Thursday For messages about today's picture, see Cam Notes. This area is for other friendly conversation. Please read our Acceptable Use Policy.

Morning!

Mornin

Let's all remember The Fitzgerald and her crew of 29 who were lost 30 years ago today.

Good Morning Everyone! 30th anniversary for the
Edmund Fitzgerald today. May all souls rest in peace.

Amen.

I would also like to let everone know that today is the Marine Corps birthday 230 years old and going strong.

SEMPER FIDELIS

I heard Gordon Lightfoot's 'The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald' this morning and it almost made me misty. Yesterday was certainly a reminder of the treacherous weather November brings to the UP.

Heard "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" on Dick Purtan this morning on the way to work, and I was misty eyed.

That is such a "well-crafted" song to make everyone feel the way they do when they hear it 30 years later.

Just checking in to see when the pasty cam calendars are coming out.Happy B-Day to the Marine Corp.Remember the Fitzgerald Crew!

It's a truly sad day today for all of the Fitzgerald family members. It is 30 years years that we lost our loved ones on the Str. Edmund Fitzgerald. My husband & I are leaving to go to Whitefish Pt. for the memorial service there tonight. What better place to be but 17 miles from where all the men rest in peace & also where the ship was trying to take refuge that fateful night. I havn't heard the song yet today but I'm sure I will. Gordon Lightfoot was definitely inspired by the Lord up above when he wrote that song. It is a real tribute to the 29 men. Also my father was a United States Marine & fought with the best of them on Iwa Jima in WWII. Quite remarkable that he would fight & survive one of the worst battles then die on a the Marine Corps birthday on a ship during one of the worst storms on the Great Lakes far across the world from Iwa Jima. May he & all the other souls rest in peace! I would like to thank everyone for all the love & respect shown to the 29 men & us family members espeicallly on this day. May God bless you & your loved ones!!

Mary says: Cheryl - Our thoughts go with you today as you make the drive to be closer to your Dad's resting place tonight.
For all those interested, you can listen to a live webcast of the Memorial Service, tonight at 7:00 p.m. EST. Details can be found on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum website.

Hubby is a retired Marine. This is a day of reflection for him. Good Memories and not so good ones. I am proud to be a Marine wife and also an Air force mom of 16 years!!!

It's getting colder, not so easy to travel up to the North Country.
What to do besides tuning into Pasty.com each day? For some of
us, the small but good band of fiction writers who tell tales
about the U.P. are especially good to turn to as it gets colder.
(These writers probably wouldn't mind if U.P. fans bought their
books for Xmas presents either. Hint, hint.) My wife runs our
local county library. As you would expect, her book collection is
real strong on these writers. She brought a new one home
yesterday. It is by Joseph Heywood, and it is called "Running
Dark: A Woods Cop Mystery." I have not read it yet, but I know I
am going to love it as it deals with those violent days back in the
1970s when no sane DNR guy travelled alone down the roads of
the Garden Peninsula. Since this is written about a conservation
officer, I suspect the locals are not admired too much, but we
shall see. Whatever, I enjoy these U.P. books, and you might
too. Give them a try this winter -- along with your new
Pasty.com calendar.

The Alder (the Sundew’s replacement) is busy plucking buoys
from the Keweenaw Waterway and the Keweenaw Bay and
storing them across the canal from where we live at the Lower
Entry.

Does anyone have any pictures of the waves yesterday? I bet they were darn spooky and spectacular. I know it spooks me to see dark water, cloudy skies and huge waves. Makes me realize how small I am.

Charles: I love Joseph Heywood, too, and also Steve Hamilton, whose books take place in the Paradise area. I'll have to check with my library now via the computer. That's where I get my books by those authors.

I have read Heywood. Now I have Hamilton's name. I would appreciate any others please!

Cotton,
To this day, I am still effected by the loss of the crew on the Fitzgerald, and the families and friends they left behind. I believe that this is one tragedy, that has effected and touched many people...and our hearts and prayers go out to your family, and all the families who lost a loved one, on this tragic day, thirty years ago.

I wish I could be there this evening with you, at the memorial at Whitefish Point. Instead, a candle will be burning in Indiana...in honor of those who lost thier lives aboard the Fitzgerald.
See Cheryl Rozman (Cotton)'s post above, - for an added post telling how you can listen to a live webcast of the Memorial Service this evening at 7:00 p.m. EST.

