• Monday-What'sUP February 6 - 11:56 pm

Back on January 26th, Keweenaw Sheriff Ron Lahti shared a photo of the Smith-Foley home fire in Eagle Harbor. Recently, E. Neil Harri flew over the town and snapped a shot of the remains of the fire, giving us all a good perspective on the location of the historic home. A sad day indeed for the family who owned the home and for the townsfolk too.

Neil also took a picture of that other Eagle town up north, Eagle River. This is our webmaster, Charlie Hopper's stomping grounds and if Neil had snapped the shutter just a hair later than he did, he'd have captured Charlie's back yard!

Good Morning,
Have a great Monday and a wonderful week!!!

Good morning from Mishawaka IN. How horrible. It looks as if the house was completely destoyed. I hope no one was hurt. Was the house occupied when the fire broke out?

Morning All.

Almost every days photos are 'Shoebox Memories' of growing up the the UP. Does anyone know how often the Snow Thermometer Link is updated? Last update was 1-25-06 and I am pretty sure it has been snowing up in the Keweenaw. Hard to believe that even up in Eagle Harbor there is no ice on the Big Lake. Great Superbowl activities over the weekend here in the Motor City. Enjoy the day everyone.

Is Mr. Harri up there alone? Or does he have a helper taking the pics?

AWESOME GALLERY!

Cool shots. You can really pic out the lighthouse.

I like the way you rotated the Pasty Bug to fit the roof on the middle picture. Always that little extra on this site.

A little bit lower in front and you could see the old German Hotel in Eagle River.

Looks like the fire dept did a good job at not letting the fire extend to the house next door.Is it a volunteer or paid dept?

This little village is a gem to visit no matter what time of the year! So sad to learn of the fire.

I think the old German hotel is in the picture. Formerly owned by
Olive Farwell ((Grand?)daughter of Oliver Farwell), now owned by
Jim Vivian w/ the "Gentleman's Club" just below (north) of it.
Then just north of those is the old Eagle Hotel originally owned
by James Phillips. Can you say Phillipsville? The "Last Place on
Earth" used to be owned by Edna Phillips. The Halfway House
(so called because it was half way between Hancock/Houghton
by stage) foundations still can be seen buried in the trees across
41 from the "Last Place on Earth".
Wonderful memories of getting the drunk tank door out of the
third floor of the German with Wilvan Alonzo Gardner in 1964.
Boy, was it thick. Gotta keep those rowdy boys in. Given their
strength it hadda be thick. Reference "Big Jim" who used to get
into fights, and took out too many workers. Finally the company
convinced the constabulary to take him out and put him way out
in the bush attached to a chain and 300 pound iron ball. A half
hour or so later he was belly up to the bar getting his next drink,
with the ball and chain still attached to his ankle. I doubt
anybody argued with him.
Van installed the door in his office door in the house right next
door to you Charlie! Wonderful pix, such detail.

OOPS. I forgot to say halfway between H/H and Copper Harbor.
Also the Halfway House was owned by the original Phillips, sorry
for the goof.

Great arial pics, Neil. Looks like the fire unfortunately took the Smith-Foley home right down to the foundation.

Neat story about the Halfway House, Technoido ;)

Thanks for the Eagle River photo. I can't see the house I use to live in but I do see some of the houses of the folks we were friends with. Most are passed on now but we have great memories of our time living there. Thanks

I always take my own photos.Gettng the plane and camera to work together as one tool is the hobby part. Im have a wider shot of Eagle River. I only cropped this area to highlight my niece Kathys' house on one side of river and cousin Glen on the other side. I am out of town for a few days but will post it when I return.

So sorry to see the remains of the house fire in Eagle Harbor. It brought tears! So sorry to Fred and family but glad to hear that you and Eric are safe at your farm. Hope to see you up on the Copper Falls hill this summer!

Thanks for the Eagle Harbor pict, Neil. I can now visualize the home's location. So very sad to lose such a lovely structure. We admired it every time we drove out or went to the store.

Notroll: Very good! I hadn't noticed the pasty logo in the second shot, but you are right--very cool.

LONG LIVE PASTY!

Randall Ollila,

I just checked the snow thermometer and it was updated today (2/6), it says 195"...

By your email address, I am guessing you work for Roush Industries. My company just sourced some tooling there... May be we may bump into each other some time...

