---

By Steve King, Illinois on Monday, January 13, 2003 - 11:14 am:

On our hike to the Montreal Falls... we were VERY surprised to see that a fence had been put up around the "Fisheries". It's too bad that a few bad apples spoil things for the rest of us. We have visited the Fisheries for years, always being careful to observe and not touch. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy some winter shots of the falls! We're looking forward to our next snowmobile adventure later this week, I hear it actually might snow!

What great pictures! Thanks Steve. My husband and I hiked to the falls while in the UP for our honeymoon in July. The hike to Montreal Falls was the high point of the whole two week trip for me.

It looks fantastic in winter. Wish I was there now instead of in my dull office in Lansing...

Beautiful pictures!! It's amazing how those trees are growing right on the rock, with no soil. Some hardy trees.

LIFE IS POWERFUL. I SAW A TINY BLADE OF GRASS GROWING DEEP UNDER THE CONCRETE SIDEWALK, WHEN WE WERE PUTING IN A SIGN FOUNDTION, AT O'NEAL'S FUNERAL HOME.SCIENCE CAN NOT CREATE ONE BLADE OF GRASS IN A CONTROLLED ULTIMATE LAB.

Thanks for the winter pics of Montreal Falls, Did you get up to the other set of falls? I too am surprised to hear there is a fence around the fisheries. It is a real shame they have to do that. The trail in to the falls is one of my wife and my favorites. I hope we will be able to continue to enjoy this part of the Keweenaw in the future.

what beauty in GOD'S country. thanks for photos.
what are the "fisheries" that you mention?

Super Pictures of the Montreal Falls, Been a long time since I've seen them in the winter. I still manage to see them during the summer on a boat trip now and then.

I didn't know Smiths Fisheries is fenced off now, I used to spend a lot of time there including weekends (summer and winter) when my friend was the caretaker there. Then Smiths sold it to someone down state, I really miss visiting there, had a lot of good times.

Last time I was at the Montreal Falls proved to be good therapy. We had just lost a good friend and needed a break from the sadness so three of us took a hike. We sat at the river mouth and silently said good bye to a good man. It is a tranquil place even in the photo. Thanks.

Where is Montreal Falls located? Great photos.

To jj_greenville, The fishery close to the Montreal Falls was built by the Smith Brothers complete with a breakwater for entering and docking protection from rough water. Also had its own ice maker in the building down by the water for packing fish. The smaller building further up is where the generator is housed, old one cylinder diesel. I think some the old buildings have been torn down. Don't know exactly when they closed operations but it may have been early 60's, if anybody remembers, let me know. Smith brothers then moved and opened 2 restaurants that I know of, one in California and one in Port Washington, Wisconsin. They do not own them anymore, just recently selling the on in Port Washington, I think 2 years ago. They still own property in the Lac LaBelle area.

Please-Please I wait all week for WOW. Recently I sometimes wait in vain. I know your busy, but I need to change my wallpaper. Everything else about the site is great. Thank You for starting my days with great pictures and comments.

Smith Brothers fisheries was originally owned by Jerry Lamerand and this was in the 40th's prior to the road being constructed from Bete Gris out- 5 .3 milesand down Bare Bluff which is about halfway. The fisheries were purchased by the Smith family out of Pt. Washington who had the restaurant there. Oliver Smith and his sister as I recall. The road was built in the late 40's early 50'ths with the land owners giving there permission. At one time there was a gate at the beginning of the road but would'nt stay locked very long. A descendant of the Smith family is now residing in Lac La Belle haveing recently selling the restaurant.

About 2 miles upstream from Upper Montreal Falls is another waterfall. Are they named? does anyone know the name?

The first and third photos are known as the lower falls, whereas the "upper falls" can be found up-river from the mouth. Maybe it is time to spice up our local nomenclature as these titles hardly depict the awesome views presented. The second picture showing the rock out-crop actually had an arch-way over the top that caved in 4-5 years ago, I have a SLR print of this somewhere. I am glad I never climbed it as it was always tempting on the return. Thanks for the shots... I can hear the falls flowing just looking at the pictures!

I apologize for the confusion, perhaps I was unclear. There is the lower montreal falls, then the upper montreal falls and then even further upstream is a third set of falls that I have visited upon ocaasion. Does the 3rd falls upstream have a name?

