• Monday-What'sUP November 19 - 02:35 pm

The mornings are definitely cooler lately, so much so that there's a thin layer of ice forming on the portion of Torch Lake behind the Elementary School in Lake Linden. You can see the ice around the edges of the water, then again off towards the middle again. I've done some kayaking around those waters and it's not too deep, so that's probably why the ice begins here earlier than the other side of the lake. As I crossed the footbridge in the second photo, the little river that runs under is was still flowing and the water along the beach had no sign of any ice yet either. Same goes for over by the marina. You can see looking towards the beach, that the water is still clear of ice on this side, but it won't be long before the snow will be covering the icy waters, just as it has the bridge and dock already. Old Man Winter is slowly making his presence known.

The skim of ice forming in Mary's top photo was much the way it looked over the whole surface yesterday when we drove past Seneca Lake. The fourth picture I added this morning is the Shoebox Memory where they used to harvest that ice late in the winter, back before the days of convenient refrigeration.

Not even thin ice here - rain and 30 degrees just outside of Ontonagon

Not one sign of ice here. We used to always have ice on the lakes by Thanksgiving, but lately it's more like Christmas or New Years.

That first picture is so calming! Thanks, Mary!

A bit of rain earlier here between Copper and Eagle Harbors, too. Usually ice on the rocks above the wave line from spray but it's dry there and you can walk to the water's edge without sliding. Just a few patches of b-b snow here and there to remind you of how cold it's been.

Cool (literally) ice machine. I wonder if anyone ever fell through will cutting the ice.

Well theres a chiling thought Alex :) great bunch of pictures today. Wish I was up there.

Good morning. The picture of the ice harvest looked familiar so I did a search: https://www.pasty.com/discuss/messages/1779/1860.html
There was another date filled with ice harvesting information also but this one had the picture I was looking for.
I have learned so much of the history here in the Copper Country through this website. Thanks to everyone for sharing.

How lucky you are to see such beautiful scenes when you go for a walk, Mary. Thanks for sharing them with us.

I'm sure the ice was nice and clean 99.9% of the time but I wonder if anyone ever had a bug or weeds or a FISH or something weird frozen in their ice when it was purchased in the summer ??!!

Jeff, according to my grandmother, who passed on in 1997 at the ripe old age of 100, the ice would occasionally contain a week, bug, or more frequently dirt or sawdust (from storage). They did not use the ice to chill a drink. Ice was used almost exclusively for keeping food cold in the “icebox”. The “ice man” would make regular visits to their home to replace the ice that had melted. He used a horse drawn wagon long after the invention of the automobile. The horse had the route down so well it knew where to stop and wait, when to go ahead all on it own. Wouldn't that be fun to see?

Does anyone know if the copper harbor cam is working? The date is 1/04/1970

http://www.copperharbor.org/copper_harbor_live_cam.htm

Hi Christopher Lynn, Yes the cam in Copper Harbor is working----the date on the photo is incorrect----however, the photo is current. Kind Regards, Paul LaVanway

I just checked the bridge cam and it's all dark ;0(

Gordon Jelsma (Gjelsma):
"The “ice man” … used a horse drawn wagon long after the invention of the automobile. The horse had the route down so well it knew where to stop and wait, when to go ahead all on it own. Wouldn't that be fun to see?"

Oh yes, I remember seeing the ice man delivering ice — with the same wagon and 'automatic' horse — to my paternal grandfather William Nakkula's home on Muirland, north of Fenkell in Detroit in the late 1940's for the ice box, of course. That home would later be right in the path of the John C. Lodge Expressway.