The Pasty Cam Guest Gallery is nearing the 6000 picture mark! This photo looking up 5th St. in Calumet, MI, comes out of David Antikainen's album. Looks like he may have had some type of boost up in the air, to get this shot. Many of you probably know that Calumet, MI, once had a population of 90,000, because of the large copper boom. It also was considered a candidate for the Capital of Michigan. Gets you to thinking that maybe it's a good thing that never happened... the Copper Country wouldn't be what it is today if it had.

First post??!!
Everyone must be sleeping in.

Great shot.Will be there next week.

Calumet won't be the same since Thurner's (sp?) bakery has closed. Gonna miss those great donuts and the good bread that I grew up on.

Ahh, good old Calumet-gateway to the Keweenaw Peninsula. I have been in yonder steeple, 'twas a bell in there at the time sitting on the floor.

I've been so busy with all this snow that I almost forgot what it looks like "uptown".Thank you for the reminder...

In my youth,I used to sell the "Grit" across the street from the church on Saturday mornings.Do they still sell the "Grit" up there?Ray in Ms.

Hometown proud!
Great photo - downtown Cal City, whata view.

Great reminiscing shot!

This picture reminds me of why I left 40 years ago

When a kid, downtown was Calumet and uptown was Laurium,,,,should be looking down 5th street,,,not up it! Bill,,,in Alabama,,,be careful up der,,,,,watch out on those trails! And to the troll,,,make sure you keep da harbor clear! Only 3 weeks till i get back,,can't wait,,-4 in Northern Indiana this morning, sure brings back memories.

Although deployed to Iraq right now, looking at these pictures every day reminds me that I am one day closer to comming home to the snow and the good life, cant wait to get back.

Reminds me of delivering 420 Copper Nugget papers in a red front and back bag from about 1984 to 1986.

Uncle Bud, why does it remind you of why you left? Town too small for you? I don't get it, why would anyone move away from God's country on purpose?

Mike, Thank you to you and all of the troops that are serving in Iraq.

..........Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home!!.............

Ahh Mohawk is much smaller than Calumet indeed. Perhaps Calumet is a bit too big and busy for ol' Bud's taste.

I'm guessing Uncle Bud left due to the white stuff all over the place.

First post? The pic is missing! Didn't recognize the dead end st. on the previous page though!

Sorry, now it's working for me:) Of course, as soon as i hit"post".

Mary Lou....... you said it. This is truly the place to grow up. We have everything we need here and then some. There is nothing more beautiful than walking outside and looking up at the snow falling down, seeing the pine trees branches laden with the white stuff swaying in the wind. It sure beats the rat race of the city we left to come home.

Is that 2nd hand store still down the block on the right???

Friendly, and honest... Darn good prices too...
Had all sorts of camping equipment...

Great shot! Sure do miss home...

Proud to be an American. Thanks Mike and to all the other men and women serving over there.A fellow Yooper and retried AF.

A Poem, by Henry Gibson (of laugh-in fame):
It's winter in Michigan
And the gentle breezes blow,
70 miles per hour at 52 below!
Oh, how I love Michigan
When the snow's up to your butt.
You take a breath of winter air
And your nose, it freezes shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I'll hang around.
But I could never leave Michigan
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground!!!

Is that Shute's? Wish we were there right now.

I'm really not feeling grumpy this morning, but all this hyperventilating about the Keweenaw's beauty has finally gotten to me. First, let me be clear: It is beautiful in many, many ways and places. But, we need to come clean about our dirty little secrets.

The detrius of the copper mining industry still despoils much of the land. Aside from the occasional shaft house, none of this shows up on Pasty Cam. In some ways worse, there are local residents who have treated the Keweenaw in a simlarly cavalier fashion ever since. I learned this, to my dismay, during my second stint at Tech (as a student, not a newborn). A ramble down many back roads brings you past residential dump sites where household appliances, building materials, cars, and other enduring trash have been tipped downslope from the right-of-way. I would like to learn that this practice has faded in popularity since my time there in the late 60s, but I doubt it, human nature being what it is.

My point here is that while we sing the praises of the Yoop, we maintain some perspective and humility. It doesn't have to be the most wonderful place on the planet. Being itself is more than wonderful enough.