Speaking of cool Keweenaw fenced-off places, how
long ago did they put up the fence at Douglass
Houghton Falls? I was pretty disappointed to find
it (legally) inaccessible when I stopped there two
years ago...

The Douglass H falls were fenced off about in 1995.

DH falls are located on private property and as I remember it, the property owner wanted to stop the destruction of the falls and the surounding area by the heavy tourist traffic and was also worried about liability. whatever, it was a major dissapointment not to be able to take my new wife to one of the more breathtaking sites that drew me to the area, years ago.

Where are the Montreal Falls?

My name is Ned L. Huwatschek, now starting my retirement in Lac La Belle, Mi. I retired as President of Smith Bros. Food Service Inc., f.n.a.Smith Bros. Fisheries. It was my uncle Oliver H. Smith who with his sisters Evelyn C. Smith and my Mother Hope A. Huwatschek who ran our fisheries from the early 1940's, until 1968. We sold the entire parcel of land in 1988. I am now 61 years of age, and hope to start writing my recollations of my years there as a youth, and also that of our corporation. My address is Ned L. Huwatschek HCI P.O. Box 70A Mohawk, Mi. 49950 My E/Mail address currently is Motto@pasty.net I would welcome any questions or input.

more waterfalls please.

Well, the question has been asked a few times, but there has not yet been an answer: Where is Montreal Falls? Anyone??

Montreal Falls are about 5 miles east of Bete Grise. Bete Grise is on the south side ("banana belt") of the peninsula.

Montreal Falls is on the shores of Bete Gris Bay. Maybe one of Tovio's great maps here would help... It's a good rustic hike for a few miles to get to them though. We've gone there by boat a couple times (much easier). Simply a beautiful place.

We had this on Pasty Cam back in 1999.

Thanks for the beautiful(as usual)pictures. Good job, Steve.

Thanks for serving UP the map, Toivo

You can almost here the wind and the waves. That's what I miss most about the UP... in a small amount of time you can get to a place where the sounds are just nature speaking. Thanks 4 the pics!

Actually, I don't think DH falls were closed off until about 1997. This move was inevitable. It seemed every one or two years, we would loose a fellow classmate (empty-U) after a drunken tumble off the falls. I just wish the owner would invest a little time into building a walkway of types for people to enjoy the falls once again. The Spring Runoff was always the most impressive at DH falls.

Thanks to the person who told us about the MTU web cams. I especially like the one that is pointed west toward Houghton. With the large motion image I watch the sun set in Houghton while making dinner.....sunrise is nice too.

My husband was in the Coast Guard in 61 thru 62 stationed at Portage Lifeboat STation. Is it still there? Would appreciate any information. I love this site.

RESPONSE TO BELO: I'm so impressed you noticed
the tiny blade of grass growing up through a crack
in the concrete and to share the experience with
us here on Pasty cam is a great reminder to those
of us not living as close to nature as we'd like,
that it's important to stop and smell the roses or
stop and gaze at the grass as we pass through this
journey called life. Life is full of wonderment
everywhere, just seems more mighty in the U.P.
Thanks for the beautiful photos, Steve. I love
this site too.

About the only thing that makes being away from the Keweenaw for six weeks at a time are the pictures I see here. For those of us working away from home for long periods of time, THANK YOU for the pictures. As for the DH Falls, I hate to break the news, but the landowner wanted to stop the destruction at the falls. Marc remembers as I do... The accumulation of loose rock at the base of the cliffs had increased dramatically from rappelling/rock climbing and the abundance of trails were creating channels for more erosion. That coupled with garbage left on the site and people not respecting someone else's private property led to the loss of public access. As much as I hate losing the right to visit the falls, I applaude the owner for making his stand. There had been requests prior to the closing of the land for people to cleanup after themselves and stop the rapelling/climbing, they didn't, so now all of us lose out.

Put this in the almost unreal file. Two years ago I was swimming in a pool in Marathon, Fla. (a middle key between Miami and Key West) and I got to talking to a fellow Michigander. He became aware that I was from the Yoop as it usually is the second thing tell people. He said he went to Michigan Tech in the 70's. My sister and her husband attended Tech at the same time and as a matter of fact, not only did he know them, but they were friends. He went on to say that he loved the Yoop so much, he bought Smith Fisheries! I told him of the times we snuck by the caretaker and went fishing and camping at the mouth of the Montreal. He said that he opened the gate to give everyone access and that he would continue to do so as long as everyone respected his property. I guess, much like DH Falls, someone couldn't stand prosperity.

