• Wednesday-What'sUP March 13 - 10:02 am

Not exactly a mansion here UP North, but perhaps it could be classified as a "fixer-UPper"? Well, maybe not, but no matter, even in its present condition it still makes a good photo. Can you spot what makes it a GREAT photo though? If you can see the deer prancing in the background, that's what I'm talking about. Leave it to Z-Man to be in the right spot, at the right time to snap something like this. With a little work, it sure would be a peaceful place to sit and watch the wildlife go by while unwinding from a busy workday.

Looks like so many old farms around the area. Where did everyone go?

Ah, the luxury of nearly 600 square feet of living space in a 1 1/2 story home with no indoor plumbing or insulation. The sheer bliss of single pane windows and a franklin stove that blisters at one foot and freezes you out across the room.

I am (slightly) kidding about the house. I lived in an old miners house in Trimountain and loved it. Of course, by the time I lived in it, there was vinyl siding and indoor plumbing. I love pictures like this. I see an old abandoned house and wonder about the people who lived there, and what the lives they led were like.

The deer is nice, but I love the house.

There surely are lots of places like this in the UP. I remember
wandering off behind the "homeplace" with my cousins one
afternoon and discovering an old farmhouse way back in the
woods. It must have been abandoned for years. We sat and read
an old diary that we found and marveled to think that someone had
just up and left all of their possessions (including an organ) behind.
It would have been hard to haul all of that out of the bush..but,
come to think of it, I still can't figure out how they got the organ
out there in the first place.

IF he went inside, he could probably spot a few raccoons too.

I doesn't get any more rustic than that.

An Ode To This Old House

One morning while walking through the snowy haze,
I stumbled upon a house that had seen better days.

If the walls could talk, what would they say?
Would they say, "don't leave me, they've all gone away"?

As I stared at the poor, lonely, old place,
The cold wind was blowing against my face.

The house seemed to look happy as snow fell from above.
I could almost picture the house once filled, with love.

As I started on my long, snowy way,
The creaking of the house seemed to say,
Don't leave me alone, please come back some day.

I came back to the house for many years
And watched her crumble through my tears.

Snowman

I was just reading my copy of Clarence Monette's history book of White City....I spent many summer hot dog roasts at the beach there by the pier...and would never have imagined that a dance hall...hotel...restaurants..and even a rollercoaster were ever there...there weren't even vestiges that I remember....but I wish I could have seen the place in it's heyday....just like this house...I imagine maybe a Finnish/Swedish homesteader like my grandparents living here and the joy they would have had to have such a place back in the day. I love the poem Snowman...it's kinda sad tho! Have a great day all...spring is comin!

That's very touching, Snowman. Thanks for sharing. It grieves me to see an abandoned house, especially farmhouses....they always look so neglected and forlorn, like nobody loves them anymore because they got old and ugly. :(

Why do I think "home" when looking at today's picture?

Those old houses have always fascinated me too, I have found some in the woods and wondered. Z-Man always has a good eye.

Love these old places. Probably a skunk family under the floorboards, too. We used to enjoy exploring the dumps found not far from these old houses for odds and ends. Speaking of skunks, there's a dead one on a Davison street this morning, a sure sign of Spring!

Perhaps the owners were caught in a "nonrecession" and couldn't afford the increase in their adjustable-rate mortgage. It's amazing the number of abandoned houses down here in my neck of the woods.

With the talk of renewed interest in mining maybe the U.P. will boom again like it did when these houses were occupied? We can only hope.

My father, uncle and grandpa were builders, who built homes to be as square a hundred years hence as they were when brand new. When Daddy saw a house like this he always said: "this house was someone's pride and joy at one time". Makes you think back to the time when the home was full of life.

Brian (bttc)just where is this White City? Never heard of it.

white city is on the south end of lake gogebic which is on the western end of 'up' south of porcupines

NO NO NO
White City was out on Portage Lake near Jacobsville...
By Clamdigger from da' Joizy Shore on Sunday, July 22, 2001 - 12:12 pm:
White City had its roots in the late 1800’s. It was a well known recreational area. In 1906, improvements were made. From 1906 through 1919 this was the “Six Flags Amusement Park” of the Copper Country. In its “hay day” it had its own power house, rental cabins, a merry-go-round, a roller coaster, And a dance floor and band in the pavillion.

There were 3 steamships that provided round-trip service from Houghton and Hancock. The Plow Boy is the only ship name that comes to mind right now. The road from Lake Linden to White City was poor and rarely used by anyone when it rained.

