• Sunday-What'sUP January 29 - 08:25 pm

The boys are slightly outnumbered in this old photo-postcard from the mining days of the Copper Country. Back then a family of 10 wasn't unusual at all. Tucked away in a corner of Copper Country Reflections, it is estimated to be about 1915, and identified as a "Scandinavian" family. What do you want to bet that means Finn?

The slope of the hill, the house and the trees remind me of the scene over at Central, which is just east of where I am typing these words. Next time you're in the Copper Country, stop in the Visitor Center at Central, where you'll see many more wonderful pictures of those mining days, and the people who made it happen (with thanks to the hard-working volunteers of the Keweenaw County Historical Society).

Over this weekend in Eagle River we have received about as much snow as we have all winter - although I can still see the grass poking through out in the yard, looking down across the dunes to my favorite Lake. We probably don't have enough to do any sledding, a rare condition this time of the year in the Keweenaw.

For another Shoebox Memory our thanks as always to Chuck Voelker for his virtual museum of the mining days, which we are proud to host here at Pasty Central.

Have a good week :o)

Snow report from Ontonagon: We got 8-10" of beautiful fluff since Saturday morning. It's snowing lightly now with possibly 1-3 inches more during the day today. There is no wind and the temperature is 2 above. Can't ask for better weather than that in January. By the way, I live 6 miles outside of Ontonagon and I usually have temperatures about 10 degrees colder than in town. The Porkies opened last weekend. My son who was there yesterday said it was very busy with lines at the chair lift.

Good morning! What a great shoebox photo! Gee, by the hats on the boys, I'd say either Finn or Swede. Either they have on lots of long underwear or it was relatively warm out; as most of them aren't wearing coats. Thanks so much for sharing!

My gosh they look cold, don't they? I hope they have plenty on underneath their clothes.

Where are their gloves? Doesn't this picture make you appreciate the way you live compared to the way they lived?

I agree with Gonna be a Yooper. We have so much more now than what people had back then. We need to stop and be be thankful.

It makes me cold to look at them without coats and gloves or mittens on, but then my hands are always cold! I wear gloves with my spring jacket!

Vicky, I wear mittens instead of gloves. They keep my hands much warmer. And I always wear thinsulate. I wear them in the spring too. When your hands or feet are cold, everything's cold.

My guess is a house in Delaware.My wife's grandmother was born there.It is supposed to be one of the houses that are still standing but no idea which one.

Yep Deb, gotta have the mittens, they keep your hands much warmer than gloves.

Deb S., I wear mittens all the time and I mean all the time. They go everywhere with me. When I pack for a trip north in the summer my earmuffs and mittens are in with the shorts. My friend Arthur makes this a must all year around.

I'm thinking if the boy was using those skiis he'd enough warmth to share with the whole family, they look to be 4 to 5 inches wide and about 7 feet long?

Awesome Pic!!! Old fashioned, wholesome, copper country fun!! Can we ever see life so simple again?
Thanks for the memories

Deb S, thanks for the tip. I tried mittens years ago but had a hard time driving with them. Maybe I should give them another try.

Charlotte, My mittens and earmuffs are ALWAYS in my car too. Don't care if it's winter or summer. When you go to the UP and stand on the beaches of Lake Superior, there are summer days when mittens and earmuffs feel darn good.

The mittens now are made for driving. I don't leave home without them. Gloves make my fingers cold and I don't like that. Mittens give your fingers room to move and be next to each other for warmth. It's the only way to go. I don't care how uncool it looks.

Great picture again today..Shows the real tough life that our forefathers had in the Copper Country..In contrast I just added a name to my email list and noticed that 14,000,000 instant messages were sent on AOL in the last hour...WOW, WOW I say, who would ever have thunk it!!!!!

My dad received a pair of homemade skis like that for Christmas
one year. His family was small--only five kids, my mom's had nine.

Gee.....when I saw the Scandinavian Family ..... I thought Swede's........my daddy!!!!!! Then I read 10 kids wasn't unusual at that time and fainted........God Bless those mom's


The sun is shinning so nice today it reminds me of the sunday school song......Son shine son shine in my heart today......son shine son shine all along the way.....since my saviour found me and cleansed my heart from sin ......and that's all I can remember....sigh....soooooo many years ago....