HOW COULD I FORGET RECALLING THE SOUND OF " THE SYMPHONY OF MUSIC SOUNDS "AS THE WIND BLOWS THRU THE BRANCHES OF THE RED OR WHITE PINE TREES! SURE GOT MOST OF THE ROCK MUSIC BEAT.

Hey Mike,
Didn't know you visited this site. Where are you? Searcher, still? I'm on the Pride.
We're shooting Atwater Valley Area 3/4. Crew-x is next week for us and can't come too soon after a lousy 6 week Christmas trip. I can already hear the chopper...

Sylvia in Washington
The Portage Stn is now located in Dollar Bay, quite an impressive building it is. Send me your E mail and I'll send you a photo of it

Oh yeah, bj-milford, those MTU Web cams _are_ excellent! I liked seeing the "kids" hiking off to/from class just now, slogging thru the snow, bundled up warm, in the winter gloom. (Do they know how good they have it - right here right now? Or are they dreaming of moving to Californyah or Floriduh or Neu Yak Sitty?)
FWIW, here's the link to the cam that got me to thinking:
http://www.admin.mtu.edu/alumni/cams/walkercam/motion-lg.html

To Ned and UP Bama, Thank you for the corrections and more input on Smith Fisheries.

Ned, somewhere along the line I thought Oliver had a brother but only his sister is mentioned.
Thanx for the info, I'll send a note on your private e-mail.

I will never forget the summer of 1955,me-(Tony Shuty)-Jack Sitar-Dean Woodward-Earl Jussila-Jim maki-walked the shore line from the beach on Bete Grise over Bare Bluff to the montreal river--it was about 95 degrees out-we slept on the beach that night--walked the smith fisheries road back out--we then called Earl(dilly )kump for a ride back to Calumet

the correct spelling of Bete Gris - there is no "e" as the "e' has been added in the past few years -like rewriteing history as we seem to be doing. My first summer in Bete Gris was in 1937 until I entered high school in 48. That was were we spent our summers as our grandfather went to the Bay in 1904 and communicated back to Laurium via pigeons. See the new publication of Calumet history from newspaper articles just published from the early 1900's available from Copper World.

Tony Shute. Jack Sitar and Earl "The Butler" Dilly Kump - the 50's were the action was. good to see you on line.

BILL JACKA--the first guy to have contact lenses playing football--I remember you putting them in--hi bill,see you at the reunion--tony

Tony S.
Thought that Bill used the toilet plunger to put them glass things in his eyes. He had a devil of a time putting them in - As long as someone held both lids up they got to where they should be. Had to go all the way to Milwaukee to get them for him.

To Belo - Are you by chance the same Belo
that I used to arm-wrestle with? I remember
doing that when I was visiting your sister at
your house in LL about 20+ years ago...
Doesn't seem like that long ago.

Hello,
My name is Richard Smith. I am the grandson of
Lincoln and Maxine Smith. I remember as a child
vacationing at the fishery with my parents and sister
once a year between the ages of 6 and 10. I am now 29
years old.
I remember the old diesel generator which had to be
fired up each morning. I remeber the detachable
handle which had to be slid on the flywheel. My father
would crank the heavy flywheel as the diesel would go
chug..... chug... chug..chug.chugchudchudchud faster
and faster. He had to pull the handle and flip the switch
in order for it to fire on its own. It was important to pull
the handle of before the diesel ran or the handle could
fly off with great force.
I remember the old wood fired shower house with
the sauna. We used to sit in it and see how hot we
could get the sauna before we couldn't stand it any
more. The plan was to then jump in the icy cold waters
of Superior. What we didn't realise was that the door
knob was made of metal. I recall that I was getting to hot
and I needed to leave. I grabbed the door knob which
was very very hot. Ouch! The ice cold lake never felt so
good.
I remember the hikes to the river. The path followed
the lake shore. I remember crossing land bridges to
stand on the pillers of rock like the pictures above. We
would then hike to the falls to swim.
I recall the little buildings and how my sister and I
would play in them. One time we found some gun
amunition on the floor.
I remember the 7 mile gravel driveway which
seamed to always be in the need of repair. Our then
new 1980 Dodge Aspen had a hard time traversing the
terrain.

Does anybody know the name of the current owner?