• Sunday-What'sUP April 9 - 08:21 pm

I hope you don't mind another shot of Eagle River, Michigan, but - hey, that's where we live. Although, we didn't live here at the time of this photo, which apparently was made about 30 years before I was born (is that all?) This is a pretty famous old picture, the subject of postcards, and hanging on many'a wall. I've always wanted to scan it from the Tech Archives, but Brad Curtin beat me to it, finding a copy in a second hand store in Green Bay.

You can see the old gas pump in front of the General Store in the second close up. We happen to live in the former home of a lady who ran the store for many years, Edith Yokie. I can imagine the countless times Edith walked down the hill on this side of the river (West Main Street), across the lower bridge to the store on East Main Street. Wonder what gas prices were back then?

Let me say how much I appreciate so many hundreds of friends we have met through this website, who take the time to share a thought or two on these pages. We're looking forward to meeting many of you at this year's PastyFest on July 1 in Calumet. Maybe later in the evening it will be a nice day for a drive up the Peninsula to watch the sunset in Eagle River, right off the beach at the end of the street in today's Shoebox Memory.

Have a good week :o)

Good morning on this lovely Sunday!

Sorry, posted on the wrong page. :(

Isn't that gas station where we get the ice cream from? At least we used to. You couldn't go through Eagle River without getting an ice cream cone. My friend Sue, who died a couple of years ago last January, had her ashes spread in Eagle River summer before last. Her family had a cabin there and it was the place she loved the most. I still think of her often.

Is it possible to have pastyfest the first week of August rather than the first week of July? I dont' mean this year, but maybe next. Charlie, you make it sound so great that I really want to go and would love to meet some of these people that I converse with daily but just can't get off the first week of July. It's something to think about, eh:)

Great shots of old time Eagle River! A girl that I graduated with has some kind of craft shop in Eagle River though I've never been there. I will have to consider that this year.

Hi from the LP from kosk and her dad. We have a water color of that very view of Eagle River on the wall of the hallway here at my dad's house. I love that picture. It was painted by a gentleman by the name of Alfred Steck. Does anyone know anything about him?

Great shot of Eagle River. We used to vacation there.

I remember swimming in Eagle River with my cousins from California back in 1949. I was about 6 years old and from Calumet. One of my cousins, who was about 12 years old, got a blood sucker on his leg and my aunt had his brother urinate on the sucker and it fell off. I guess this blood sucker story is why I remember it so clearly.

Roy, That's the strangest story I've ever heard. I've never heard of getting bloodsuckers off that way but whatever works. Actually, I've never even seen a bloodsucker in Lake Superior. I've seen them in Portage and Torch, but never Lake Superior. I can see why you don't forget that.

Hi Brad.....Love your picture of Eagle River in the "OLD" Days....hope they never tear down the old bridge and I understsand there is a group of citizens working to save it. Even I am not old enough to remember the 1920s but this looks so familiar..guess it never changed very much throughout the years. This was a drive we took every year when my Parents,...visited my Grandparents, (your Great-Grandparents)..in Lake Linden..... Had to make the drive to "The Harbor" at least once a year....

I LOVE the old pics and love the old cars in them! My dad restores Model A's and during the summer, we drive around Jacobsville in a coupe and truck from that era!!

Save the Eagle River bridge.

wish I could step into the old picture and walk down that street.I would like to see a photo of how this street looks today.Anyone have one to add. I like the then and now Pictures.Is the old gas pump still around.

just super pictures. these older pictures are the greatest. we see a lot of sunsets but I think the pics of the past are better

jim

https://pasty.com/pcam/homesick/ERw_75
This is a photo in later years looking down the street the same way, closer to the lower bridge though, about the only two things that look the same is the house right off the end of the bridge and one farther down the block, the houses in between have changed plus the trees have really grown.
Gordy

Hi Kosk! Hi Kosk's dad!