And Cotton, it truly is an honor to know you.

"Stewart Edward White" and "James Oliver Curwood" come to mind...some books nearly 100 years old..tell tales of Michigan and the far north...still fun to read after all these years...go to abebooks.com

I cry when hearing the song & while watching the movie at Whitefish Point. Had planned on being at the Memorial Service tonight, but things didn't work out so I could go. At home tonight, a candle will be burning and the song will be playing.

Yesterdays winds and wave action were a reminder of how things can get stirred up out on Lake Superior. Yes it is the 30th anniversary for the Edmund Fitzgerald today. May their 29 souls and those of their families rest in peace.
I will be one of the 29 bell ringers and see some of you at the Mariners Church in Detroit this Sunday Nov 13 at 11:00 a.m.

Our local newscaster, Larry Elliott, always broadcasts from Whitefish Point on November 10. It will be on our local ABC station, Channel 12, at 7:00 in the Flint area. Larry is probably responsible for bringing this broadcast to us every year, as he is a diver and interested in shipwrecks.

As a matter of fact, Marsha, your local channel is one of the sponsors making the webcast tonight, possible. Quoted from Great Lakes Shipwreck museum webpage:
"This webcast is made possible through a partnership with abc12 News, Flint, MI, and WWTV, Cadillac, MI."

I read the book The Edmund Fitzgerald, the Song of the Bell by Kathy Jo Wargin today to my fourth graders. It is a beautifully illustrated picture book that is a wonderful memorial to the crew of this ship. Even though the children were not even born when this happened, I feel that they have a new respect for the power of the Great Lakes. My thoughts are with all of those who have lost a loved one on the lakes.

C&NW #175. this steam engine was parked with Copper Range #29. does any one no the fate of #175 ? I know that it was ther when #29 was taken to the mid continent rr museum. they were both at the smelter in ripley.

You have got to give "Danny And the Boys" a read. It's a hoot. It is written by Robert Traver of Ishpeming. He's the same guy who wrote "Anatomy of a Murder". State Supreme Court Justice John Voelker.

I received this in my inbox today:

"My name is Karen Buck and I wanted to post a picture that my father, Wendell Kraft, took of Lake Superior on the day the Edmund Fitzgerald went down since this is the 30th anniversary of that fateful day. Thanks."

Charles: It May have been rough for the DNR in the 70's but can remember some of the stories and things that happened earlier in the late 30's and 40's that were really rough. Quite a few Conservation Officers as they were called then were seriously injured or in the case of one they set a trap for him with dynamite and killed him. Remember reading some of those stories years ago but don't remember where or what book or magazine they were in.

Copper Harbor today at 1:30.

http://www.aviewfromthefield.com/camera/kabcam12.jpg

Copper Harbor yesterday at 1:24.

http://www.aviewfromthefield.com/camera/kabcam34.jpg

Karen, Awesome pic. Its' so amazing how the big lake can become so menacing. Godspeed to those who sail her.

Lowell:
"Upper Michigan Outdoor Journal" had an article about the dynamite story, it was the March/April 2002 issue. I don't think it is still in publication. (They still owe me 2 issues).

Cheryl--

I was just watching the live webcast of the memorial service at Whitefish Bay, listening to the Canadian Navy officer's story about how they took a beer to your dad with the submersible in 1995. What a wonderful story! That must have been a really touching moment for you. Nice to see you ring the bell for him too! God bless.

CHERYL-I watched the memorial service at Whitefish Bay. Glad you were able to ring the bell for your dad.

Even our local newspaper here in Anchorage Alaska had a nice article about the Edmund Fitzgerald in it today. May they rest in peace.

I read a book and a newspaper article about
the Edmund Fitzgerald to my class today and
then played them the Lightfoot song. All of my
guys were pretty pensive afterwards. It's
powerful stuff.

I was staying at a friend's camp at Sunset Bay on 5 Mile Point the day the Fitzgerald sank. I had never seen the big lake quite so wild as it was that day. I can still remember talking around the card table (pinochle, of course) that day and saying that I sure wouldn't want to be out on Lake Superior on a day like that. The waves crashing on shore were so huge that I couldn't imagine how rough it would be out in the lake. The next day we heard that the Fitzgerald was missing.