I love the streetlights in this photo.

From Rob in DC:
A ramble down many back roads brings you past residential dump sites where household appliances, building materials, cars, and other enduring trash have been tipped downslope from the right-of-way.

You'll find this problem among back roads all over the U.S., not just the U.P. Whatever happened to people taking personal responsibility?

Oh come on Rob,
I'm sure you've seen your share of trash, sliding down that slippery slop, in ol' DC. I'll take frigid air and ten feet of snow over hot air and a snow job, anyday. We love the snow because it reminds us of what perfection is like. We, in the north of Michigan have a constant fight to preserve that perfection and live our lives too. We,re trying.

Ahh...my favorite 5th Street ever!
I can remember performing occasional odd jobs with a couple of friends in so many of those old buildings back in the 1970's when Del Masser used them for his antiques storage (including St. Ann's!) and needed to hire some helping hands now and then. I believe he also owned that solitary house (then anyway) overlooking the center of Great Sand Bay.
It was wonderful time to be young & free in the Copper Country.

Let's face it Rob in DC, people were not as environmentally concious back in the late 60's as we are today. To make a comparison to the illegal dumping of the late 60's to today I don't think is fair to the people of the Keweenaw. Sure there is still some illegal dumping in Houghton and Keweenaw Counties but I would dare to say that it is pretty rare and not the norm. I think that 99.9% of the residents here are very conscientious when it comes to taking care of our beautiful area.

Nice picture David, Makes me homesick. Have alot 0f nice memories brought to mind. Hope to be there this spring. Thanks brother.

MJ IN LAURIUM THE BIG GUY AND NANCY MADE IT OUT HERE A DAY LATE BUT THEY MADE IT. NOW THEY ARE ENJOYING THE BEAUTIFUL WEATHER.

No matter where you go in America, you'll find areas of junkyards, whether in people's yards or alongside the highways. They're always a bone of contention to those who don't like seeing that taking place. Most of it does take years to accumulate. Anyway, what I feel about the Keweenaw is that maybe there isn't "beauty" everywhere you go, but there is "character." That's what makes it special--the history before your eyes with the old mining buildings, etc.

There's always someone ready to rain on your parade

That's not Shute's. Shute's is on 6th. Will be coming up for Winter Carnival!! Can't wait

Yoopers in Vegas. Glad they made it. It's a frigid 3 degrees here with a wind chill factor of -20 at least. Stay warm and have fun all of youse.

Re "our dirty little secrets" from Rob in the
district of confusion:
The detritus from the mining operations was
actually handled pretty well, given the era and
the lack of knowledge as to just what it
could/can do. You have to look pretty hard to
find a significant amount of damage today ( I
know the piles of poor rock are still huge, but if
you fly over and around the Keweenaw as I
have, you really have to look hard to find the
expanses that look so big from the ground)
and compared to the total acreage, it's really
pretty miniscule except in places like Torch
Lake. And even there the contamination is
confined to the Lake, and is being remediated.
Thank heavens for the shallow exit channel. In
many other locations Nature is doing a pretty
good job of reclaiming the land. Just look at
the trees growing around the edges of any
clearing that's an old dumping ground.Thank
the gods for hard rock mining and the
particular type of copper this area has. If you
really want to see devastation, look at pictures
of open pit mining like out west in Montana
and Arizona, coal mining in the South, or
hydro-mining in Alaska or California.
Some of the wastelands (acid pit remains)
can be seen from orbit, they're so large.

Just remember: Humans can always be pigs,
but pigs can never be humans......

And one last potshot: Remember that Mother
Nature always bats last and has never lost a
game.

Calumets a little dead now compared to the 40s 50s 60s when 5th street was full of stores,bars,jewlery shops,restaurants--photo studios--and who could forget Reillys studio with MR Reilly putting new pics every week of the best photos he thought should go in the window for the week--sort of like pasty cam--and what kid didnt hang out at Sacs bowling alley and pool room--think people were poorer then but happier myself----if you had a dime for a bottle of pepsi at Sagooffs after playing scrub football and baseball you were content

That picture of 5 th Street sure brings back lots of memories. In going through Davids albums I notice he has picture of the 'Uppper House" on 6 th street. Right across the street is the picture of a motel and prior to the motel there was a green house. I lived there as a kid. And this brings up the question I have about the old fire station. See where it is a museum now. Does anyone know when the fire station was coverted to a museum and why it was done. Also where is the fire station now.
Keep up the good work on pasty cam. Enjoy it every day.