It met its demise during the World War I years 1917-1919. The property along the Portage waterway was closed by the War Department. Food was scarce, and everyone was involved in the war effort to go to an amusement park.

oops my mistake sounds like it was a beautiful place i wish i would of been around to see it

1. White City was out on Portage Lake near Jacobsville... (circa late 1800s - 1920).

2. White City (much later) on the south end of Lake Gogebic:

Actually......White City is on the South end of Portage Canal, just before it opens to Keweenaw Bay. Portage Lake is North of White City!! It's part of Jacobsville. By road (which is now paved!!)you go through Lake Linden and Bootjack. My grandfather helped build the old White City dock and my son and mother helped sink the last part of that dock years later!!! They were fishing on the rickety dock one summer day and all of the sudden they started to sink! Today, all that is left are the posts/pilings to the dock. The area called White City is before you turn the corner by the public boat launch in Jacobsville. If you continue on past the boat launch, you'll hit the old Coast Guard Station and then eventually the public beach. We always called that Sandy Beach but now days people refer to it as White City Beach! To me, White City will always be that little area before Sandy Beach! How do I know all of this? I have spent every summer back in that little hamlet....and that's a lot of summers!!

stix (Stixoutwest):
"White City is on the South end of Portage Canal, just before it opens to Keweenaw Bay."

That would be this one (#1 in my previous post — I'm amazed that it's still on the map!):

You're right FRNash. White City is the little bay right across from Portage Entry. It's actually all part of Jacobsville. Shhhh, we don't want to many people to know about that area!!
Hey...don't ya love our Az. weather right now?!!

stix (Stixoutwest):
"… don't ya love our Az. weather right now?"

Hmmm, as I retrieved my lawn mower from the shop last week (belatedly, and out of dire necessity) I did contemplate for just a fleeting second which I'd really 'druther' be using this week, lawn mower or Yooper Scooper!

FRNash,you must be affected by all the allergy stuff flying around the Az. skies right now! It must have clouded your thinking, even for a fleeting second...of course you'd rather be mowing than scooping icy, dirty snow in March!!!

Thats what gets me too Stix, I always try and correct them when they refer to Sandy beach as White City. I think the power house is still there by the shore. My Dads family always spent weekends there in the early 1900s. They took a ferry from Ripley.

I should have noted that both White City locations are also mentioned in Hunts' Guide to Michigan's UPPER PENINSULA …

1. Jacobsville (White City Park)
2. Lake Gogebic's East Shore Road

Some historian I am. I was unaware that the latter was once an inn and stagecoach stop that took passengers from the train station at Gogebic Station to the lake. Ya learn somethin' new (… or old) every day!

RCW, the Power House is still there and is used and enjoyed by a family. It is really nice to see some of those old places being kept up and more importantly....used! White City is a neat little bay. I caught lots of perch and bass in there many years ago! I was never one to have enough patience for the big lake but loved pulling in the little ones every few minutes. Lots of fun memories with many more to be made! We have an old family friend up there that was actually born in Jacobsville in the early 1900's. I wish I had recorded her stories of way back when. That really was a bustling area and it's amazing how life was out in the sticks. I think she is the last true Jacobsville-ite left! Speaking of that, the Jacobsville Cemetary is a worthwhile stop. As morbid as it may sound, the old Jacobsville sandstone markers are something else and reading the different Finnish names is a lesson in itself!

Stix. I should mention my Grandfather was the superintendent at the Quarry there in late 1890s and my grandmother was the Postmaster for several years too. I think the home they lived in is still there.

FRNash, didn't I run into you riding the stagecoach? Weren't you the "not dainty, over-corrective dude"? :)

Wow, having everybody talk about where I live, and I wasn't home to join in earlier. Yes, the powerhouse is now a home, lovingly restored using the fallen sandstone to rebuild the chimney. I live in a house built in the early 1970s in the area which used to be the old baseball field.

Several years ago a lady and her father stopped in and he had to be in his 90s. He used to play ball here when he was young.

Do a google search of White City of "pasty.com" on the Archive the opening page of Pasty Cam and you will find lots of gallery pictures and pastycam comments on White City.

Last 4th of July my wife and I went to the beach at White City/Jacobsville as I was introduced to the beach during the late 60's by an old girlfriend who now teaches at Finlandia, but her name will remain unknown........(guess you had to be there) There was about two miles of pristine beach, a bunch of locals flying kites, and six people in the water of a beautiful sand beach and 80 degrees. Please don't tell everyone about this beach.......or Little Traverse....or the next two northeast..........The Locals pick the south side of the peninsula.........the yuppies pick Copper Harbor, the rocks, and Fake Lake..........
I vote for the Locals.............and discrestion

Snowman- the key is under the front door mat, help yourself! No parties though!

The trip (from ••••) in '06 with my sister had me traveling down some road that I thought was going to "Dreamland". Mom talked about taking some ferry to Dreamland for her grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Had to have been in the teens sometime. Anyway as we drove the road I thought I needed to be on, it seemed to go on forever. Being short on gas I turned around near some bar or business I think might have been the famous Dreamland. Seems the road split and I took to the right. Finally turned around. Never did find the tip of that area, Jacobsville???Would that be the area you folks are talking about?

If you took a left at Dreamland Kay, you would have come to Jacobsville had you kept on driving. It's beautiful out there.

Forgot to mention what a beautiful picture Z-Man! Seems like a lot of other folks did too.

BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME