• Thursday-What'sUP May 19 - 07:10 am

This weekend is filled with so many things to do, nobody in the Keweenaw can complain about being bored. Of course there's the Benefit Concert at the Historic Calumet Theater Saturday evening at 7 p.m.. There you can listen to a variety of local musicians, with proceeds benefiting Still Waters Assisted Living. But before you head up there for a night of music, make sure you stop in Lake Linden at the Houghton County Historical Museum, shown in the background of the first shot by Carl Kiilunen. You'll get to see history in action with steam train rides around the tracks (shown in the second photo) and over the new trestle, along with an antique tractor, car and old gas engine show on the campus grounds. There will be music, raffles and numerous historical presentations throughout Saturday from 10-4 and Sunday 12-4. For more information about the happenings of those two days, check out the Historical Society Calendar of Events. Be sure to get out this weekend and enjoy the music, trains, tractors and more!

Speaking of the concert on Saturday, did you see the article on the front page of the Mining Gazette yesterday? Jeff Valley left Still Waters on his bike yesterday - which is only 4 blocks away from the Calumet Theatre - but he headed in the opposite direction... Around the world? Well, maybe not that extreme, but he did set out around the Keweenaw Peninsula. Yesterday Jeff covered the loop from Calumet, down to the Portage Canal at Hancock, along the eastern shore. He ended up late last night at Bete Gris! Altogether about 75 miles of peddling.

Jeff spent the night as a guest of Lac LaBelle Lodge, and is starting out this morning around the point, out to High Rock Bay, and ending up this evening - after a gruelling day in the woods - at Copper Harbor. All along the way Jeff is leaving posters and invitations for everyone to enjoy an evening at the Calumet Theatre on Saturday.

Cool pictures Mary. Brings you back, doesn't it?

Go Jeff Go!!

I remember when I lived in Lake Linden how some people said, "That'll never go!! Nobody wants to ride those stinky, smokey things anymore". I guess the nay-sayers were proven wrong...

To me, it was shame that the tracks were pulled between Hancock and Calumet. I always thought that would have made a great route for a historical/mining steam locomotive tour.

I agree!!Maybe have lunch on the line to go with it. We only have coal trains here.

I hated to see the trains tracks pulled out too. My cousin Goerge Hokenson worked as an engineer for the Soo railroad for years. As a kid, I'd wave at him & he'd blow the whistle when his train came thru Hubbell. Then later he did the same for my boys. But my little stinkers would lay pennies on the tracks to see them get flattened. I learned this years later.
These little stinkers also collected bottles that they found when the new sewer system was being built & the ground was all dug up in Hubbell. In the 70's I think. They brought them to the museum in Lake Linden.. They were pretty old. Guys (Big stinkers now LOL) should stop to see if they'd recognize them now.

My mother and I took the train from Hancock to Calumet in morning to visit and back at night, just seems like yesterday.

In 1952 my mother and I returned to Hubbell on the train from Detroit, my dad had just got a job working for Chrysler and we went and visited him. Those were the days when there was no work in the CC.In the cars they had water containers with little cups. The conductor finally gave me a glass becaus I had drank so much water that there were no paper cups left. These cups made excellent indian teepees for my fort set. The trip seemed to never end, to a kid, but mom enjoyed the ride. Her dad was killed on the railroad, was the brakeman I think, she was brought up loving trains and that is why she enjoyed the ride. Like Cotton I remember the train coming through town and the engineer waving to us, but at that time his name was Thompson. Flattened many pennies myself. Anyone remember Madam Delange, she had a notions store in Hubbell. Great lady, had the best comic books around. Once when I was a little short she took one of my flattened pennies. Got it back from her after I had grown up. The trains were a part of our daily life in those days.

Ah the memories..My dad was at one time the janitor at the C & H dispensory, the building in the background in the first picture. Many times we brought him a warm lunch packed by my mom. We now know it as the Historical Society headquarters and support it by being a member and visiting every time we get to the Copper Country.At one time I took a train trip from Calumet through Chicago to Lorain, Ohio to sign on for a job on a lake freighter.

Is the Museum handicap accessible yet? It would be nice if it was.

I love trains and miss hearing them every day. Growing up they went right by our house. Once in awhile now I can hear one blowing off in the distance. Sure brings back memories.

Fran,

You're right. There's nothing like that lone,
long whistle. Remember how it broke people
up to hear Arlo Guthrie sing the New Orleans
song about the train after Katrina?

We have a train that goes by about 1 mile from our house. I love the sound of the whistle as it approaches but get awfully ticked off when the arms start to go down just as I'm arriving on my way to work. Sometimes they're extremely long and you wait for 5 to 10 minutes. Other times they're short and it's just nice to watch them go by and read everything that people have written on the cars. But the tracks are gone up in our woods behind our house in Lake Linden. As kids we spent so much time up there walking across the trestles. We'd put our ears on the tracks to see if we could hear one coming and then make a dash to see if we could beat it. Sometimes kids just don't think. But it sure was fun. Kids are missing out today, that's for sure. As we got older we followed the tracks up to Calumet. It made for a nice walk but then we hated the trek home cuz we were tired. Again, kids don't think.