This beautiful shot reminds me of why I'm moving back there! Can hardly wait! Hold that snow!

Mike in Iraq,

Just said farewell this morning to 9 of our Navy Corpsmen from Naval Hospital Lemoore who will be meeting up with the Marines to join you in Iraq. Godspeed to you and our corpsmen for a safe return.

Spent last weekend in Calumet and surrounding areas with my best pal Kelly. I can't think of a finer time than running the back roads enjoying all the beauty and fine conversation. What a joy to have the Last Great Frontier and God's Country so close by. I AM SO PROUD to call the U.P. my home! Lake Superior runs through my veins and the people, they are my heartbeat!

Ahh, indeed we here in the Copper Country where our Constitution still rules at least still have the right to own a firearm unlike our friends in the sophisticated District of Columbia.

"I'm going home!" What does that mean?
Back to the place that was my birth?
Where I played amid field and stream.
A place from which I traveled far,
to seek my fortune and my worth.
Now, as my eyes dim and my steps falter,
I pray to God befor His alter.
That angels take me to where I first saw
the place that is called Keweenaw!

rob in d.c. must have some kind of love for the u.p.HE IS VISITING THE PASTY CAM!maybe he's having a bad day and has no where else to vent.BRING IT ON ROB...

I believe there is a course at MTU called Industrial Archeology; where they take students on field trips to point out the remains of the Copper mining. The average tourist would not know about this waste without taking this course. Mother nature is well on the way of winning the game.
I will be up next weekend for winter Carnival. Can't wait.

Rob in DC......I wonder if all the junk from burned out buildings from the riots in the late '60s has been cleaned up in DC??.....It was pretty ugly when I last saw it and really detracted from the beauty of our national capitol...and I wonder how many bodies where picked up at that time as well?.......Household junk is awful and should never be dumped in the out of doors but I guess it is all relative.......maybe we need free dumps in the Keweenaw??

Hey, just saw the weather forcast, supposed to get up to 24 degrees on Sunday here, bring out the shorts and tank tops!!!!!

Ditto that for Shute's.
Haven't been getting much exercise lately, need to heft that dinosaur bone a few times :)

Don't mind Rob in DC.

For one, he hasn't been to the U.P. since the late 60s but still professes what the place is all about.

He lives in one the dirtiest and nastiest cities in the country but it's all gloom and doom for the U.P? I don't think so. I've lived all over this beautiful country of ours (yes, we do have THE most beautiful country on this big blue marble, whether the 60's crowd wants to admit it or not) and believe me, it get's much worse the further below the bridge that you get. Especially when heading east after passing Detroit.

Lighten up a bit Rob. Life really is good for you ;)

Mary Lou: I agree wth you on the free dumps in the the Keweenaw. I was raised in Calumet during the 50's and when they closed the open dumps up there,the locals have no place to dump their trash. We have some land and a cottage in the Keweenaw and I had to put up a gate on the road to our property because we were getting refrigerators, stoves and you name it, dumped out there.That didn't happen before all of the envrionmental freaks got into closing the dump/landfills in the area.

Rob in d.c. points out that everything isn't as rosy as some of us like to talk about. But the talk has nothing to do with the way things really look, it has to do with nostalgia...remembering the grand days of our youth! the way things were, how we remember where we grew up. We don't put the trash in our memories of finer times past.

Maybe Rob spent his time while he was here driving around to find fault with areas. I was right there for the '60's generation and didn't manage to miss the beauty in the Keweenaw. Of course, as with ANY area of the country there are those bad apples that don't respect nature the way it should be respected and use areas for dumping grounds. This is very unfortunate but you will find this to be true anywhere in our great country. Mother Nature's beauty is everywhere, it's just that some people have to open their eyes a little wider to experience it.

the main drag back home i remember it well i remember sacks bowling ally and that dark basement (back in the day)we would play some of the first vidio arcade games there now i hear that one of my old high school buddys owns a bar there his name is kenny sever (forgive me ken if i messed up your last name) anyone know him? and if so tell him his old buddy woodys on pasty net (im woody from copper city)and he said hi!!

