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Some other links of recent interest to Pasty Cam watchers:
• Ancestors 2006  • New Arrivals 2006
•2006 Pasty Fest Poetry Contest
Eight years ago on the Pasty Cam: 6/21/98^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Copper Country residents have their own shorthand when it comes to road names. Most are very descriptive, like the "Houghton Canal Road" and the one above, the "Eagle Harbor shortcut." Eight years ago, the road from US41 to Eagle Harbor was closed for repairs -- today, it is the road to Eagle River that is getting a face-lift.

Don't forget to cast your vote for your favorite photos for the Pasty Cam Calendar. Find the photo and send the URL to 2007Calendar@pasty.com. And Pasty Fest is just 10 days away.

--Dean Woodbeck, Pasty.NET

Good morning.

Good morning UP! My husband and I are planning a trip to Copper Harbor Aug 1-5. We would like to see and do as much as we can. So I would like to ask the people who know. Where are the best rock hunting beaches, the best places to eat, and great things to do and see. The pictures posted on this site have really inspired us to drive from Indiana to visit. Also, how will the bugs beand is there anywhere to buy smoked fish up there? Thanks for your help.

I hope it's not M-26 that's closed cuz that's got the best view of any place in the world.

Happy 1st day of summer to all! Cindy, you will have a great Copper Harbor vacation! Every resturant has great food. The lighthouses are a neat thing to see, but plan on taking the Sunset Criuse on the Queen! Venturing out into the shipping lanes of Lake Superior with the possibility of doing freighter chasing. It is awesome!

58 Days till we are upnorth. August 19th is just not coming fast enough. :)

Check out the waterfalls, Cindy!

The have waterfall guides that you can pick up in several places. What an adventure to drive around and find them all. Plus all the other sites you will find while looking for the falls!

Morning all!

Hi-

Hate to be a downer, but does anyone know what's going on with Mary at the Sand Hills Lighthouse? My hubby's parents just stayed there and she wasn't there. When someone else asked Bill about her, he said that she might not be back and looked upset about it.

If she's ill, is there somewhere we can send her a card???

Thanks!

Cindy: Be sure to eat at the Harbor Haus in Copper Harbor and take your binoculars in with you. On one visit, we saw an eagle, scuba divers, a freighter, sailboats, Sharon's house and more! All while eating the best food ever!

It has been years since my wife and I ventured out to Copper
Harbor, but I still remember the fine meal we had at the Harbor
Haus. We loved all the hummingbirds we saw outside the
windows too -- a lot prettier to see than those nasty buzzards
featured today on Pasty.com.
If you have a chance, check out the Weather Channel this
morning. They have reports from Mackinac Island. The reporter
is young and not too knowledgeable, but you have to love the
views of the island!

Hi everyone,
A FYI. I was looking at the Mining Journal site today (one of five UP News sites I look at each day) and saw an article on Fred Rydholm's new book, "Michigan Copper, the Untold Story." He puts forth that Europeans were mining copper in the UP before Columbus. Interesting idea if you like that sort of thing. Anyway, here's a link if you are interested in the story:

http://www.miningjournal.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=4327

Get a pasty in Houghton

Or better yet, get a Pasty Central Pasty, when Pasty Central Express opens in July. The new drive through will be located next to the Hut in Kearsarge.

I see by the Mining Gazette online that the Snow Thermometer has been replaced with a new one, and has a new arrow to replace one long missing. Anybody get a pic of the new installation?

Cindy,
Peterson's Fish Market is right across the highway from the Arcadian Mine Tours as you are heading north on US41. You could hit them both at the same time. The smoked fish at Peterson's is awesome. Really awesome.

Thanks everyone! This is a special trip for us. We are celebrating our 20th anniversary and my birthday. I have spent my last three birthdays in Leland, and Grayling on Lake Margrethe. This year I wanted to go farther north and my husband is looking forward to this trip alot. I have been UP there before(26 yrs ago) and I never get tired of going to Michigan. My husband and I are real nature lovers so Michigan has always been special to us.

Margaret,
Where's the best pasty in Houghton? Our finest pasty has always been found in Larium at Tony's,
or, of course, through Pasty Central who tides us over until our annual visit to Da UP every October!

Interesting story, Richard. I know you're an archaeologist, so I'm curious what your thoughts are about that article. My minor was in history, and if I remember right, Europeans were in North America before Columbus. The Vikings sailed to the East Coast of Canada and built a little village at L'Anse aux Meadows (not sure if I remember the name right). But the settlement didn't last long.

I am a bit dubious about a few claims in the article. Just how was it determined that 10 to 50 million pounds of copper were mined from the prehistoric pits. And just when was this "Golden Age" when all people lived in peaceful harmony together? And I think Mr. Rydholm, who proposed this hypothesis, also claims that ancient Egyptians lived in Southern Illinois. I am not sure if he actually has any archeological training. Lastly, I thought dolmen were Neolithic aged burial chambers. If these glacial erratics were indeed dolmen, wouldn’t someone have noticed the remains or indications of a burial chamber under them by now?

