• Wednesday-What'sUP July 16 - 11:14 pm

The southern border of the U.P. runs along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Like Lake Superior, there are several peninsulas that jut out into this Great Lake, too. One of them being the Garden Peninsula, home of Fayette State Park, where we visit today courtesy of Beth Collins. First, a view looking toward the limestone cliffs over the pilings that once made up a large dock. This area was one of the U.P.'s most productive iron-smelting operations, and the property still houses artifacts and buildings from that time. Beth's second photo is a stone-archway, framing a gated opening. I'm not certain as to what, since this is another of those places on my "to do" list, but I'm thinking perhaps it's part of the large blast furnaces that were part of the smelting process years ago. I'm sure there's someone among our Pasty Cammies who can give us the scoop. Anyone?

Have got to make a trip here.

COOL picture of the gated door...

My friend worked at Fayette State part in the 70’s and early 80’s. What I remember is that the gated area is the inside of one of the two large blast furnaces

Hi
My guess is that the gates were installed after the facility shut down to prevent people from wandering into possibly unstable structures and/or preventing vandalism.

Been there, loved it!!!

It's all about location, location, location.

To smelt iron you need limestone, as in the limestone cliffs, iron ore, as in the nearby Marquette range, fuel - timber works, and another plus, Lake Michigan; a lot cheaper to ship pig iron to the industrial mid-west by starting off in Lake Michigan, rather than Lake Superior.

Love this location - It's beautiful there and so peaceful. Worth the trip. I need a little info though and maybe someone here can help me. We found interesting blue round stones in the eastern side of the bay (over by the area where the workers lived). I emailed MTU asking if they knew what they were but didn't receive a response. Anyone?

Fayette is beautiful....a definite must-see! Here is the website from the State of Michigan, History, Arts and Libraries Department:

http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17447_18595_21098---,00.html

If that doesn't work, Google Fayette State Park.

I Gueass Fayette is the theme the last 2 days. The State Park site has a lot of information, Taylor wants to see it because it says "Ghost Town"

Laura,
Its been a long time since I've been there but I think there was a lot of slag in that area.

I love visiting Fayette. As mentioned above it is so peaceful. I could set there all day. We've been there on bright sunny days and cloudy rainy days. It was neat to see two differnt sides of Fayette depending on the weather. Both made for interesting stays.

To get a good idea of what the gated opening is and an expanation about it see Pasty Cam for October 11, 2002. This should get you there. Pasty Cam Archives