The bar on 5th. street looks like the 315 Club. Coggy Murto's old place. Had my first legal drink there many years ago. Lived upstairs of Thurner's for several years-late 60's to early 70's.

THANKS FOR THE LAUGHS

beautiful shot makes me want to drive around the corner for hot pasty.
its refreshing to see our right to free speech being put to use. both pro and con makes the discussion more stimulating.

On the subject of Rob from DC, just remember its always the people who know the least that start to try to ruin a normal discussion.

Lets remember that ROB was a "TOOT" and the TOOTS - TECH students always had there noses up high when students back in the late 40's into the early 60's. Many a Friday and Saturday night at the Cozy Garden they would have there clocks - in a fight- cleaned by the Laurium and Keewenaw guys especially after they tried yo have a run at the TEEN CENTER. Perhaps ROB was one who had a bad experience in the CC now that he has an education and hasn't been back to take some shots at an area that has really been cleaned up over the years. The roadsides are devoid of bottles, cans, papers with different groups in charge of picking up the trash. Cleaner than a lot of parts of the country that I have been over the years including ENGLAND big time.

By vaalea on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 02:57 pm:

If anyone feels old abondoned cars with trees growing through them, bars & restaurants who's decor hasn't changed since they were built and faded old King Midas ads on old buildings are junky, they aren't getting it.
Old mining remains aren't junk, they're history.

2 pictures among some 11,000 in the Pasty Cam Archives

Hey--you guys miss the point made by Rob in DC. I've been up there in the UP almost every year since I was 6. Now I'm 71. I've beent there winter and summer. I love it. But! There is stuff there that makes me heartsick when I see it.Walk in the woods and see beer cans, trash of all sorts. Walk the beach and see all the plastic junk that can survive years of the lake's pounding, washed up on the shore. Look at the clear cutting all over the place, but especially along Five Mile Point Road. And so on. Rob doesn't say that DC is better than anything, nor will I try to tell you that So Cal is Paradise--The point is that bad stuff is little by little destroying the place that we all love for it's pristine beauty. Let's all do what we can to protect that lovely place!!!

John's Restaurant was closed last summer when we were there. Looking closely at this picture of Fifth St., I see what lookes like a sign sitting on the sidewalk outside of John's that says "OPEN". Is John's in business again? Anyone know the details?

There are thousands of beautiful views and places in this grand world of ours but nothing compares to the over all personality and friendliness that I have encountered in the UP. Just like anywhere else there are sore spots but to sit and write about them on this sight, to me, seems so mindless. It never surprises me to hear some rube go on about how horrible everything is. Some people feel that it is there duty to point out all the ugliness in this world and try to make you feel bad about something. Why? The Yooper is not perfect but its close.

Haven't been there for some time now. Miss the smell of the fresh air. People don't notice it until they have been gone from the area for awhile.

In the 60's and 70's I drove every back road in the Keweenaw and I don't recall seeing that much junk around.

I still miss the UP, Guess I always will.

Well the out of towners will get a kick out of this I'm sure...but.....I like to walk far into the woods with a shovel until I come to some abandoned old farmhouse and dig around in the trash (usually near the back 40). I've found some neat treasure, old jars, crocks, china....history...made in the USA things are my favorite! My secret is out!!! Have a nice day.

To me the entire world is God's country. There is good and bad everywhere. It just depends on the person. I was born a Troll, my parents moved to Mass City in 1976 then to Houghton 3 years ago. I have spent many wonderful days in the UP and have wonderful memories. It is beautiful up there, but now I find that I would rather walk the beaches here in N FL, they are beautiful also. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I love this site, the comments and the pictures. I just choose to live where I do not freeze anymore or have to shovel snow.
Thanks to everyone for the lively discussion.

Do you want to trade some cold for some snow we had a -49.9 this morning

By Rose - Channahon, IL on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 03:40 pm:

There is one dump I really miss! I remember the good old days in Copper Harbor when we would drive up and park to watch the bears at the dump. It was always a question of whether to close the windows and roast or open them to the many, many flies! I know that was bad for the environment but it was fun while it lasted!

