• Saturday-What'sUP October 28 - 09:43 pm

Today we get a closer look into the history of mining in the Ripley area, courtesy of Casey Coolich. By the looks of everything attached and protruding from this engine, there's more to driving a rail train than just hopping on and manning the controls. Casey's third picture has a blend of buildings that, in their day, were busy with a flurry of mining activities. It also gives us another good example of how the Jacobsville sandstone was put to use here in the Copper Country. I'm not certain what these buildings were used for in the mining process, but I'm sure someone out there in Pasty Cam Land, can fill us in.

Don't forget to turn your clock back an hour tonight, for an extra hour of sleep. Technically you're supposed to do it at 2:00 a.m., but I'm not going to set my alarm to get up then, so I hope it's OK to turn it ahead before I call it a night! :->

Best thing would be to turn it back before calling it a night. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. have a good day

When the kids were little we'd sneak the clocks back early in the evening so they'd go to bed an hour early. Were we ever mean, eh? I always turn mine back before bed. I will not get up at 2:00. I doubt anybody does.

You should get up at 2:00 AM, and set back your clock one hour to 1:00 AM, then go look out your window to the east. If it is a clear night you will see a green flash on the horizon at precisely the official time change. ;>)

Deb S.
what a great idea to getting the kids to bed an hour early.I think I will try it tonight. ha-ha.

OOPSY Joanne, That won't work in the fall, but do it in the spring. Sorry. Then you turn them ahead WAY early!! They don't know the difference. It would work against you tonight. LOL However, in the fall it makes you feel like you're finally getting to bed early. LOL

Dave, that sounds cool!

This the Quincy smelter property at Riply. The steam engine is Chicago & North Western #175. A secound loco Copper Range #29 went south to the Mid Continent R.R. Museum.They were here for the 1970's Keweenaw Central tourist line.Hopfully the smelter can retain some of its indutrial flavor as it it stablized and a new use is found.

P.S. the coal tender has Northern Pacific on its side. It replaced #175's original.Things can be confusing.

I have one of those fancy (cost me $19)clocks that is on the Colorado official time and it does it by itself. Same at school. Kids just have a fit over it because it is on accurate time.

My cousin Earl Hokenson used to be an engineer on a train like that years ago. We thought it was a great deal waving at him because he's toot his horn to us. We'd run to see the train when we heard it coming.
Years later my boys would lay a penny on the tracks before the train came & then pick it up afterwards to see how flatten it was. Darn boys, I was always telling them to get away from the tracks. They're fine today so guess they listened.

its a good thing that the CRRR 29 got restored, too bad we wont see the end result here though, sure would be great to restore the 175 also

No one even covered it? Looks like many missing parts, too. So sad! :o(

Yeah, you are right Dave, I saw the green flash. Wonder how they do that?

Kenjamimi, you raise a good point. When the locomotive was parked by the smelter in the 70's it was in a shed. In the early to mid 80's the shed that the locomotives were in collapsed and probably did a considerable amount of damage... It would be nice to see this one restored too, even though the Northwestern didn't quite make it all the way up to the Copper Country.

Is the bridge cam. down??? The picture doesn't change?? I miss seeing the daily weather pictures from the bridge.

my background on my computer is the pasty cam photo from, Oct. 29 2002--It's in the archives photo stunnig photo of the Ripley smelter

For anyone interested -

Copper Range #29 - some great photos taken 10/22/06 of the restoration in progress: Copperrange.org