Houghton – Paint Your Landscape

We are spending a week at the City of Houghton RV Park. I have to admit that my first reaction when driving into the park was not as positive as that of Bayfield, WI, our last stay. The sites were closer together and were paved, not grassy. However, when we got settled and I looked out our back window I quickly changed by mind. We sit on the banks of the Portage Waterway and can watch the sunset from our window or while sitting around the fire. Many boats, large and small, travel the waterway, so it has been great fun watching these boats glide by while sitting on our sofa. An added bonus was to have our newfound friends John and Janie as next-door neighbors for the week!

Houghton, an old copper mining town, sits on the hills bordering the Portage Canal in Keweenaw Peninsula and has been tagged as one of The 100 Best Small Towns in America. With a population of 7700, it is the largest city on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Many Cornish and Finnish immigrants came to this area to work in the copper mines and their influence is still apparent in the culture and cuisine in the area.

This historic, photographic town is the birthplace of professional hockey in the US, hosting the Portage Lakers back in 1903. Dee Stadium currently houses a museum as tribute to professional hockey and is home to the Portage Lake Pioneers Senior Hockey Team.

There are some wonderful hiking and biking trails running along the Portage Canal that we were able to take advantage of. We have had a couple of fairly cool days and the leaves on the trees are beginning to change color. We are hoping to see a spectacular color show as we continue to venture further into the UP.

Houghton is also home to Michigan Tech University, best known for its engineering school. We spent some time walking the grounds of the university and could see the international influence here.

Given that Houghton has an average snowfall of 208″ annually, it is sometimes said to have two seasons, “winter’s here and winter’s coming”. This town is host to a number of winter sports: cross-country skiing, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, snowmobiling, ice hockey, and ice skating. Personally, as we have aged, we have become more warm weather fans but you can see the enthusiasm for all things winter here.

Something we really wanted to do was to visit Isle Royale National Park but realized early on that the season for this trip ended after Labor Day. We were a little bummed but will just have to come back for a visit at another time. We did the next best thing instead, toured the visitor center and watched a video relating to Isle Royale. The 5-hour ferry trip to the island originates in Houghton at the docks outside the visitor center.

After spending some time separately doing some exploring, John, Janie, Terry, and I decided to meet at the town library. John can be a little on the quiet side at times but we knew that he was enjoying himself when we walked in and he was grinning from ear to ear. We didn’t know how long they had been there but Janie mentioned that he loved to read so maybe the library was just what the doctor ordered for him. Oh, did I forget to mention, The Library is a restaurant and brew pub. I’m thinking something else put a smile on John’s face that day. We enjoyed several brews and the best artichoke dip any of us had tasted. We liked both so well that we visited again later in the week.

Connecting Houghton to Hancock is the world’s heaviest and widest double-deck vertical draw bridge, Portage Lift Bridge. Its center lifts to provide 100′ of clearance for ships. The lowest deck is used to accommodate snowmobile traffic in the winter. It is the only land-based link between the north and south section of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Historic Hancock, founded in 1859 by the Quincy Copper Mining Company, is home to 4600 residents and is the northernmost city in Michigan. Hancock has a strong Finnish heritage and has been called “the focal point of Finns in the US”. This quaint town was named after John Hancock, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. I don’t think you could call this downtown thriving but it had some interesting little shops that have seemed to stand the test of time.

Finlandia University, the only private university in the UP, was founded in 1896 under the name of Suomi College, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Finnish pastor J. K. Nikander founded this school to ensure the advance of seminary training in America. Its role at the time was to preserve Finnish culture, train new ministers, and teach English. In 2000, Suomi changed its name to Finlandia University, with a liberal arts focus.

The first building erected at Suomi College was Old Main, constructed in 1898 from local sandstone. The university has since outgrown this building but it still stands as a tribute to Mr. Nikander.

Later in the week we ventured out with John and Janie to explore Eagle Harbor, Copper Harbor, and Ft. Wilkins Historic State Park. We were also fortunate enough to be here for the 22nd Annual Parade of Nations and International Ethnic Food Festival. I will blog about these in my next post.

There are a total of six lighthouses placed in strategic points among the Apostle Islands. While here we were able to take a ferry to Raspberry Island and tour their newly renovated lighthouse.

Raspberry Island sits 1.5 miles from the mainland and is 1/2 mile in width at its widest, making it one of the smallest of the Apostle Islands. It was judged to be the perfect location for the second lighthouse. Sitting on a bluff at the southwest point of the island, this lighthouse served double duty by showing the way to westbound ships passing Bayfield and directing eastbound ships between Bear and York Islands and into the channel around the mainland to Bayfield.

Raspberry Island Lighthouse cost $6,000 to build and its lantern was first lit in 1863. The current standing lighthouse was completed in 1906. The light of its lantern (5th order fresnel) can be seen for 10 miles and it flashes once every 60 seconds. W learned that each lighthouse lantern flashes at a different interval so sailors know which lighthouse they are looking at.

A 3/4 mile trek takes you down to the beach. Looking from any direction you can see islands dotting the channel. We are still astounded at just how clear the water is, unlike many other lakes we have encountered.

What Terry and I most wanted to see were the sea caves. Water is such a powerful force and what the waves have done to the sandstone shoreline, both the thawing and freezing action over centuries, is amazing! Probably the best way to see these is to go with an outfitter or use your own sea kayak and get up close and personal. This can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing, particularly during specific times of the year. We were approaching the end of the season for sea kayaking so we decided to take a trail off of the mainland to get a bird’s-eye view instead. We have been told that some of the best sea caves of the Great Lakes are located on the shorelines of the Apostle Islands.

We were pleased to have another couple join us for our hike, a couple we met while Terry was attempting to maneuver the rig into our site. They are from Iowa and have been full-timing for the 1.5 years. We were able to glean a great deal of information from them that will be helpful to us and all had a chance to laugh at some of the goofy things we have both done while on this journey. We are thoroughly enjoying their company and feel we have developed a new friendship.

Probably the most photographed and the most impressive sea caves are those on Devil’s Island and Sand Island, but those we were able to see from the mainland were dramatic as well.

From here we are headed to Houghton, Michigan and are pleased that John and Janie were planning a trip there as well. We are looking forward to creating a few more memories together.