Pasty Cam Archives - June 4, 2001

Hey Rose - I remember that dump! It was back in '85 and I was camping with friends. We heard about the place and went to check it out. The bears were EVERYWHERE and fighting eachother for the scraps that people threw out of the car windows! WOW!

Joe Finn, Rhinelander. Wisc...Not only does MTU offer a graduate program in Industrial Archeology, The Society for Industrial Archeology is located on the Tech campus..... and I believe it was moved there from D.C...I think our own Pasty.com runs their website.........so our industrial ruins are of great importance.........we must not litter!!

ts -- I remember Reilly's Studio very well. He was my grandfather. Many of his photos survive.

I saw that bear last week tossing down a Labatt's Blue at Shute's Bar!

Hey Rose.... Yeah that dump was great for bear watching. Also the dump in Eagle Harbor. I am so glad my kids got to experience that, before they closed them down. It was quite the tourist attraction! You can still have a good chance to see them, at the roadside picnic areas, just before dark.

Hey Sherry... I am with you!! What I wouldn't give to be barefoot, and walking a Florida beach today!!! My heart is in the Copper Country in the summer, but this time of year, my heart belongs to the beaches around St. Pete.

That reminds me.... any one in Copper Harbor got AC yet? A couple years ago, we cut our trip short, and went running from Copper Harbor at six AM. Couldn't take the heat another minute. Couldn't find even a resturant in town with air. It was mid 90s even in the middle of the night. We woke up at four AM and decided our trip was OVER.

ROB,D.C.,if all the hyperventilating about the keweenaw's beauty is getting to you,your on the wrong site.you will hear oh's and ah's on this site daily.we love you u.p.,flaws and all!!!

NOT MUCH SNOW IN DA UP YET EH

Dear loansome, love your poem, I hope you do well and enjoy your trip back home and make it safely. And enjoy yourself back home. My Dad was from calumet and moved in 1942 for money, but never lived long enough to move back he died in 1971. He had a lot of stories about growing-up there. He was from Rambaultown. God Bless You

Hey Sherry in N FL......wish I had the courage to leave...can't feed the bears anymore...or the deer, plus it's cold. I'm going "SHACK HAPPY"...need some sun, vitamin D. And Karen in MI....we don't need AC....what are ya...crazy?...

The best part about DC are the "homeless" bums who have taken over the city and camp wherever they plese. As a former Federal Agent from the late 60's early 70's who spent some time in DC on more than one occasion, it is certainly not a vacation destination for me....(except for the subway.......that does work) I'll take the UP
Rob can have the bums (rich and poor) inside the beltway............

Hi Wanda... Ha! That summer a couple years ago you did! Mid 90s in the middle of the night, is no fun anywhere. We stopped in L'Anse to say goodbye to an aunt, and she was on her way out the door, to buy AC in Marquette. Seems hard to remember that heat, now that it is January, but trust me, that was not a fun trip. I really would like to know, if any of the motels up there, do have air. I just don't want that to happen agian. Hated to cut our trip short.

Anyone else ever have a root beer float at Newberry's, or an eclair at Parkside? This picture sure brings back a lot of memories!

Pat Campioni owner of Festival and Pat's Foods bought Thurner's Bakery. They are doing bakery for local restaurants with the breads Thurner's use to make. They are distributing to local restaurants and for special occassions.

Ah... yes Parkside!! To me as a kid... that was Calumet.

Rob,
The garbage and trash dumped in the woods are still there, but I don't know if its as much as you recall. I was proud of my son 3-4 years ago, when the infamous 4-Wheeler club at MTU he belonged to would take a weekend each fall and clean up selected areas of the trash. They would fill several dump trucks with the stuff, and made a better place.

TO RJR,Utica: I doubt very much that you could run out the door and around the corner for a pasty. Not if you live near VanDyke and Hall Rd. NOT a pasty in sight down in this area, plus the traffic could kill you.

To Cousin Jack regarding Dale Masser. I remember well his home sitting up on the sand dune at Sand Bay. His was the only one there, now we have million dollar (or almost) homes going up.

