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Good Morning !!

Ditto from sunny Florida...well, at least it will be sunny when the sun comes up! :)

Morning!

Hi and very good winterday from Finland

http://www.finlandphoto.vapaalla.org/index.php

It's a fine 68 degrees this morning!....That would be in the house...TO: Yoopers...I am still finding my way around the U.P. i need a good source of cherry wood for a project....Da wife project...any good sources in the U.P?

Mornin' and those two little tikes look like they could do some damage to the snow.

Good morning everyone. And the big question around here in Indiana is, "will we see any snow, before the end of winter?"
Whitewaves, Try emailing John Dee about a place in da UP to find Cherry Wood, as he has worked on several wood projects. So whatcha making your wife? Inquiring minds on Pasty Cam want to know ;)

Day number 8, until Marc returns home to da UP and his family :)

ILoveLucy: Did DJ make it home safe and sound?

Good morning from Mishawaka, IN. It's sunny and chilly but supposed to get up to 42 or so.To warm for snow. If this were the end of March I'd be thilled with the weather but it isn't. Some day we'll have snow again but will it be this winter? I have the day off for MLK Day. I'll be going to lunch with some friends I don't see often during the school year.

My college roommate (from Bellingham, WA but originally Duluth) wrote me about a book she was reading--"Ursula Under" by Ingrid Hill. Hill based her fictional account on a real accident of a little girl from Calumet who fell into an abandoned mine. Recalling the incident, I checked with a local Gundlach VP who assisted in the rescue attempt. This is what the retired engineer wrote me: "The shaft was on 6th or 7th Street about 200 feet north of M-203. I got a call from Winks (Gundlach) about noon on a Saturday to mobilize a crew and take a crane up there and do whatever we could to aid the C&H rescue crew....We got a crew together to meet at a Tech jobsite to shorten the boom on a mobile crane so that we could travel to Calumet. There were an operator, a truck driver and about 6 ironworkers involved. We arrived at the mine site about 2:30 and installed a smaller cable (1/4 inch) on the reel of the crane so that we could get he maximum length possible. Seems like we lowered a C&H foreman down about 600 feet in the shaft till we encountered some debris and realized it would be futile to go any further. He may have encountered some clothing shreds on the debris....It was late 50's or early 60's. I believe there is a plaque at the site of the disaster." I think a great deal has been done since then to cap, fence off, or do whatever is necessary to safeguard the abandoned mines.

While home in October, my sibs and I visited w/George and Babe Williams in Houghton. George was the C & H engineer in charge of the rescue and all the logistics. He recounted some of the details when asked by my brother. I remember that week/weekend and was in high school. Very Very Sad.

To JAD: I lived in the area when that little girl fell into the mine. I don't think it was late 50's or early 60's though. I think it was more like the late 60's. That was a very sad time for everybody. Our hearts went out to that family. Everything is closed down now and there in the spot that she was lost, I believe, is her tombstone. I believe she was with her brother at the time. I'm glad that everything is made safer now. It was very dangerous to live around there during those times.

Usedtobeayooper: I think JAD's timeline is close. I moved downstate in the summer of '66 and remember that little girl falling down that shaft. We were still living in Fulton when it happened, so I'm thinking spring/summer of '65.

This was posted in the Archives on the April 16, 2003 Pasty Cam page and will clear up the date questioned above:

By Dave Whitten, MI on Sunday, April 20, 2003 - 07:29 pm:

The little girl that lost her life by falling down the shaft was Ruth Ann Miller. Born July 16th, 1958 and declared gone on July 16th, 1966. Her grave site is just north of Calumet and fenced off in a rather isolated area. Her mother has since passed away, was cremated, and is in the same site. I was a high school student and up there when they were trying to save her life. My uncle, Russel Nelson, was an engineer for C & H and although he tried to help, he knew, as did others, that there was little hope. I so remember seeing her mom on the porch of her home not so far away watching and praying for some good end. This sad memory has caused me to visit her grave site every time I visit the area. I have pictures of the area if anyone is interested.
Dave Whitten

I would love to have pictures of the area that the little girl is buried in also. I would also like to know exactly how to get there. Whenever I'm in Calumet on my visits to the Copper Country, I think of this little girl who lost her life in this mine. I'd forgotten that her mother chose to be buried with her but after reading the letter from Mr. Whitten, it brought back the memory of that also. I still feel so sad for this family. I thought it was more toward the late 60's that this had happened basically because I remember it so vividly. Thank you for the information.

My source was Paul Frair, A VP, now retired, of Gundlach. Appears he, George Nelson and Russell Nelson were all involved in the rescue which had to be aborted. Thanks to Mary for pinpointing the date and others for their comments. It was an event which most of us viewed with horror and pain for the family. Has anyone read Hill's book? There were mixed reviews on Amazon.com and I could not find it among "local reading" at either of the two bookstores in Houghton, although I will stop in and recommend it as an addition.

Seems to me we found an old mine entrance when we visited Fort Wilkins with my family. It was when I was a young teen in the early 50's.It just looked like a big dent in the ground with leaves and twigs on the ground and all around it. I remember thinking at the time how easy it would be to step into that sunken spot not knowing what it was, and falling down the mine. Gives me chills to this day.

Here is a link to some pictures of the Tamarack #4 Mine site where Ruth Ann Miller fell in: Tamarack4

If anyone wants directions, email me using the contact form on that web page.