Love Sundays, for the old pics...and the history they tell. A moment in time, frozen forever ;)

Hey Deb,
I know how you feel about missing Pastyfest. I crew-x on the 5th and will miss it as well this year. I'm asking my wife to take some photos, for me:(

Great old photo!
The Sibilski family owned and operated the store for most of it's existance as a general store. Doug and Impy Sibilski were the last of the family to run it. I believe Edith ran it after they did and may have skipped a couple of years when Doug and Impy returned from Kenosha. Doug broke his arm one year in an attempt to rescue a motorist who missed the corner while headed south on M-26 (the intersection was just below where the photographer was standing). Doug plunged down the ravine to save the guy, fell, and broke his arm. The motorist, of course, was not injured.
Back in the '50's Edith Yokie's son Alvin was home for the Summer the same time we were up on vacation. I spent some time with him as he had some knowledge of railroads and I was a fascinated 9 or 10 year-old. Legend has it that Alvin was a bit of a prankster, having installed a speaker down in the two-hole privy just before a family picnic. Microphone in hand, from the vantage point of his bedroom window, he would wait until someone needed to use the facility.....
Mrs Mahelich (sp?)was the next in line to run the store. All in all, the Eagle River Store holds alot of good memories.
Note the the dark rectangle down at the end of the street by the lake. That appears to the remains of the Phoenix Hotel fire place now hidden in the trees.
During the era of this photo, my mother remembered Long's geese having the run of the town and terrorizing young children, not that the children were innocent. My mother and my uncle counter attacked by throwing rocks at the geese from the lower bridge whenever the geese swam in the river.

Gosh.....not to much has changed. I love Eagle River it is such a peaceful place. My dear friend Mary Long lives in her family home and was good enough to let me recoup after heart surgery a few years ago......I fell in love with the area.

Don't let the few who might not care about your wonderful Eagle River.....you know the kind...destroy your history or your land for the greed of money. Remember the ones gone before, the ones who made this little spot of Paradise what it is. Go to your meetings, pick your fights and our great grand children will reap the rewards for your efforts to keep Eagle River what it is......A wonderful, peaceful blessed little town.


I am saddened that the old bridge is not being fixed....how did they ever let the bridge go for so long ?? I am saddened that the owners of the old hotel where the first Houghton County Jail exsisted destroyed a bit of history when they made a room for their bed and breakfast ...... the History up here should be preserved in every way possible. This area is so unique from it's beginning, to the first hardy people that endured all the hardships to establish this area for generations to come.

I have been here for over 10 years now, (from Detroit burbs) there is not much I don't like .....the long winters get to me. This is truly a bit of Paradise......

Keep the old stories comming.....I love them !!!

God Bless you all.......Hugs

Marc, At least your wife gets to go. Everybody will have to take pictures and post them so we can see what everybody looks like.

Kosk, Hope you're enjoying your time with your dad. Hi Kosk's dad.

Sur5er, I envy you getting to spend time at the beach in April. I'd love that. Looking at that old picture of Eagle River I told my husband how great it would have been to grow up right there. You could run down to the lake whenever you wanted to. It's not that it was that far a drive, but to have it basically in your own back yard would have been a dream come true. We're supposed to have 70's this week so I could go to the lake, but it's not "THE LAKE" so what's the point.

Sorry, That should have been on the "What's UP" page. Hi Dave.

Helen, You said it all. I too love Eagle River. I think it is a beautiful spot and should be preserved in every way possible. We can't take a drive to Copper Harbor without stopping at the Falls, driving down to the lake, stopping at the roadside park, etc. And the little falls right outside of Eagle River get honorable mention too. It's too bad the flood got rid of the little motel that was there. The area is rich in history. I hope they can repair the bridge. Eagle River is where I got my first driver's license. My girlfriend's ashes are spread along the beach there. It's just a beautiful spot. I want my grandchildren to go and see what an historic place the area is. Please fight the battle.