I’d like to see the data he uses to defend this hypothesis. If Mr. Rydholm is a scientist, I'm sure he understands the importance of peer review and that it is our job to question and test hypotheses.

we always get pasties at Suomi Restaurant in Houghton..its on Huron Ave going towards the lake from Sheldon Ave.

They also used to have great pasties at the bakery next to the LODE theater...not sure if that is still open or not.

Dr. Nat, I can't comment on specifics without reading the book, but . . . I am dubious at best. There are many claims of runestones in the country, but none have been proven legitimate, so there is no evidence of Viking (or other Scandanavian) exploration. There is evidence of extensive trade of Lake Copper though. Because of its silver content, you can identify Lake Copper. It has been found in the southeast as far south as Florida, and into Mexico and into the west. There have also been sharks teeth found in the Upper Great Lakes showing evidence of long trade routes. An academic book on the subject is Dr. Susan Martin's "Wonderful Power: The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin." She spent a number of years looking at it, and I think I would go with her explanations first. I don't know Mr. Rydholm, ( I believe Mary Lou Curtin knows him though) but I know he did a local history of the Marquette area. But I just can't accept Europeans mining and trading copper from the Lake prior to Columbus without leaving a record of it anywhere.

Boy, it is easy to go on a tear when you get going on Keweenaw Copper isn't it?

I've lived in a number of places and it seems like every place has its share of amateur archaeologists and their conspiracy theories about ancient civilizations. I am always dubious about hypotheses that lack substantial data to back them.

It is very true about identifying Lake Copper-- that's more in my realm of expertise. My archaeology knowledge is limited and most of that is in the field known as geoarchaeology. I did, however, work with an archaeologist when I was at Wisconsin. He was doing a study of pre-Columbian trade routes of the American Indians. We were using microprobe and other geologic techniques to "fingerprint" trade materials and trace the extent that they traveled.

I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Dr. Martin some years ago. It was a fascinating talk.

Richard and Dr Nat...Very interesting discussion!!....Fred is the author of Superior Heartland....much of the history is from his personal knowledge of the folks in the area and interesting history of the "monied" Easterners that settled Marquette and and established the mysterious HMC (Huron Mountain Club)....He is interested in prehistoric copper mining... Professor Roy Drier and Octave Dutemple's book "Prehistoric Mining in the Lake Superior Region"..is one of his favorites. I also know in "Red Metal" there is reference to the great Calumet and Hecla Mining Co. being established on copper found in a prehistoric pit....I believe he is a retired school teacher. He is a very interesting fellow. I know nothing of his latest interest in early Europeans....but I want to read the book.

Hyvää kesä, jokainen! trans = Have a good summer, everybody! Had some thunderboomers and a little rain earlier. Interesting talk about the earlier copper mining and trade, 'eh?

Actually, many of the mines were located on prehistoric pits. If you wander around the Minesota/Mass Mine areas, some of the pits are still, but barely, visible. If your lucky, you can also find hammerstones around those areas.

It would be very interesting to test some of the copper in Europe that is claimed to be Lake Copper. The Keweenaw is not the only place in the world native copper is found. Cyprus (which copper gets its name from) was the first major source of pure copper. As a matter of fact, most of Europe has copper mines, especially Germany and the UK. Any one of those places could be a potential source for native copper used by people in Europe.

Getting back to testing the copper. Today, you can run the copper through a variety of machines that will chemical fingerprint a mineral. In the case of Lake Copper, it can be easily distinguished by its relatively high silver and arsenic content.

Capt Paul.....Arsenic????...Did not know our lake-copper contained "relativly high levels of arsenic".....does not sound good. Could this be a problem for the dinking water??...much of the Copper Country has for years received there water from Lake Superior...even here in Delta county on our bluffs they use Lake Superior water....do they test people for "relativly high levels of arsenic"?

Last summer, while taking a course on the Six
Nations Reserve outside of Brantford, Ontario,
I visited a museum. The guide showed us
items made from copper which he said had
come from native mines on Isle Royale. He
said it had come via the trade routes. There
was no mention of Europeans being involved.

I should have known not to mention arsenic, hehe..... As far as I know, there is no worry about it in the water supply. I don't think any town in the Keweenaw even treats for it, that's how litle of it there is. However, the mines around Mohawk and Ahmeek have it concentrated enough to produce some strange minerals like Domeykite, which is a natural copper/arsenic/nickel/cobalt alloy.

Sorry for the alarm, but I don't think it is anything to stay awake at night over......

Kosk...A Yooper friend of mine, from Lake Linden was recently working on a Documentry-film regarding Pre-historic mining in Canada. He married a French-Canadian girl and they live in Montreal...he does a lot of research in museums..I think the Canadians do a great job on Documentry film.....If you want to learn more about the film E-mail me directly and I will send you his E-mail address....

Kosk.....They think that the pre-historic miners on Isle Royale came from somewhere south of the Keweenaw..est.5000 yrs ago......came into the south-entry..had a campsite at Ripley...came down Portage Lake....through the Cuts....docked at Lake Linden...portaged their canoes through the peninsula then went on to Isle Royale.....they think they were not slaves because they took they dead when they left in the fall. They stored their copper in the pits......one year they did not come back....I spent a lot of time on our dock at Bootjack thinking of the pre-historic miners going past our camp in their canoes....