• Friday-What'sUP July 16 - 09:49 am

Fayette State Park is located on Lake Michigan and boasts a number of recreational activities. One of them is the Fayette Historic Townsite, located seventeen miles south of US 2, via Delta County Road 183, west of Manistique. With the manufacture of charcoal pig iron at the smelting operation and being located on one of the Great Lakes, it was once an important industrial community to the steel companies. When touring the townsite, you'll get to view the stabilized ruins of the furnace complex, which Suzanne Lunn snapped a shot of, bordering Snail Shell Harbor. Darrell Winkler was able to get a nice view, with several of the 18 remaining public, commercial and private home structures in the Townsite. If you're thinking of a visit yourself, be sure to allow two to three hours for this tour of U.P. mining history!

Will have to plan a visit here.

Good Morning from hot and humid Wisconsin......loved Fayette. Spent a week camping in the UP some years ago. Have a great weekend.

It is amazing how well preserved the buildings are (or appear to be), considering the harsh conditions a UP winter can bring. Especially right there on the shore of one of the Great Lakes.

Thanks to Mary and Pasty.com, yet one more nifty place to add to our "must see" list!

These historic buildings are constantly being repaired by the State of Michigan as it is part of our great park system.

WOW! Take a look at the bridge cam. What an amazing shot with the sun hitting the bridge and the fog above on the hill.

;-)

interesting trip to work this morning.

After dropping my wife off at work at the hospital,2 deer crossed in front of me by the church down the street.

I had to stop and watch them for a minute as they were chasing each other around the church lawn like a couple of kids on a playground. must say thats the first time I saw that.

Then I decended down the hill and everything dissapeared into the fog! didn't know if I was gonna find houghton on the other side of the bridge or not!

A cherished spot for us. One of the places my husband and I visited while we honeymooned. It was his first trip to the U.P., and my 6th trip. We not only fell more and more in love with each other there, but he fell in love with the U.P. and can't wait to come back.

This is also one of our favorite places! When we first went years ago many of the buildings had not been restored. They have done a wonderful job and at the same time not lost the charm of the village.

Has anyone been to the rock drawings farher south on the peninsula? Seems years ago they were open to the public, for a fee. Then there was some sort of dispute about the property. Anyone know if you can see them these days?

A most beautiful place - now. At its peak it must have been awful with all the soot and ash in the air from the smelting operations. In the diorama they show a two storey outhouse so the guests of the upper floor of the hotel didn't have to go downstairs at night! It was reached by means of a catwalk. The harbor hosted some lovely sailboats when we were there, also.

What a great park! I was there in June.

Public TV13 is working on a documentary about small mining towns- Fayette will be part of it. Look for it around December.

In the 1920s my father-in-law went to a camp there and fell in
love with ihe site. In the war he was in the Navy. Afterwards his
love of boating took him to Fayette from Esky many times. In
the 50s Mead Paper owned it, and it seemed as tho the site
might have been logged off. Now a lawyer, my father-in-law
was part of a transaction between Mead and the state whereby
the state got the Fayette site in exchange for land more toward
Marquette, I think. And, boy, has the state ever done a swell job
at developing Fayette even while preserving its past. Also, if in
the area be sure to visit Kitch-iti-kipi Big Springs on Indian Lake.
Kids love to help pull the raft across the pond and drop coins
down into the bubbling springs below - if still allowed.

Oops, if I may, I have another comment. It concerns those very
fragile Indian drawings also on the Big Bay peninsula. I believe
they are on private property, and some propertyowners in that
area are less than friendly toward trespassers. I guess their
feeling is that you never know when a stranger might be with
the fisheries division of the DNR, and there is not a very
cordial relationship between the DNR and some of the local
people.

My mother (Norma (Leivdal) Hamilton grew up in this area. It is has been many years since I've visited, so it is nice to see this again. THANKS!

I had only seen the shipping end of iron ore production. Great to know there was a production part somewhere.

Another remembered favorite spot in the UP. Isn't if funny, the two-story loo was one of the things came to mind. That and the bee-hive shaped structures( kilns?) There are so many wonderful places in the UP that I could spend weeks exploring and sketching.

Someone needs to take a picture of the Nahma burner which is NW of the harbor. Back in its hayday, boats would leave the smelters of Fayette and head to Nahma where the railroad cars would ship the ore to Escanaba. I may have gotten this story reversed but I know also at one time boats would go from Escanaba to Nahma too. Some time after in the 1950's, Nahma was the home of American Playground which produced swing sets all over the country. Now Nahma is famous for openning the door to fishing Big Bay de Noc.

For all those traveling on Co. Rd. 495 to Nahma, don't forget to honk as you pass by!!

Last Saturday afternoon was spent at Fayette for my family. What a great place. My parents were up for a long holiday weekend from Chicago and had not been to Fayette in 21 years. We had a great time walking around the park. All the buildings continue to be kept up and the park is kept very clean.

Here are a couple of other photos from Fayette last weekend.
https://pasty.com/pcam/billhawker

my family and i visited this park last summer.
its a must see. the park people are friendly,and the park is very clean. one of the best vacations i can remember.

Interesting pictures today. I first thought it looked like an old castle town in England! At least like pictures of those I've seen.
Cool to know it's a place I can visit next time I get to the UP.

To all friends of Bill Penprase, Los Angeles, CA formerly of the U.P.: Just wanted you to know that Bill's under the weather but hopefully, will be back to post soon! You can email his daughter Colleen at cwilstein@hotmail.com.

The last time that I saw this place was in the early 50's and it didn't look as good as it does now. My Step-Dad had lived there in the Garden Penisula and he took us down there and showed us around the different sites.
They used to talk about a place down there where they used to run old cars off a ramp over a bluff into the lake. Does anyone know anything about that.
Great Pictures.

lowell mo asked ;
They used to talk about a place down there where they used to run old cars off a ramp over a bluff into the lake. Does anyone know anything about that.

No.. but in about 1977 an Escanaba High school Couple sailed off the Stonington peninsula{next peninsula over from the Garden Peninsula].They drove through a stop sign at a very good clip and just kept going till a short strip of land ended ..at the cliffs edge..It was about a 15-20 foot drop into about three feet of water! they landed flat enough that both were knocked out momentarily.. but survived..I kid you not the driver was ticketed for littering the lake by the DNR..

What are they doing on the Houghton County Airport Cam?

Jo Ann,

It must have something to do with the airport project in today's Gazette:

http://www.mininggazette.com/news/story/0715202005_new02-n0715.asp

I wondered the same question about the airport. That article is totally cool. Thanks.

My great great grandfather worked at Fayette in the late 1870's to early 1880's. He and his wife had three of their five children there, before moving to Tamarack Mills. Good thing, or I may have grown up in Delta County instead of Houghton!

Way to go, State of Michigan! Way to go, H.A.L.---