Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 79

Laurium Walking Tour Part 2 - 2019 Camping Post #7

     I began this week by posting about the various historic businesses in Laurium, Michigan. Today, I invite you into some of the homes. Oh, don’t I wish I’d been inside more of these homes. (Spoiler alert, I was in one of them, many years ago.)
 247 Tamarack, built in 1905 and owned by Joseph and Addie Wills. He was Laurium president 1911-1916 and 1930-1936.  243 Pewabic, built in 1906 and owned by James and Eliza Hoatson. James Hoatson (1846-1923), from the Scottish village of Wanlockhead, was the first of 13 children born to Thomas and Grace Hoatson. The Hoatson family left Scotland in 1853 and finally settled in Calumet, Michigan. James became vice president of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company which operated several successful copper mines in Arizona and Montana in the early 1900s. In 1879, he married Eliza Anderson (1850-1936). At the time of his death, James and Eliza had a large estate in Hollywood, CA. They had no children. Their house is relatively modest and in good shape today. 
 403 Kearsarge Street, Frank and Jane Carlton built this house in 1903. He made his fortune selling heavy equipment to the mining companies. His store, Carlton Hardware, was located in Calumet.  
 441 Pewabic, 1895. Charles Anderson was a contractor and carpenter who built many of the fine Laurium houses. 
 317 Iroquois, built in 1898 and owned by physician Dr Alexander T LaBerge. You would think that if he was a doctor, I could have found out something about him on the internet, but this is all I have.   
 327 Iroquois, built in 1913 and owned by Gordon R. (b.1870) & Lou Campbell. He was a prominent lawyer and secretary for the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co, eventually becoming its president in 1921. This house looks like it was beautiful in its day, but is in need of TLC today.  305 Tamarack, built in 1906, by Norman and Minnie MacDonald. Norman MacDonald was born in Germany in 1864 to a Scottish father and a Norwegian mother and immigrated as a child to Calumet. His father owned a drugstore in Calumet, which Norman MacDonald took over in the late 1890s, living over the store with his wife, Minnie. By 1905, though, MacDonald had retired from the business and built this large house in Laurium. The source of his wealth was apparently the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company, in which he had invested. Norman and Minnie MacDonald lived in this house alone with two servants as their only son had died in 1908.  The house is 7,000 square feet and is run as Victorian Hall Bed and Breakfast.      320 Tamarack, built in 1908 and originally owned by Thomas Jr and Cornelia Hoatson. Though he was one of the owners of Calumet & Arizona Mining Company, it should be mentioned that Thomas Jr was the first president of the International Hockey League. This grand home has 13,000 square feet, 45 rooms and 9 bedrooms. It was built for $50,000 and furnished for $35,000. Now known as The Laurium Manor Inn, it is open as a bed-and-breakfast and also for tours.   Mom, Val and I took a tour of it in 2003, back before I had a digital camera so only took a single picture of it.   Wow, way too much information. I went down quite a few rabbit holes on this one. Wasn’t going to stretch this out to a third part, but I’m afraid I’ll have to.

