. ??

At our Trailer in Bootjack I can use my cellphone if I stand in the middle of the yard and yell. And as an added bonus this year, it pops up as extended roaming for Verizon saving me a few bucks. We don't have a landline since we're only 2 weeks "lucky" each year. It still showed roaming in Lake Linden. Dead in Calumet/Laurium. Roaming in Lac La Belle but a very strong signal. Maybe next year the whole area will be extended roaming with full bars! :)
One can hope.......

Have you tried walking out to the end of a dock on any body of water? Often works well for me. Not a bad place to hang out either!

Anne, There is 5 deptments there, Calumet Village, Calumet Township, Laurium, Lake Linden, and Hubbell. It sounds like it might of calmed down a little now.

It's truly sad to hear of all these buildings being lost (or like the Hut and Country Haus, abandoned)!

Bless all fire fighters!

Is the Library still for sale?

Anne and Keweenawgal, Thanks for keeping all of us posted on the fire -- and other happenings at "home." My husband always tells me "you can take the girl out of the Keweenaw, but you can't take the Keweenaw out of the girl."

Here are a few pics of the fire and the storm aftermath on Hecla Street in Laurium, one of the pics on hecla is looking towards the City Hall, but youn can't see that far because of the smoke....

Where exactly is the tea room located.

I should know and by looking at the pics from Dave, can't really tell.

Is it somewhere near the lumber place?

I should know (I grew up in Ahmeek), but I can't place from memory...

It is on the corner of Osceola and Third Street, just south of the Hospital, across from where Duke had his barber shop.....

Thanks dave,

I was on the wrong end of town.....

I know the general area now...

I come to the UP to get away from my cell phone, and sometimes my computer, and my newspaper, and lots of other things :)

My Verison phone works on the Eagle Harbor Cutoff Road between Hwy. 41 and Eagle Harbor!

Also, does anyone know if Perkins is open on Christmas Eve (afternoon) or Christmas Day?

Dave, Are those pics from today? Looks like the Keweenaw got a good old fashioned blizzard. My Grandparents old bakery was on Hecla street I believe, just down the street from the fire station, right on side of the Bon Ton. That was many years ago though.

Dave, thank you for the pictures of the happenings today. Sadly a fire is bad news... but it was nice to see the snow. Good grief those are huge banks in the middle of the road! I have a little niece, Abby, who emailed me very excitedly that she has a snow day today! She goes to the Calumet elementary school.
We also have snow here in lower Michigan...and I'm goin running in it!

Ron, yes, they were taken about 11 A.M. today. Yep, this is the worst storm I remember in the past few years, it was definitely one of those good ol' fashioned blizzards, and it really is not over yet although the real high winds like we had last nite have sibsided. The skiers and snowmobilers are happy now, and I'm sure Mt Bohemia is ecstatic since they don't have snow making equipment yet.

I can remember driving to work many days with the snow piled into the middle of the road like that. Christmas decorations are the same... I can almost see Ed Jenich's house in the Osceola Street shot.

So glad to hear about the Calumet area now cell-phone accessible. It was so frustrating when traveling North, to have to end conversations just past the airport or begin them in Kearsarge. And with my kids having cell phones, I'll now be able to hear their non-scrambled, static-free voices telling me they need to be picked up or met someplace. Text messaging worked, but that was a bit inconvenient.

So sad about the Laurium tearoom. But it doesn't surprise me, as it looked in dire need of repair, like so many buildings in the Calumet/Laurium area.

Dave: thank you very much for going and getting those photos for us. Very thoughtful of you.

there use to be 2 bakeries in the 300 Block of Hecla Street, Marta's and Hoyem's.

My Grandma lived just around the corner from the Laurium Tea Room. I believe she lived on Calumet St, but lived in Laurium. Remember eating lunch there.

I was wondering if anone has a receipe for making sour heads in a crock. These would be for making stuffed cabbage. I would like to know how much salt to use and how long to keep them in the crock before using them.