Thank you for the kind words.....&^)

if i have my bearings right, the lighthouse is just over the bridge
out of frame to the left, and us41 is behind the photographer,
right?

er...not us41, thats would be m26.....right??

John, Yes, it's M26 and you're right about everything else.

Mr Steck lived in Eagle River - his wife still does. She was the French teacher at Calumet High School. I think they had a store in Calumet called Steck's. He was a very talented artist - I recall seeing quite of few of his paintings.

Helen, you get a nod from me as well. My beautiful wife and I were married in Eagle River, in the old courthouse, then held court at Fitzgeralds and I would hate to see that wonderful old courthouse or any others there lost to time and lack of care. I hope when I'm old and grey, well older and greyer anyway, that I can still drive up and see it how it was when we were married there.

Some time ago--can't recall and can't find the message-- someone wrote that they had a watercolor by Alden Steck of the scene above. Could that person contact me please as I have a similar piece.

Paul, last Sunday we were discussing Calumet Football in the 20s (same timeframe as this photo) and George Gipp.....question was: what was the relationship between Manila Gipp, who died recently at age 103, and George Gipp? If I remember correctly, you had a connection to the Gipp family....do you know the answer?

5Mr5os--

Thank you so much for that information about
the Stecks. I will pass it on to my dad (just
drove back from the LP to Toronto) as well. I
set him up to have this website as a favorite,
but he still finds his computer rather
challenging, which is too bad because he
would really love this site!

Sur5er and Usedtobeayooper--I'll pass on
your good wishes to my dad too.

The Steck family has lived in E.R. for a long time. I've also heard
of the 'Phoenix' Hotel which burned in 1913ish refered to as the
Eagle River Inn, please someone correct me. I heard this from
the current owners of the Antique/Ice Cream Shop. They used to
own the building across the street from the Phoenix/E.R. Inn,
which was called the Eagle Hotel. I have a pix of it circa 1910 in
my family archives. James Phillips (as in Phillipsville) and his
relatives are sitting on the porch. I have a very high definition
scan (25 Mbytes). that I've taken off the print. Also have a
picture of one of the fireplaces in the 'Phoenix'. Quite faded. Still
trying to figure out if the chimney that's still standing is it.

Message for Jim Vivian: what will it take to save the lower bridge
as a pedestrian bridge? I know we're talking $$$$ here. But there
are still angels in this world. Let's get an estimate, then lets see
what us pasty cammers could do. To still have three bridges of
three different eras extant so close together is just too cool.
Let's hope that the old (but not the original) upper bridge stays
for many years. It affords the absolute best view of the falls and
also the timber construction of the new bridge. When an old
bridge is gone, so is part of our heritage.

Gordy Thanks for the link on an updated photos of Eagle River. What a fascinating looking town. Hard to belive its not restored with an orginal looking hotel. and bed and breakfast and little shops selling fishing mining boating and light house and falls things.Walkways to walk to the lighthouse and beach and falls. Picnics.events with people dressed in costume of the old days.A river, a falls ,a lighthouse and the lake all in one place what a wonderful place.

Great old pics of Eagle River; doesn't seem like the town has changed much in what, 80 or so years?? One of the old families of Eagle River is the Long's. I feel lucky to know Mary Long, whose parents lived there for many years. One day I got to go through her Father's barn, and let me tell you it was like stepping into a time capsule of history... absolutely amazing!! I guess sometimes being a pack-rat has its advantages ;-)

great pic.s nice to see

Deb S(usedtobeayooper)
My Aunt Sue had her ashes spread there. It is where some of my family is from, Some still live there (The Hill's)

I have to believe we are writing about the same Sue.

The first part of August would also be a better time for me to attend pastyfest. I can never get time off in July. :-(

Just like anything else one date won't work for everyone. But maybe the Fest could be offered alternately July one year and August the other year? For what it's worth.

Love the old pics of my favorite spot UP there.