Isn't the snow beautiful.....(I hate to admit that!!!) Gods Blessing on all of you.....xoxoxo

It might have been simple, but not necessarily easy, no?

Danbury, nothing was simple back then. Why do people use the term "simple", simple means roughin' it!

Like the picture today. It would be nice if we knew who they were. Some years before my Mom died she told me to be sure to write names etc on the back of my pictures. She said she noticed she was forgetting who some of the people were and so she started writing down the ones she remembered. Oh Deb, Mittens are the best.My fingers freeze in gloves. Fran

HI, This postcard was one of my favorites and I included it in my book COPPER COUNTRY POSTCARDS that the Keweenaw County Historical Society has for sale. The family is a Finnish family and was identified in full in the Finnish Reporter last year. If you contact the editor there, he can give you the names of the family.
We are having lovely snow down state too. Just love it. Nancy

Speaking of large families...
My mom had only 3 brothers and two sisters, while my dad had nine brothers - and each one of them had a sister (as he used to say)!

FRNash, think your Dad's family size beat my Mom's. There were 8 girls and 10 boys of German Irish heritage, raised in troll land.

In reference to the large families....remember, the winter nights are long, dark and cold, with not much entertainment.....

Kathy P. (Katiaire):
"... think your Dad's family size beat my Mom's ..."

No, not really, Kathy ...
[Oops, minor correction: "my dad had nine brothers" should have said "... there were nine brothers in my dad's family..." (nine male siblings in all, including dad) "... and each one of them had a sister."]

Of course they all shared one sister - but each one of 'em did "have a sister"!

He sure used to like foolin' people with that tale!
Don't feel alone though, t'was surprising how many folks took the bait!

http://www.mfhn.com/keweenaw/ anyone interested in looking for family history in the Keewanaw should visit this site, any other county put your county in the search box and add migenweb (for Michigan counties)

To follow up E. Neil Harri's note above, he drove up through Delaware today and took the following photo. It has my vote!

By the way, Nancy Sanderson's fascinating book "Copper Country Postcards" is available with free shipping when ordered with pasties this month.

When I lived in Hubbell I had a pair of skis like that, they were almost 9 ft. long. Only had a leather strap to hold the feet in. I made some 'helpers' or binders out of car inner tubes. They were about 1 1/2" wide and you put 'em on your foot before the foot went into the strap. Then the inner tube strap went from behind your heel to over your toe and held the shoe into the strap, so you wouldn't lose your ski if your foot slipped out. I'd ski down the old 'poor rock' piles on an angle. Made for a longer ride that way. Worked well on the old RR grades, too.

I got my beginning ski legs on skis just like those too, going down the poor-rock piles, when I was a youngster. Made a strong sense for the dynamics of skiing.

My mom's family was large and by your reckoning she had 10 sisters and each of them had two brothers, my mom being the last. Aunts and uncles everywhere you looked. I've got cousins older than my mom.
On the skiis, I had a handmade pair 4 inches by close to 10 feet that I tried skiing from Big Bay to Houghton one winter in the late 60's. They only had the leather strap on them, too. I finally gave it up in a bar on the Skanee road overlooking the lake where a storm was kicking up. Try hitching a ride with 10 foot boards and long poles in your hands. A logging truck and another logger in a pickup later got me to Lanse and Chassell. Ahh, youth and our follies then.

The houses look similar, but the chimneys are not in the same places. I can't imagine that folks had money to move such things around.

We had skiis like that when I was a kid too. They had leather straps on them and they were very skinny and long. We had sleds like that one as well and lots of good hills for sleigh-riding (as we used to call it). I think folks in troll land call it sledding.

Good eye, Gone2long,regarding the chimneys. Other than that, the houses are certainly similar. It probably would have been expensive to move the chimneys. But we heard a funny story about my husband's Finnish grandmother, in Keweenaw Bay, who wanted her husband to move the front door of their farmhouse every time she rearranged the furniture. Lucky thing he was a good carpenter. The neighbors said they never knew where the Anttilas' front door was going to be when they came to visit.

Glad to see that the family is Finn. That was my guess because the faces look more like my Finn cousins than like my Swede cousins.

I've always said that if I had lived 150 years ago, I'd have 8 kids and 8 teeth. (in praise of modern birth control and dentistry) After I visited the iron museum in Negaunee, I added that I'd also be washing miner's undies in my boarding house.