I also remember Parkside, especially their cream pies and lemon jellyrolls. Oh the memories!!!!

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meaning than any other
two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the
list, but when we waken in the morning, why do we wake UP.

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is
it
UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends, we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the
silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP
trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special, and this is
confusing.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP.

To be knowledgeable of the proper uses of UP, look UP the word in the
dictionary. In a desk size dictionary, UP takes UP almost 1/4th the page

and definitions add UP to about thirty.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways
UP
is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP,
you may
wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes
out
we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it
doesn't
rain for a while, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so
I'll
shut UP.

To all in Oakland county.... There is a Very, Very good pasty shop, in Keego Harbor.

Ah, yes. Root beer (sometimes warm) at Newberrys was always a treat. And maybe some chocolate covered peanuts from the candy counter. Anybody out there remember when Waarala's drug store was down by Thurners? I seem to remember having cherry Cokes there in the 50's. And who could forget Parkside's chocolate eclairs and cream puffs?

Interesting discussion. Rob in DC is just pointing out
that there is industrial waste in the Keweenaw, as well
as (illegal) household dumping on private or public
lands. Point taken. It's seen everywhere, not only in the
Copper Country. The man's just saying that the mess
needs to be cleaned up. That's all.
Make the most of where you live, and do your part to
keep it clean. And educate your fellow man. It's better to
light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

Good poetry Tom......

I stop by this site everyday to keep up with the UP. I lived in Laurium from '66-68 where my father worked as a small town doctor.
Had we stayed ,I would have graduated in the class of '79 at CHS. My mother ,Barbara Lahti ,was born in Ahmeek and graduated from
CHS in '54. I have lived many places in this great country but the Upper Pennisula is unique and special.
Keep up the great work and thanks for the shot of Calumet today!
Would love to hear from any old friends who would like to reconnect.

Hey Tom - Beautiful poetry, you picked UP our spirits!

Karen in Mi
Lake Superior was only a stone's throw away if you were staying in Copper Harbor. Nothing beats a dip in the big pond on a hot day....or night.

Remember the old dump out by Jacobsville...now that was COOL!!

Native.... Stayed in the water out at Bete Gris all that day! Have to go to bed sometime.

To Rob in DC - -

I appreciated the point you were making in your note, and indeed it has sparked a lot of meaningful discussion today. In regard to dumping old appliances, building material, etc. you state, "I would like to learn that this practice has faded in popularity since my time there in the late 60s". In my experience, this is in fact the case. Having spent a lot of time here as a teenager in the 60's, I recall a lot of littering as you describe. And spending a lot of time in the woods in recent years - - there seems to be a lot less. Not entirely gone, mind you, but much diminished. Maybe others have walked down different paths and drawn different conclusions, but that's how a I see it. And I have a feeling that the improvement is due in part to folks like Rob who, sometimes playing the devil's advocate, prod us into corrective action.

In its six years the Pasty Cam has explored many faces of the U.P., and Keweenaw in particular. It's not all pristine - - but it's all immensely fascinating.

The voice of reason as always. I say TOIVO FOR PRESIDENT !!

How well I remember Waarala's Drug Store down by Thurner's. I remember having marshmallow sundaes with my Mother there. The icecream scoops with square.
My first and only waitress job was at the Parkside. Wonderful cream pies and cream cakes.

i love pasty.net i use to live in the U.P. and i now live in SC i miss the place and the nice people thank you for sharing

I am amazed at what can take place with a junk yard using a lot of greed! Across the road from me sat six acres that was a junk yard for many years..junk cars, tractors,etc., then it was purchased and six, $250,000+ homes were built. The new neighbors come over time to time to ask what their lovely new homes are sitting on...because I've been here fourty-some years, I show them old photos and they go back home speechless! P.S. I'm sure glad I don't drink their well water! I often wish the junk yard was still there.

Thank you, Toivo, for your reasonable and accurate response to Rob in DC. I wanted to say something similar, but could not find the right words. As one who grew up in the U.P. and has been gone for almost 15 years, there is still no other place that I would call "home".