Laurium Walking Tour Part 1 - 2019 Camping Post #6

     The Copper mining town of Laurium, Michigan, was at one time alleged to be the largest incorporated village in the United States. The name of Laurium comes from the Greek town of Lavrion, a mining town which supposedly had a similar type and grade of ore as was discovered and mined in Michigan’s UP by the Laurium Mining Company. The Village of Laurium website goes on to say:
 What is now known as the Village of Laurium was originally the Village of Calumet. The original Village of Calumet was incorporated on April 18, 1889, but was reincorporated and renamed Laurium on March 27, 1895. The Village of Calumet was originally incorporated as the Village of Red Jacket on March 19, 1875. The changing of the name of the Village of Red Jacket to the Village of Calumet was made in 1929.
 Every time I read this, I kinda go, “what?”
 Anyway, on various trips to Michigan’s UP, we’ve explored what is now Calumet (which was once Red Jacket) but have only driven through the outskirts of Laurium (which was once Calumet). Both villages are full of history and rundown buildings. On a previous trip I had picked up a brochure spelling out a walking tour of all the historic places in Laurium. I seem to have misplaced that brochure, but as luck would have it, after taking that walking tour while we were camping in July, I typed up most of the information to share with you at a later date. [I also did find a website .]
 The business district first:
  300 Hecla Street, built in 1901, as the State Savings Bank and had professional offices on the 2nd floor and a bowling alley and ballrooms on the third floor. Now it is Aspirus Wellness Center.    310 Hecla Street, originally built as the Village Hall in 1898 and was extensively remodeled in 1914 to include a large ballroom with stage and balcony on the 2nd floor. Currently it’s the police station.    320 Hecla Street, built in 1898, was Peter LaPointe Saloon, Wine and Liquor dealer. He lived on the second floor. Current sign on the building announced “Root Notes, music store”, but it didn't look like much, except they do have a website.     342 Hecla Street, built in 1894, run as The Vivian Store until 1936. Originally, a 2-story building built for Johnson Vivian, a mining captain with wide business interests. The 3rd floor was added in 1898. Now it is Aspirus Outpatient Therapies and Fitness Center. .    323 Hecla Street, built in 1900, by Dominick and Catherine Marta for his bakery on the first floor, with professional offices on the 2nd and 3rd floor. He lived in a house in the back. By 1930, the offices were apartments. It looks pretty deserted now.  317 Hecla Street, built in 1905, by William Faucett building for his businesses – Laurium Hardware on the 1st flood, and Faucett Brothers and Guck Real Estate on the 2nd. It also looks abandoned.   315 Hecla Street, built in 1905 and owned by Frederick C. Glocke. A sign in a window currently announces, “Retro Rental and Repair”, but it looks more like a junk store. They don't have a website, but they do have a Facebook page, so maybe they actually do business.   301 Hecla Street, built in 1907. The First National Bank of Laurium took up most of the first floor, with Superior Pharmacy next to it. Professional offices were on the 2nd and 3rd floors. There was a sign in the window announcing “The Yard Sale” on the 1st floor, but across the street was the actual business by that name, so not sure what is in this building.     201 Hecla Street, built in 1900, is the Peter Contralto Block. [I don’t know why, but whenever they call a building a “block”, it just that building and the various offices or businesses within that building, instead of the whole group of buildings we think of in a block.]  This was the Laurium Commercial School until it closed in 1935. Then it became apartments, but if people still live there, it is kind of creepy.   Churches next:
  146 Tamarack, built in 1899, the St Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church Congregation moved here from Scott Street in Calumet. It looks like they are still here, with a website to prove it.    310 Kearsage Street, built in 1903 for $14,000, the Methodist Episcopal Church could seat 1000 people. It still appears to be operating as a church. I found an interesting article on the building here.  
  246 Tamarack, built in 1895, was originally the Swedish Mission Church. The sign on it now announces, “Laurium Shining Light Church.” The name sounds a little sketchy, but I guess you'll have to check their website or visit it yourself to know.  
 Finally, one school:
  346 Pewabic, built in 1907, the Charles Briggs School, made of brick and sandstone, was the largest school in Laurium. Built for $30,000, it closed in 1977. Briggs was a prominent Keweenaw businessman and president of the C & A Mining Co for 20 years. The building is abandoned now.   Next time, I’ll share pictures and stories of the many, cool old residential buildings. Or you can click on this website, where I found a lot more about these buildings, after I already wrote this up. 

Thing 1 and Thing 2 - 2019 Camping Post #5

     I had a lot I wanted to write about today about our July camping trip, but this week has been a blur. Really, a rough week. It’s getting late now, and I just want to post something! So, I’ll just post two things. Ok, and a bunch of pictures.
 Thing #1 – Found a great house for sale in Laurium.  Reasonably priced. 
 Could use some work. 
 Even includes an extra lot, which has this spot which would be great for a flower garden. Don’t you think? Hubby didn’t think so. 
 Thing #2 – which is the number one thing which McLain State Park is known for – sunsets over Lake Superior. A really great opportunity for me to play with my camera’s settings, too.

In With The Old - 2019 Camping Post #4

     My post on Monday was about going on a quest to see new things in Michigan’s UP. Today, it was more about revisiting the old.
 Our first stop was this little park in Ahmeek.   Been here before, but who can resist stopping to take too many pictures of pretty flowers. 
 Especially these roses, which were fake. I couldn’t put my mind around that. 
 This is the cemetery coming into Copper Harbor. 
 I hadn’t thought I’d been there before. But the more I walked around, the more I started getting flashbacks to exploring it with my sister Pat back in the eighties. 
 While there, I decided to play with some of the features on my camera.  
 Really, Chris? You couldn’t have played around taking pictures of the flowers in Ahmeek? Instead, you take twelve pictures of the same headstone using all your camera’s settings? 
 Then there’s the obligatory visit to Fort Wilkins. 
 Note the authentic nineteenth-century painters’ tape. 
 Copper Harbor Lighthouse.  
 What makes lighthouses so fascinating and romantic?
 Then there is simply Lake Superior. So many pictures, and I don’t think I even used any of my camera’s fancy settings. No need to. 
 The freighters are almost as captivating as lighthouses. Perhaps that’s because of Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting tune.
 A quick picture of me and the boys. And that’s it for today. 

