The Flickr Houghtoncounty Image Generatr

Copper Crystal in Prehnite.Prehnite is hydrated calcium aluminum silicate. The specimen contains tiny crystals of native copper. Osceola Mine. Oseola, Houghton Co., Michigon.

Prehnite with Copper.Prehnite is hydrated calcium aluminum silicate. The specimen contains tiny crystals of native copper. Osceola Mine. Oseola, Houghton Co., Michigon.

One of the most significant pieces of remaining infrastructure on the Houghton County Traction route is the substation at Laurium, MI. The stone entablature features the logo of the interurban. For a long time since the closure of the electric line, this building has been home to the Laurium Fire Department. My maternal grandfather served on this department for many years. September 22, 2024.

I've been quite busy lately. Neglecting my Photostream. It's still my outlet for relaxation to visit here and flip through the images of my contacts but time for uploading and captioning has gotten squeezed. Here's to getting back on the horse, I'm going to try and get back to regular posting, even if the captions end up shorter.

Anyway, in my chronology I'm back in September yet. The fledgling historical society I'm with coprhts.org hosted our second in person gathering in Michigan's Copper Country. It turned out to be a great long weekend event. On the last day we did a driving tour of the remnants of the Houghton County Traction Company an interubran that connected many of the cities and town on the Keweenaw Peninsula. The last cars ran in 1932 and the grades can be very hard to discern. Looking north at Electric Park the line is as evident as if it were only a few years since the wires and rails were removed. In its hayday this was an amusement park and dance venue in the countryside, a weekend destination for working folks.
September 22, 2024.

I was up at camp where the dark sky is always enjoyable but there was also a partial lunar eclipse one night. I liked how it lined up with the trees so I set up the camera and after a lot of fooling with the manual controls got a couple exposures I was happy with. Blended into a short video. September 17, 2024.

With a busy summer I was hard-pressed to get up north as often as I'd like. I was able to steal away for a few days in early July. It was mostly project time but I did get a few vignettes of the green northwoods during the long days of mid-summer.

If the mosquitos relentlessly hassling me were any indication, the builder of this web was well nourished by summer's bounty. The shallow focus web may be an old idea but it's still very eye-catching when you encounter them in the forest. July 6, 2024.

With a busy summer I was hard-pressed to get up north as often as I'd like. I was able to steal away for a few days in early July. It was mostly project time but I did get a few vignettes of the green northwoods during the long days of mid-summer.

A winter of minimal snow made for a good spring for does welcoming the next generation of whitetail deer. Despite the gentle weather of July, they never let their guard down, one looking at me, one looking straight ahead and mama looking left. July 6, 2024.

With a busy summer I was hard-pressed to get up north as often as I'd like. I was able to steal away for a few days in early July. It was mostly project time but I did get a few vignettes of the green northwoods during the long days of mid-summer.

I don't know my arachnids well enough to know the purpose of this silky orb in the forest but it sure looks neat. July 6, 2024.

The key to this operation would be my Owatonna forklift stashed back at the sawmill. It would have to be "unwinterized". Part of that is topping off a soft tire. So once I walked back I got out the fourwheeler to take me back here for the air compressor in the back of the truck. Thankfully the forklift fired right up as though it had been waiting all winter for just such an adventure. Once back here I strapped the machine to the truck and started coaxing. It did not come out of the hole easily. Attempts were made in the other direction but a culvert there made that prospect ill-advised. Pulling it out forward would be the way to go. This picture is from shortly before I turned the wheels right and used my belt to secure the tiller to the driver's side rear view mirror.

The forklift only weighs 10,000 lbs so placing it in the now muddy ruts was critical. It didn't do much better than the truck on the packed ice and snow. Finally I got the truck out of the hole but still had to pull it all the way up the hill before the ruts relented and it was able to pop back onto the center of the road. And so it was a few hours later that I had everything back in order. I didn't even block any traffic on this one lane road because there was none in those 3 hours. March 29, 2024.

300 miles from home. 10 miles from pavement and 3 miles from a regularly plowed public road. This is where I happened to bury my truck and get it stuck worse that I ever had in 10 years of ownership (in fact I don't think I ever had it stuck before this day).

Two weeks before, the road and the woods were bare. An unheard of open winter in the western Upper Peninsula, with record low snowfall for the season. Of course, before I could make my planned trip a storm deposited a layer of wet heavy snow.

It was a gorgeous day and I had made my way from Sidnaw to my first lot without incident. After a time there I started to drive the half mile to my other lot. Freezing and thawing had consolidated the ruts on the unplowed road into slick channels. No problem, I had it in four wheel and carefully made my way through the woods. I was part way up a gradual hill when my "one more season" tires caught up with me. I had slipped out of the main ruts with my driver's side now on the snowy shoulder, tires losing their purchase when I tried to guide the truck back to center. No biggie, I'll ease myself backward onto the right track. Easier said than done, 10 feet, 20 feet, 40 feet and I lacked the grip need to jump back into the right track. One last effort and whoomp! the shoulder dropped away at the bottom of the hill into a sharp ditch. The truck suddenly stopped, slumped at an odd angle.

First was a moment of panic but that didn't last long before resignation set in. If I wasn't going to resort to a long walk ahead of an expensive tow, I had some work ahead of me. The good news, it was a nice day, and mid-day, and I what I needed back at my first lot, about a 15 minute walk away. Step 1, roll down the window so I can climb out of my truck. March 29, 2024.

Looking east down the E&LS, the tracks are getting shaggy, a far cry from when this was a nicely maintained route hosting 4-5 trains a week serving the mill in Ontonagon. Now, one look at the mainline and the tree that has been down across the tracks for over a year, the future looks dim indeed.

At the immediate left is the platform of the union depot that served DSS&A and MILW trains. On the old DSS&A main is a string of stored log flats. When the cars were parked there I took that as an encouraging sign. I assumed, wrongly, they were staged to supply cars to the log loadouts here and at Mass City. No dice, they seem to be off the radar. As E&LS struggles to crew their trains on the south end of their route they seem to have given up on any service out here stranding the log yard at Mass City. March 29, 2024.

After spending the night in Sidnaw I did my normal cursory walk around the junction. When I set up an outpost here I knew rail traffic was minimal, but still I got lucky a few times and set up a trail camera that captured a few trains while I was away. More recently, the status is even more dire. E&LS seems bent on ignoring this track while nature takes over (as it has done in several other places).

That's not to say Sidnaw lacks all interest. It's still worth wandering among the ghosts of yesterday. When E&LS bought the track from here to Nestoria from WC they used it as a through route for a short time, more recently car storage. The rails in the foreground are the connection between the ex-MILW and ex-DSS&A tracks. The signal was the home signal for westbound DSS&A trains at the diamond with the MILW. In the upper right you can see the tangent grade of the old DSS&A mainline leading off into the woods, now the SB (Sidnaw-Bergland) multi-use trail. March 29, 2024.

Jacob’s Falls is kinda the perfect Upper Peninsula waterfall. It’s small and unassuming, but literally 20 feet away from the edge of the road. There would be people like myself who would search it out if it were hidden in a forest, but really, the reason that it has a name is because of the highway.

Not only were we short on snow in Wisconsin but Michigan's Upper Peninsula had an unheard of open winter. Back home for Christmas I took advantage of this on Christmas Eve to take a few pictures for an article I was writing. For those unfamiliar, the Keweenaw Peninsula is also known as the Copper Country and is cross-crossed by an astounding number of abandoned railroad grades dating back to the copper boom.

Given the density over a relatively small area, there are plenty of places where two or three lines connect and or cross. Revisiting these junctions today can present some puzzles particularly after decades of tree growth. For instance, here along the Arcadian Branch of the Mineral Range at Point Mills Jct. This lengthy concrete culvert only had one track above it. The reason it's so long is that it was at the base of a fill. Originally the branch was carried on trestlework here, improved with the concrete culvert and fill in 1912. Once the branch was abandoned the fill was removed, why? that's a mystery I haven't cracked yet. I suspect it was a ready source for nearby road improvement projects. December 24, 2023.

A Brief Sunset Amongst Clouds and Waves: Sometimes waiting that extra time is worth it, when the sun peaks through the clouds just right.

A Brief Sunset Amongst Clouds and Waves: Sometimes waiting that extra time is worth it, when the sun peaks through the clouds just right. Slightly offsetting the sun from the rock to create some tension.

Late November saw another trip to camp. The leaves were now down but sometimes that improves the wildlife viewing. Such was the case when I caught this barred owl keeping an eye on me. The owl blends in so well I'm surprised I noticed it. A little more zoom would have been nice but it really shows how they blend into their background. Even moving as slow as I could, the owl was gone as soon as I made a step. November 24, 2023.

I guess I did more video than I recalled last year. Up at camp I decided to document some of my roadwork I've been doing. The equipment for this task is quite old and obsolete, both the dump truck and the skidsteer. Like the movie cliché where the grizzled detective has "one last job to do" I've tried to get my road done before either died.

This video shows yours truly loading the truck at my pit. Yes, there is a limited tare weight on this tired old truck. It may have been the last rodeo for the loader, last month when I went to use it an axle snapped. Unless I can find that part for a 45 year old machine it's loaded its last bucket of sand and gravel. October 2023.

Houghton County