Toivo........are you telling us that you are not a native son of the Keweenaw????????.. What a shock!!
....you just seemed to have the no B.S. sisu that is part of our heritage.....maybe............. Toivo for Vice-president!!!

How about a "Whirl-a-Whip" at Newberrys. Utzman's cafe. Whorshey's Bike shop with the dogs. Sliding down the alley behind Englands station or Harter's hill?

Mary Lou, at first I thought you must have confused me with somebody else, then I saw I left out the phrase "in the woods" and I see how you could misconstrue. I've just spent alot more time in the woods in my teenie years and my recent old age, and not as much in between. What was you doing in-between?, says you. I'll never tell, says I.

Toivo..... I am glad to learn that you are, indeed, a true "son of the Keweenaw".....one of whom we are proud!!!.......Toivo for President!!!

When I grew up in the South in the '50s, the way we got rid of garbage was twofold: We burned all paper in a barrel -- my job, I loved it. We took all cans, glass, etc. to a dirt road and dumped them down in the gully. Everyone did; that was just the way it was done. That has been long since out-lawed and many of those old dumps have been cleaned up (they are a good place to find old bottles).

I'm trying to remember if I saw any of that kind of trash when I was tramping around in the UP in the late '60s; I really can't remember. But I do remember the beauty and hope to return to see it again someday!

Trolls like pasty too... Superior Pasty on Plymouth Rd. just East of Merriman Rd. in Livonia is pretty good...

Sounds like good ol Rob from DC wishes he were back in the Copper Country. I agree with vaalea that some of the buildings, signs, mining leftovers etc. are really history. And Mary Lou, you said it best.

Far as I know, the Mariner North is the only place in Copper Harbor with A/C. I could probably count on my fingers how many times in my lifetime we needed A/C in Copper Harbor. A quick dip in the lake before bedtime usually does the trick.

Ah, the old dump, aka the bear pit, aka the tourist pit. Used to go there to look at all the tourists tring to look at the bears. Hard to tell sometimes which were more entertaining.

Mark Connor - Ohio. I graduated CHS 1953 and a Barbara Lahti was in that class. The family lived of of Lake Linden Ave. and Tamarack St in Laurium. There was also an older sister.

As a recent transplant to the U.P., I can say it is not as easy as the pictures and comments on pasty cam would lead you to believe, however it is beautiful here, right now my hope is summer falls a weekend so I can feel warm once before it starts again !

"giving it time" Hey, you've got a sense of humor and that's half the battle. How about " one act of mosquitos between two acts of snow"

Keep on keepin on!!

Interesting discussion - sounds oh so familiar in parts - some things are really the same where ever you go (which is why I keep adding my two or more pennies in the pasty.cam discussions). Just one penny on my behalf: Dumps are no solution, especially not free dumps, since they have this ugly tendency to grow ... and grow ... and grow ...
And I really can't believe there is no place to officially put your used household machinery like ovens and stuff - gotta be something, somewhere?

What a great shot, another thing to remind me of being a kid there.

A true active/pro-active RECYCLING effort up here in the Keweenaw-like they have in other parts of the country-would be a BIG help. Even in very rural areas of the midwest they have efficient working programs. Other than the paper/cardboard program at MTU there is only the county transfer station, and it's only half-hearted and only open a few hours per week (2 weekdays), during work hours. Sure wish we could get some kind of curb-side pickup, parking lot containerized or a convenient recycling center(s)-sure could cut down on trash dumping (any entrepeneurs out there?). I hate having to put stuff out in my garbage cans when it could be recycled.

Being from the Copper Country is like being from Ireland---We all long to go back---No one has made up any mournful, longing, ballads yet---friendly people, family people, the best friends in the world. Didn't know I was poor (materially) until I went out into the wide world. We were rich in the things that counted. There is nothing like the crazy humor and laughter with Copper Country friends.

Houghton, Hancock these are the facts!
Two towns connected by a bridge with tracks!
I grew up in this my home.
When I am there I'm not alone.
Though things have changed since my times
and silence now surrounds the mines.
I still hear the skips come up.
I still hear the rock cars dump.
And sometimes as I fall asleep
I hear far off steam whistles steep.
The ghost of the past are ever present
When I'm with you their decendents.