Let me preface today’s notes with this statement: The upper portion of Houghton Douglass Falls is NOT open to the public as of yet. The State has purchased the property and plans to open it to the public, but are still working on making that upper portion safe for visitors. The falls is 110 feet high and the walls are crumbling and steep. There have been a number of accidents that took place there years back, including some fatal ones, so please do not visit the falls around the upper portion until it is officially open to the public.

With that being said, Judy Byykkonen followed Hammell Creek from Lake Linden, to get to the base of the falls. She said it was quite treacherous, with a number of downfalls and blockages due to the Father’s Day flooding in June 2018, but she and her dogs were determined to make it there and finally did. That’s quite the view looking up from the creek bed there and then Judy zoomed in on the top for a look, too.

The bonus is a short video Judy also made that day. Make sure your speakers are on, the sound of the falls is soothing and beautiful, all in one.

A very long time ago the mine adit opening at the base was open but the trail to it was just a very narrow ledge on the side of the gorge. I doubt the state will leave it open to the public but then again maybe they will make it safe to enter again.
Not very deep but I am sure there are some initials left at the far end of it from former students of MTU and maybe even MCM. Who knows.

"Houghton Douglass Falls":

Hurrah, there still are a few folks around Pastyland that know the real, true name of the falls, named not for Douglass Houghton but for Douglass Houghton and the apparently little known C. C. Douglass, an early mining and civic leader.

(The name similarity, though confusing to many, is purely coincidental.)

Wow, Judy Byykkonen, not only a skilled and prolific photographer, but an intrepid explorer as well!

Judy: Be careful out there! (Of course I know you are!)

We made so many trips up there as kids. We'd
pack our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and
some chips. We had so much fun. And believe
it or not, we were very careful and not stupid.
Those falls were treacherous and, even as kids,
we knew that it was dangerous. But how we
loved listening to the water falling.

Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

---Cardinal Newman

Wow! Awesome stuff!! Decades ago, a pack of us kids
left our bikes at the top and got back down to
Hamel creek....and walked up and got to the falls
and crawled up and back to our bikes and down the
hill we went. That's an adventure indeed! I cannot
imagine what that's like after the flood. Yikes!
Glorious photos and Video....WTG Judy!