I always love when Michelle Lutke shares photos, as she always includes information about the place she has photographed, most of which I’ve never seen in person, so it’s always very helpful to have the info she posts. Today we’re visiting the Rock Cut in the Huron Mountains with Michelle. The following comes directly from her: “This is one of the most fascinating and impressive things I have seen in Michigan. It was originally constructed in the 1890s to haul iron ore by train from Champion to an ore dock in Skanee. Investors spent approximately 2 million dollars, employing 1500 men to help build the railroad and ore dock. Unfortunately by the time construction was done, the mine stopped producing ore, rendering the railroad useless. It was never used. The railroad was sold shortly after this for only about $100,000. The tracks were removed from it and used downstate.
There are a few different ways you can drive to the Rock Cut. We took the Huron Bay Peshekee Grade Road from US-41 all the way there. The road started out fine, but quickly became extremely rough with potholes. Once those subside, you are on a dirt road that eventually gets rocky with occasional water to drive through. I would definitely recommend a high clearance vehicle or side by side (snowmobile in the winter) if you try to go here. Our experience was absolutely perfect, we even had the place to ourselves to explore the whole time we were there.
If you're planning to visit an area like this, always be prepared. There is no cell service, and the road conditions can be unpredictable. Download offline maps or have a paper map and GPS with you just in case. And snacks... ALWAYS have snacks
If you'd like to know more about the Rock Cut you can find quite a bit of information online. There are several articles and YouTube videos that do a good job explaining the history: Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad”

Today’s video from Michelle is a compilation of a few waterfalls that they visited recently when driving the back roads in Baraga County and the Huron Mountains area. She says this is one of their favorite areas to chase waterfalls, as there are so many hidden gems out here. For more adventures from Michelle, click here: Wandering Michigan

Hi
The backstory is an interesting piece of UP history. I
like the photo titled "Springtime Green Leaves and
Moss" and the last one with the railroad ties.

That's really interesting!! Thank you Michelle!!

Fabulous adventure, photos and video!
My favorites are pics #4 and 5. Never been
to the rock cut, but think I may have seen and
read some about it in an older Pasty Cam post.
It sure looked like quite the undertaking!

Love the Baraga backroads waterfalls! We spent
a day last year exploring waterfalls around L’Anse.
Beautiful area with some very accessible falls to
visit. Was curious if part of that video was from
the Slate River, maybe Black Slate Falls?
It looked familiar:)

It took us 3 tries but we finally found this a few years ago. We
were so close at one point. There’s a book, “The Railroad that
Never Ran” by Robert D. Dobson, that tells all about this.

These are really nice. Talk about off of the
beaten trail. Michelle is definitely all over the
place. She really brings us great information
about our area.

Greetings to all:

Thank you Laurie B for the reminder.

The book, "The Railroad that Never Ran" by Robert D. Dobson has (4) revisions 2004, 2007 and 2017. Today the book might be out of print.

The last edition (14.00 USD in 2017) has the same photos and text as the 2004 edition but offers GPS Waypoints. These do come in handy. I own the 2004 and 2017 editions.

I ordered a copy of the 2017 book On-Line as I just did find Dobson's book in the Marquette bookstores back in 2022-2024. The 2017 publication was printed by Dobson Publications; 224 Shoreline Drive in Negaunee, Michigan 49866.

Like Michelle Lutke says, bring lots of snacks as the "cut" is more difficult to get to than one might think.

JT