Quest Day - 2019 Camping Post #3

     Our second day of camping in July, we went on a few quests, some successful, one not so much.   First and foremost, though, was that we took Dino down to his beach for the first time this trip. Okay, it’s really Calumet Waterworks Park, but it’s the beach he always has the most fun at and when we go in the mornings, there is hardly anyone else there.  We didn’t let him fetch and swim too much. He just doesn’t have the energy anymore and the waves were pretty big. Poor old man.
 Last week I ran across a place online called the Calumet Natural Wall, which looks like a cement block wall along a ridge in the middle of nowhere outside the village of Lake Linden.
 The directions made it look reasonably easy to find, so that was our next quest. Unfortunately, after walking past several big bold “no trespassing” signs, we decided to hang it up. We were close enough to someone’s farm that we heard their dog barking and their cows mooing, so getting busted seemed a strong possibility.
 But, I’m a simple girl. The only thing I needed to find to perk me right back up was a hillside cemetery. 
 There were two cemeteries on Cemetery Road, and we only stopped at the bigger one. 
 Stupid me gets so excited at a cemetery that I never think to make note of the name of it. I think this was Mount Calvary, from what I found on the internet.
 Driving back through town, I saw this sign so I made Hubby drive down the road.
 This was all we found. Yes, a cool old building, but I couldn’t find out anything else about it.
 We drove through Lake Linden, then as we started driving back to back to camp, I remembered that I wanted to go to the Portage Lake Canal Park, or something like that, which is just across the canal from McLain State Park.
  The ride there felt longer than it should have, but I think it was worth it. We ate lunch at a little park on the top of the hill but had to stay in our vehicle because the black flies were once again out in force.  Along the beach, the flies were greatly decreased, but there also just wasn’t much to do there, unless you were going to go swimming, which we weren’t.
 We drove back to camp. Then I took a walk alone down to the Lake while my boys rested. Getting a picture of this critter completed my day of quests.

Things Not to Disturb - 2019 Camping Post #2

     The forecast for our week’s stay in Michigan’s UP last month was for hot and humid weather, with multiple chances of thunderstorms. Didn’t sound like the best for camping. But the worst day camping is better than the best day at work, right?
 Our first full day there was the warmest and most uncomfortable. Not only temperature-wise but the black flies, which are notorious for making the earlier summer months miserable, came out in droves. After a few hours of rain late that afternoon, the temperatures, as well as the flies, became tolerable. Back down to the mid-July conditions which are yet one more reason to love the Keweenaw Peninsula.  
 For many years, they’ve kept track of the winter snowfall in the Keweenaw. With all the snow we got in Wisconsin earlier this year, you would have thought they got more up north. The arrow marks the snowfall for the 2018-2019 season.  Nope, not a record. 
 The few waterfalls we saw didn’t seem to reflect a remarkable amount of precipitation either. 
 This is Jacob’s Falls between Eagle River and Eagle Harbor. 
 Right next to . . .  The Jampot, the bakery run by the monks, where we always spend too much money on amazing cookies and muffins. 
 Every time we are in the UP, driving to all these places, we pass this little township park at least a couple times. It’s at the intersection of Hwy 26/41 and Cliff Drive just past the village of Phoenix and near what used to be Cliff Mine. 
  Have never stopped there before.  But you know, where ever we stop, I will take a bunch of pictures.
 Question of the day: I won’t disturb the nearby marker, but what if I disturb this sign?   Another place I have never stopped at is the Quincy Mine, just outside of Hancock.  As already mentioned, it was hot outside that day, so I left Hubby and Dino in the car in the shade, while I walked around a bit.
 The walking around part was free, but we would have to pay to take the tour, go in the mine, ride the train, and hear the entire history of the mine. And dogs aren’t invited.
 But there is always next year, right?