At least we don't have to worry about a problem like this , that Norway is having.
Read "Drunken Moose Alert" :o)

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article446908.ece

I remember the Tea Room was named the "Nettie T Cruise"(sp) Tea Room.......it was a very nice place to stop for lunch............the volunteer firefighters do a really good job............especially in this kind of weather.......really Heros!!

Dave,
Again, Thanks for your picture abilities! Story in Gazette.

Julwisc,

I just called Perkins in Houghton. They start turning customers away around 1PM on Christmas Eve and close around 3PM. They are not open Christmas Day.

Ron, you must be a Kentala! What a neat place that was...

I wonder what it must be like to have so much snow and have to walk in it to go to school.

Thank you, k2 in Fowlerville!

Candy, Yes I am a Kentala. Loved going to the bakery with my Dad on Saturday's and helping him with the delieveries to South Range & Painsdale. Nothing like the smell of fresh baked "anything" first thing in the morning!!!

I remember walking to school in Laurium in the 1950's and it looked just like that. Only every other building was a bar and, even in the dead of winter, the bar-room doors were open and you could hear the juke box blaring and smell the cigarette smoke.

The old "Bag Phones" were much bigger but
more powerful. We could use ours almost anywhere
on the Keewenaw.

Yes I agree, I got to the U.P so I don't
have to deal with the phone!
As long as I don't run my car into anybody
I don't need a phone up there.

Just thought you all might be interested in this info. Was watching Fox & Friends on the cable news this early AM and they showed one of the techs there that had a U.P. Shirt on. Was kinda cool to see someone in the studios in NYC wearing that

My bag phone works well up there but near Bucky's it connects to a Canadian cell tower .. so with international roaming a call to Lake Linden once cost me 6 bucks for the 1st minute!Strange that just last Friday the cellcom company hinted that I may need to give up my bag phone because the company wants to discontinue analog bag phone service contracts..So how is the cell service between Amasa and Covington I have never done well there even with a 3 watt bag phone.

Fox and Friends did the show live from Escanaba a few years ago.A local couple had won a breakfast in bed contest.

The phone is something I can live without. I had a cell phone and it never stopped ringing. After a long, peacefully, phone less vacation on Lac La Belle at my grandparents I returned to the city and realized that this phone was like an umbilical cord to people whom I normally avoid. While driving down I96 to an appointment, that phone rang nonstop. To preserve my sanity I did the one thing I knew I would never regret. I hit the window down switch, cradled the phone in my right hand, and while it was ringing pitched it out of the vehicle while doing 80 in the left lane. That was over 10 years ago and I have never missed it. Also to this day my car is a no phone zone.

Thanks for the pictures, Dave of Laurium. How lonely this makes me for my grandma who lived on Lake Linden Ave.!

Hey cell phone thrower: you can have a cell phone for emergency use only. (very cheap contract) Any call then is just cents a minute. And no offense, but you can turn a cell phone off!! (going 80 and throwing things out the window!? You may be why the rest of us need cell phones!)

I have a cell phone but I only use it for emergencies. My family gets upset with me when trying to call it. I keep it off. Less annoying that way.

Maija and Troll, you have the right idea. We do not need to be slaves to our phones, cell or otherwise. Turn the cell phone off. You can also turn off or down the ring on a land line. On the same line, you do not need to turn on the TV or radio if you don't want to. Just because you have the technology doesn't mean you have to use it.

Don’t really know, maybe I am the reason you need a phone! Though I cannot think of why? I keep to myself. Or perhaps I turned the phone off my own way. I don’t seem to remember any emergency that I could not handle without a phone. There should be a saying like “let he that lives without fear throw the first phone” or “if thy phone annoys thee chuck it out” The pure satisfaction I got watching that sucker bounced off the concrete into that retaining wall and exploding into a hundred pieces still sends me up with a happy warm feeling. As for going 80, well dad always said, “drive fast and take a lot of chances”. What works for me might not work for you. I like to go fast, so I will! Right out there on the edge I am alive. You know that fool on the other side of the brick plinths on Brockway, it’s me!