The Upper Peninsula is built around its natural resources... Lumber, Iron and Copper, back in the day, and nature's beauty in our time. Another very important resource is: the people who live here. So many historical societies and preservation groups are scattered across the U.P. We host several of their websites at pasty.com, and are proud to be a part of their efforts. Two of our own staff have provided today's views from the Pasty Cam archives: Jon Hopper, in 1998, with a group at the Douglass Houghton monument in Eagle River, and Mary Drew in 2008 with the action in Lake Linden when the historic Village Hall was under maintenance.

Side note: The Keweenaw Historical Society maintains the monument in Eagle River. It was on this day back in 1845 that Douglass Houghton died somewhere offshore, with his body being recovered the next spring.

Today's video is a unique historical artifact found in the southern U.P. Any ideas what it could be?

Have a good week :o)

You'd think it would have something to do with the
smelting process. But that's so obvious they would
have already looked into that angle.

To me it looks like some sort of ornament or decoration. Maybe a religious symbol. The item the curator identified as a "handle" was probably a mounting point. The "handle" went into a hole to hold the ornament in place on top of a piece of furniture or in a hole drilled into the end of a pole.

Fly swatter or a One Way Street sign?