• Easter Sunday-What'sUP April 5 - 07:54 am

It's ironic that I had planned to post Robert Blake's two old photos from 1967 for today's Shoebox Memory. A random turn of events required me to actually spend the day at the radar base, which is why the Easter Sunday Pasty Cam was published late (but still before midnight :o)

I received the call at about 2am this morning from Jonathan. If you have followed the Pasty Cam over these past 12+ years, you know my son Jonathan and I started this daily feature together back in 1996. Then we started the Pasty.NET Internet service in 1999, and the Keweenaw wireless broadband network in 2001. Nightowl that he is, Jonathan was checking the health of the system in the wee hours this morning when the major relay at Mt. Horace Greeley went down. He awoke me (after about 4 hours of sleep) with the news, as I was covering support this weekend while the rest of the staff spent time with their families. Usually Jonathan is able to reset these things, even when he is out of the area, like this weekend... but this time it would require a house call on my part.

To make a long story short, I have spent the better part of the last 24 hours over at the former Calumet Air Force Station, known nowadays as "the radar base". It took a considerable amount of troubleshooting to find the faulty component in the relay that passes our broadband signal from Calumet to Gratiot Lake, Gay, Lac Labelle, Brockway Mountain and all the points served from there (Copper Harbor to Eagle River). At daylight, Shadow and I took a walk over by the old Chapel, and I wondered when the last Sunrise Service was held on Resurrection morning. It's such a beautiful view from up there, so high on the mountain.

Finally, we got Pasty.NET "back on the air" late this afternoon, but while I was there I snapped a few current shots to go along with Robert Blake's vintage photos. Notice especially "Back to 1967", taken from the a parking lot that was later turned into a baseball diamond. You can faintly see a radar dome and smokestack at the end of the street. If you walked up that street today, you would have seen the next picture. Notice the separation between the smokestack and radar building, which no longer has a dome. You will also notice in today's pictures it is raining, while in the spring of 1967 there was still quite a bit of snow.

The Calumet Air Force Station closed in 1988. Then the "Keweenaw Academy" housed juvenile offenders in the old barracks, until that operation also closed in 2004. It's a shame these buildings and land are not currently being used, because the facility has so much potential. The radar building where Pasty.NET's relay is housed also serves cell phones from the tower, and a radio amateur station, but otherwise the former village is a ghost town.

I am sore tonight from repeatedly climbing the five story building, but happy to have a good connection again here in Eagle River. Out on Lake Superior I hear two ships with dueling fog horns, and I'm especially glad to be home.

Have a good week :o)

Happy Easter to everyone!

We hope everyone had a Blessed Easter. He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Uh oh!!!! Might this be the first day in PastyCam history to not be updated???

Another close call, but we made it before midnight.

Will try this again. Not at all the Easter you were planning on celebrating, I'm sure. Glad that it all worked out, Charlie! :)

Glad to see everything is under control. Hope you get a good nights sleep,Charlie.

A different kind of Easter for you for sure Charlie. Well done!

Easter Blessings to you and your family.

Wow, usually the curve shows voting slows on the weekends, not this one. Looks like there is a serious attempt for the top spot. Here's the latest table, I'll post it later today on the Monday page...

As I was stationed at Grand Forks, N. Dakota, I would have preferred to have been stationed on the Keweenaw since the Winters were probably not any colder than at G.F.

The webmaster's work is never done...thanks for the efforts.

I worked at the "Radar Base" in 1967. I remember it well.
I first worked (in 1966) in the Engineering Office, as clerk-typist.
Then I moved to the Commissary where I first worked as a stock-
handler and then accounts clerk. The drives from Laurium where
we first lived, then from Copper City were "memorable", especially
in the winter months. Worked there until the fall of 1970 when I
went back to school at NMU.