Hi,
The German Hotel in Eagle River was owned by the the Long Family for well over 120 years. Joseph Long was the first and installed the 3rd floor jail when he became Eagle River's first peace officer. Joseph and his wife are buried in the Catholic cemetary at the Cliff. They are one set my maternal Great-great-grandparents. When Joseph died the property passed to his sons. My Great-grandfather Henry Long could not abide by his brother William's bride and "sold" his half of the Eagle River property for a team of horses and moved to Hubbell and work with C&H. Two of William's children occupied the place from the 1920's into the '60's. Katie and Henry Long were Eagle River institutions. Their brother Frank and his son Alan lived across the bridge south of the lighthouse. Henry died first, and when Katie passed away she left the property to Alan's daughter Bonnie. Bonnie died in an accident and the property, I believe went to Alan. I am not sure of the events after this since I was away in the Army etc. Eventually the property was sold outside the family. Weather this was to the Farwell mentioned above, I do not know. Jim Vivian has done a great job restoring the place and even located the original bar from the saloon.
The "bar" gun that was kept under that bar remains with our branch of the family. Until the Vivian era, the hotel was painted cream with brown trim. Every summer we would bring gallons of that paint up from Kenosha because it was the cheapest Henry could find. If you knew Henry, you understand this. I knew Van Gardener got one of jail doors which had to be a remarkable bit of negotiation since Katie and Henry did not readily part with any artifacts from the hotel.
There is still a Long in Eagle River - the family has been part of the community for over 160 years.

Olive Farwell lived in Lake Linden in the Daniel Brockway home until her death.....(Brockway Mountain was named after him)...she was the Brockway grandaughter. I lived in the home with Miss Farwell for a short period of time. My apartment had a grandfather clock which was owned by Daniel Brockway. I enjoyed tea and interesting conversation with Miss Farwell and only wish I had taken notes.

I stand more informed. All of my info came from Wilvan Gardner,
my mother's cousin. He was, of course, never wrong (in his own
mind).
Thank you Paul and Mary Lou for the additional history.
I remember Alan Long and all the cars he had in the yard. Also a
shed that he had, that according to Van, that had rafters spaced
too far apart (cheap may be a genetic thing, eh?).
Amongst the postcards in my family stuff is one mentioning Mrs.
Long's death in 1909.
Does anyone know much about Anna Brockway Gray, one of
D.D.s daughters? She was, I believe, the first woman graduate of
the U of M's medical school. A picture of D.D., after he went
blind, hung in Van's house in Eagle River. Just below it, stuck in
the corner of the room was D.D.s octagonal walking stick. I have
a picture of Van's father's living room in his home in Laurium
which shows the same picture. It shows him holding the stick.
My connection w/ Eagle River only goes back 135 years. My
maternal grandmother arrived there in 1871, with her parents.
She was 7 at the time.

James, I remember Van and Alan as I lived in town from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. It was always hard to get away from Van once he got you into the house. And Alan helped me with projects over the years, like my septic system and such. There wern't many folks in town during the winter months but it was peacefull.

James....my grandfather, Anselm Studer, arrived in Copper Harbor in about 1880, he was newly discharged from the Swiss army. He was a stonemason and built foundations, etc at Copper Falls. He spoke German so I imagine the German speaking club was an important outlet for him until he went to work in 1884 for my great-grandfather, Johann Fretter, (also a German stonemason from Heinsburg, West Phalia)... at Quincy Mine....Anselm married Johann's daughter Maria Fretter.....they eventually settled in Lake Linden to raise their family.

PS...........I should add that our own, Mary Drew's great-grandfather came to the Copper Country with my grandfather, Anselm. They were from the same village in Switzerland and life-long, best friends.

Mary says: Wow, that's pretty neat, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know that, guess I'm going to have to take some time and look into my ancestors and their lives!

Thanks for setting the record straight on the Old German Hotel, Paul. The property remained in the Long family until 1999 when Allen's daughters (I'm one of them) sold it to Jim Vivian Sr. I agree, the Vivian's have done a great job with the place. Mary Long

OK - I see the German Hotel and the Saloon now. I really thought that it was further down the hill toward the lake. My error.

To Anne and John Kentucky----the Eagle Harbor fire department is a volunteer department. We are all grateful that surrounding structures were not severely damaged.