• Saturday-What'sUP October 3 - 08:20 am

This past week marked the arrival of the winter supply of road salt for the Keweenaw. We have three Pasty Camist photographers teamed together to take us right there for the action. First, E. Neil Harri just happened to be flying over the Portage Canal while the freighter, Canadian Progress was unloading. Then Danielle Adams joins in with two shots from on the ground, showing the boat tied up on the Hancock side, as it unloads the 22,000 tons of road salt, a process that takes approximately 5 hours to complete. Danielle's second photo brings us right in close to the boom of the unloader and the actual pile of salt.

Finally, Sally Beaudette snapped a shot of the salt pile from across the canal, once the unloading was complete and the freighter had left for it's next destination. Take a look at the size of the buildings next to the mountain of salt, so you can get a good perspective of how big that mound of white really is. This should keep the Keweenaw roads safer during the winter months ahead.

If you aren't ready for summer to end yet, you can keep it going by ordering one of E. Neil Harri's latest DVD releases, Keweenaw Summer, which highlights the regions natural beauty as you fly over much of Houghton and Keweenaw county.
Neil's Autumn tour is also available through Pasty Central, where you can add it along with your UP Pasty order and save the shipping. Once your order arrives you can pop the DVD in and sit down and enjoy the Keweenaw tour while feasting on a Pasty dinner. It doesn't get any better than that!

Good Morning! After a morning rain, what a glorious day in the Houghton/Hancock valley!


This is a still from Michigan Tech's Ripley webcam this morning.

Thank you for the wonderful pictures of the salt unloading! Did I hear that the ship never went under the Portage Lift Bridge?

Love that beautiful Autumn scene!

How awsome is the view from above.;O) Thank You, Neil.

wow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is some color, even with the cloud cover.
But soon, it will be white ... the salt is sure an eye opener to that events falling.

Salt,The "seasoning of the season".

That salt-covering is a welcome sight when the roads get slick/icy, but it sure does a number on car bodies. Back in the 1980s, N. Dakota used cinders to treat their roads, but S. Dakota used nothing! Tricky driving sometimes. :-/

The freighter, the Canadian Progress, 730 ft. in length, 'backs in' through the upper waterway, in order to cut a path through the delta building up at the Swedetown Creek. It then departs bow first back out through the upper entrance to the Keweenaw Waterway and the path it cut coming in. Most of the southern portion of the Waterway no longer is at minimum depth, not having been dredged in nearly 40 years now.

doesn't the big pile of salt melt when it rains?
and end up in the water?

same as the street salt..ends up in the sewers and eventually into the lake?

could have saltwater fish pretty soon

Good question, David, hope someone has the answer. The 'melting' seems critical.

please remember to continue to vote for the Copper Harbor ambulance barn. Somehow, we got into second place yesterday. Please help us stay there!

http://www.refresheverything.com/copperharborambulancebarn?utm_source=em

It's a beautiful weekend here at the tip of the Keweenaw, in spite of the weather forecast. It's a bit cool, but there is sun, and all those leaves...

They cover it with tarps until trucked.Most of the Houghton county salt goes inside the dome in Ripley. It is in a lot bigger crystal than table salt so doesn't melt very fast.

I remember watching a program on t.v. and they were drilling into water and they hit an underground salt deposit. That salt deposit kept sucking in the water til it formed a whirlpool as the water and everything else was sucked into this salt deposit under ground. Hope that makes sense? I do not not know the terms, I just remember watching trees and all sorts of things going down this whirlpool til it was filled or the salt soaked up enough water? The funny part to me was when it was done, you saw things floating to the top of the water that did not make it down. It was like it gave out one big belch and stuff floated to the top. Stuff like tree branches and a picnic table, it was debri that did not go down the hole.

Mikell, I remember that video also; it was unbelievable!

Thanks for the answer about the salt, Neil; I had the same question.

The accident was on Lake Peigneur in Louisiana. An oil company was drilling a test well before the days of GPS efficiency. They were quite far off in their location coordinates and accidentally drilled through the ceiling of a salt mine. The entire lake, along with several VERY large objects were sucked into the growing hole.

http://www.damninteresting.com/lake-peigneur-the-swirling-vortex-of-doom

When did the road department begin using salt? I remember from 40 years ago that US 41 was the only road kept clean to the pavement. Everywhere else only sand was used.

Sounds like they drilled into a salt dome along the Gulf....

Thanks everybody for the information. I just found it fascinating.

Yeah when they come in to bring salt, they don't fit under the portage lift bridge. The Canadian Progress came in the north entry, turned around by the lilly pond and backed the rest of the way in.

Danielle L. Adams (Badkid):
"Yeah when they come in to bring salt, they don't fit under the portage lift bridge. The Canadian Progress came in the north entry, turned around by the lilly pond and backed the rest of the way in."

Forward, backward, what's the difference? They still have to get the whole ship past the bridge to get from the north entry to Ripley, no?

They did unload at Ripley, didn't they?

They back in that way when they leave they don't have to turn around. The Algolake got stuck in the Lilly Pond for a few hrs the other year when they were turning around there, but then again that captain of the boat had never been here before. When they back in I guess it makes it easier to unload too. They unloaded at Mattila's dock there in Hancock. They have already started to haul the salt away.

If we were getting a 2nd shipment it would've been an Algoma boat bringing it in, and some of them are low enough that they can come in from the South Entry and go under the bridge. Last year the 2nd one was the Algosoo and they came under the bridge.

Speaking of salt...I will take pics of what Dave gave me! I have a bunch of it, he gives me some every year so everyone can see what we are talking about Neil lol

I have a weird question if you can call it that...Okay the Joseph L Block came here in 2001...it went under the Portage Lake Lift Bridge...I know a picture of it going under the bridge does exist as there is on in a conference room at Portage Health...I can't seem to find it now. Anyone know where I can get a copy??

for those that care i am uploading pics to my gallery ...i have posted a picture of the salt there too. any other questions email me badchild_n_wranglers@yahoo.com

Danielle, here is the link to the pictures on the Joseph L Block:

https://www.pasty.com/discuss/messages/313/740.html