McLain State Park from Sun Up to Sun Down – 2019 Camping Post #1

    It seems so long ago already that Hubby, Dino and I were camping at our favorite place in Michigan’s U.P. I feel as if another vacation has gone by in a blur and I haven’t been able to entrench it in my mind. Perhaps that is why I take so many pictures. Also why I appreciate the internet more each day.
 And away we go.   I saw this in a restroom at a gas station on the Wisconsin/Michigan border. I know that by “above” they mean heaven. But it could be up above in the U.P. 
 Been camping at McLain State Park since the early seventies. Wow, so probably forty-five years.
 Camp is set up. Dino is settled in. And the refrigerator didn’t work. Oh, well, that’s minor.  Sunrise the first morning.
 Sadly, the park has had major erosion issues over the last few years.
 They’ve lost quite a few sites since I started going there.
 Two years ago, they had to build a new bathroom and last year they took out a whole section of trees to put in more campsites further from the lake.  Can you believe I didn’t get any pictures of that?
 Dino settled in again, this time in my bed. 
 Campfire.  Making s’mores.
 Can you believe they make marshmallows just for that now?
 Sunset over Lake Superior. I think I could share an entire post of the sunset pictures from that night. Maybe another time.

Where My Feet Go

 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet    and be steadfast in all your ways. Proverbs 4:26 (New International Version)
You’d have to look back over a long list of blog posts about the Green Lake Christian Conference Center for all the pictures of my feet that I’ve taken there. I think they all show my legs stretched out before me, toes pointing towards Green Lake.
When I was at the conference center this weekend for a writers’ reunion, I didn’t take the time to sit along the lake in quiet reflection. Instead, these feet were taking me on the usual walks around the grounds. And my hands were snapping the usual wide array of pictures.
I wonder though from the above Bible verse if our feet have taken us to places we shouldn’t go. For me, that would be places where I could buy ice cream and other goodies which aren’t good for me physically and are emotionally my addiction.
There are the obvious places we shouldn’t go. But what about walking over to a friend to tell them some gossip you heard about their boyfriend. Or walking up to a co-worker to tell them about their work ethic you don’t agree with.
Just like our eyes, ears and mouths, our feet can get us in trouble too.
Lord, God, watch over my steps today and lead me where you would have me go. Amen.

And then there was one

 You may have heard stories of the many cats who have been in my life – Pebbles, Bam-Bam, Keisha and most recently Fred, Betty, Alice and Cheshire. Even a two-time border, Brewster. And one story about the orange Tom from my teen-years, Alice Cooper.

Last September, I blogged here about the passing of Fred, age fourteen. Hubby thought he was diabetic; I thought he was in kidney failure. And I suppose the two would have been related. Whatever the case, we found him a few days later, resting peacefully in our woods. 

































Alice, at only nine years old, died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 10th of this year. I haven’t mentioned it here until now, because, well, it was sudden and unexpected. 




And with heavy heart, I guess it’s time to announce the passing of my sweet uni-kitty, Betty, at age eleven. We haven’t seen her since the first of July. Perhaps, she has found a new home with a loving family somewhere else. With her beautiful green eyes and bewitching tuft of hair on the top of her head, anyone would want to claim her as their own if they were able. Of course, there are other not so happy scenarios, but I will finish her story by saying she is only in our lives in our memories now.

Which leaves us with one. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for big orange boy kitties (is he still a Tom if he’s been fixed?).  




















Cheshire feels all these losses the same as we have. We are thankful that he and Dino still have each other. 

The Last Photo

 Recently I’ve written and shared four blog posts chronicling a few tidbits from a quick trip Hubby and I took to the southern part of the state in June. As always, I included a lot of the pictures I took.
 Here is the last picture from that trip.   You probably think I’ve totally lost my mind this time. But first look back over those Wednesday and Friday posts for the last two weeks and really study some of those pictures. Argh! In so many of them all I can see is this huge blemish right down the middle. (I didn’t share the really obvious ones.)  
 I first noticed this fault in my camera during the winter.  Snow really makes it standout, as do zoomed in shots.    I tried cleaning it, but it appears that a hair has gotten inside, between the lenses somehow. I did some research on-line as to how much it would cost to have it repaired. The dollar figure came to almost half what the camera cost in the first place when I bought it four years ago.

 So, on the way home back in June, we stopped at the camera store in Madison where I bought my first Nikon Coolpix many years ago. They gave me the same answer I had already discovered – something inside the lens, which would require sending the camera in to be taken apart and it wouldn’t be cheap.
 The solution? I bit the bullet and bought a new Nikon. Comparing the two, for me, it was worth it.   Old camera New camera That being said, is there anyone out there who would like to take the old Nikon Coolpix 9900 with a 30x zoom and all kinds of other features off my hands? I’d like to get a few bucks out of it. I mean, it still works well and is in good shape. I just can’t get past that hair, or whatever it is.