• Thursday-What'sUP March 1 - 10:27 pm

As we begin another year of the Pasty Cam, we recall one of the real pioneers of Cyberspace in the U.P., the late George Hite. It was a case of "leap-frogging inspiration" back in those early days of the World Wide Web. As we mentioned a couple of Shoebox Memories ago, George was intrigued by our Snow Thermometer web page, one of the first Upper Michigan scenes on the Internet, which we published in 1995. George was the co-inventor of those cute desktop snow sticks, replicas of the real thing on US-41. The day I met George at Still Waters in the winter of '95-'96 he brought one in, and we chatted about this brand new "web" that would soon tie computers together around the world.

In November of 1996 George started his own regular literary updates on the web, just as we had been doing with pictures at Pasty Central. I recently rediscovered the link to George's first entry. Then - inspired by George's regular updates of his Eagle Harbor Web - we started the Pasty Cam the next winter.

When George passed away last fall, it was almost 15 years to the day that he began his Eagle Harbor Web. Here at Pasty Central and Pasty.NET we are honored to provide the on-going hosting of the site in his memory.

I love that second photo of George and Abby. That's the way I will always remember him - very active, enjoying life, happy to share the north woods with everyone he met along the trail. We carry on that tradition as we begin year number 15 of the Pasty Cam.

Looks like fun!!

I'm sure those treks into the North Woods kept George young for all those years. It's great exercise and does wonders for the soul!

I still miss reading George's journal....my husband and I visited his site every day. We both were impressed by his excellent manner of writing.

A wonderful tribute to George. I bet he was a facinating person and very inquizative man. How fortunate that you knew him, wish I had.

I always connected and enjoyed George and Abby's adventures as I also had a liver & white colored English Springer Spaniel named Gus.

Congratulations to all involved (Charlie, Edie, Jonathan, Mary, Toivo ... the many photographers, and all the other contributors) on the beginning of your 15th year of the Pasty Cam!! What a blessing this site has been to so many many visitors over the years! Very fitting that George Hite should be featured today, since he and Charlie (and Jonathan, I suspect) were among the first visionaries of the use of the Internet in the Keweenaw. Sending a large round of applause of thanks out to you, Charlie, and to all the others who make this site possible, for your amazing dedication in sharing your love of the UP!! :-)

I second Diana's sentiments. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have my Pasty cam "fix" to get me through, in between visits. It certainly brightens my day and obviously brightens the day for many others. I know this is a tremendous amount of work for those involved but so worth it.

Happy Crystal Anniversary!

We had the pleasure of accidentally bumping into George and Abby years ago.....not long after I found his Eagle Harbor web and began following his adventures......he was a lovely man and missed so much by his avid readers.......his family was so lucky to have him in their lives and letting us be part of it too.

We and especially those of us who don't live in the UP are lucky to have this wonderful place to come to. Learning more about a place I only dreamed of visiting. I've been to the west end of the UP twice and hope to get back many more times. Thank you Charlie, Jonathan and George. George's website was the second one I found and how I loved reading his adventures in Eagle Harbor.

Thanks for the gracious testimonial to George---he was a real supporter of the Keweenaw---not to mention, an absolutely wonderful human being. Paul LaVanway

Through the courtesy of the Internet Archive, here's what the layout of the first week of Pasty Cams photos looked like:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980424231915/https://pasty.com/cam/cam030198.html