This weekend there's a big celebration in Houghton marking the 100th birthday of professional hockey. It was back in 1904, right here in the Copper Country, somebody came up with the novel idea to actually pay guys to play hockey. Here we are a century later while a dispute is going on about just how much pay those guys should be getting. But the strike didn't effect the festivities at the Michigan Tech SDC last night: The Tech Alumni beat the Red Wings Alumni 7-5, in a game where Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe, dropped the puck.

Between the 2nd and 3rd period, the Houghton Fire Department Mite team tackled the Red Wings, and skated away a couple of goals ahead. Afterwards the big boys posed with the short skaters for today's memorable portrait.

Later today, check back here for possibly a couple of videos of the action last night. Edie and I sat right next to the MTU Pep Band, which gives you quite a perspective of the game.

Also, today the Stanley Cup is in Houghton as part of the 100th birthday celebration. You can read more about this historic event at Connie Julien's excellent website cchockeyhistory.org

Good Morning from Georgia!

Mornin', raining here. Kinda wet for this part of September in TX

Good morning! The fog is burning off here in troll land!

Thanks again for your great pictures and historical perspective on hockey in the Copper Country. These will be moments to remember for these Mites forever. Our g.son plays in that age group in Wyandotte and is hockey 24-7.

Is that Doug Brown in the back row?

Good Morning, Beautiful day here in troll land!!!

Paul Webberville Troll....Good morning..nice to see your name up on the board again.How's the autum progressing your way?The trees are trying to do their "thing" here.Have some areas that are quite pretty.Still lots of green though.I 've got to head for work soon.Tell the folks down there hi for me.

Good Morning From Sunny CA.
The days are still hot (90), but in the evening's and at night you can feel fall in the air (50's).
Picked apples in the foothills yesterday, making apple sauce today with the kids. Love this time of year!

I'm normally a Wings fan but you gotta hand it to those HFD Mites. That #44 looks like he got put in the glass a few times!

Good afternoon from Germany!

Damp and cool today in the Stuttgart area. Hasn't been above 50
degrees F all day with rain on and off again.

Got the ribs on the grill and makin' sure that they cook and don't
burn.

You learn something new every day at pasty.com. I never knew that Houghton was the birth place of hockey! The game has come a long way in the last 100 years and apparently so have the "Zamboi's". I wonder how long it took to clean the ice between periods way back then? And here I thought the area was only known to have been the birth place of another famous sport...."Guts Frisbee". Anybody ever attend any of those tournaments up in the Keweenaw before it became so big the games had to move out to California? Keep up the good work Charlie and enjoy the centennial celebration.

Will be in the Keweenaw next week, if you have Copper, ingots or old mining stuff please call or Email. 314 878 1594.

Hehe - sitting next to the Pep Band gives you more than a different perspective on things... it usually makes your ears burn too! At least it did 6-7 years ago (had nothing to do with me... honest ;) ).

Looks like the game was a blast - looking forward to seeing some of the footage.

The game was a blast, and it was so cute to see those Mites out there playing with the Wings. I missed the first period of the game standing in line to get Gordie Howe's autograph, but it was well worth it! He is such a nice man, and it was a once in a lifetime experience to shake the hand of "Mr. Hockey".
Hats off to the organizers of this wonderful event because they have done a great job!

I can tell UPwingnut is still floating 5 feet off the ground! Never met a fan quite as intense as she is! The Wings just don't know what they got sitting in Laurium! :-D

I remember scraping the ice between periods at the Calumet Armory. After the game we would scrape it, then sweep it with brooms and flood it with a hose. It was 'Natural" ice. No refrigeration under the concrete, in those days. It was really cold in the building. If it were 0 degrees outside it would be 10 below inside. The games on Saturday night between the Portage Lake Pioneers and the CLK Radars would pack the house. No glass along the boards either. Just, what we called, "chicken" wire behind the goals.

And here I thought the area was only known to have been the birth place of another famous sport...."Guts Frisbee". Anybody ever attend any of those tournaments up in the Keweenaw before it became so big the games had to move out to California? There is/was a room dedicated to this sports history at the HOUGHTON COUNTY MUSEUM in Lake Linden at http://www.houghtonhistory.org/

is there a list of who is in the pictures?

Pastycammers, I have a request for anyone out there:
I have been searching in vain for the Heikki Lunta songs that Conga Se Menee put out about 10 years ago. If anyone could direct me to where they can be purchased, or would be willing to make copies for me of their own, I would be grateful. My graduate thesis and dissertation research is focused on Heikki Lunta, and the Conga Se Menee songs are indispensible!
Please email me or leave a message on the board. And I promise to go home and play "Heikki Lunta Go Away" right now so that I don't cause any more cold weather than I may have already done.

Kiitos!
Hilary Virtanen

http://www.calumetcopper.com/ they have copper etc

Looks like most of our trolls are outside enjoying this GORGEOUS day as there are so few posts. Me too. Just popped in to get my UP fix. Will be there Saturday thru Thursday next week. Can hardly wait!! Camping in the Porkies then over da' Tech to see the son then on to McLain. YEEE HAAAAAA

As a side note to our Mishawaka friend. So ND won..Big deal (grin) So did MSU who beat INDIANA & so did the U of M. Go GREEN & GO BLUE!!! And of course HUSKIES

I think a bunch of us are watching the Packers.

It is a pretty day here today but we have had a slight haze all day.

Hilary

I think Heikki Lunta was written and sung
by Dave Riutta.

a little rain here and there in tampa i saw a couple of ducks smiling a little while ago

Colts-Packers! Like watching a tennis match! Back and forth.Hope those receivers are in shape!

Just missed another one here in Sarasota. Can't wait to get back to Keweenaw next week.

Hilary -

Check with WMPL Radio in Hancock. I think they might be able to help you.

September has been beautiful and summer-like. Only a few very cool, fall like days. But the foliage and the skies let us know what time of year it is.

This was taken last fall...don't panic...the leaves have not fallen off yet. But the geese are flying south.

Patt-Mid-Michigan - Ok, ok. Congradulations to all winners, ND, MSU and UM

It sure is interesting to find out that hockey started in Copper Harbor. Is there such a thing as a Hockey Hall Of Fame? If there is it should be in Copper Harbor.

Hilary, Heikki Lunta was writen and recorded by Dave Riutta who now lives in Calumet. He is a country singer and this was a take off on Hank Snow, He did it for the snowmobile races in South Range. New owners of WMPL never gave him any credit for the ne CD's they have been seling for the last couple of years.

Thanks you guys for the tips on Heikki Lunta and Dave Riutta. I actually know Dave and have copies of his original Heikki Lunta songs. As a matter of fact, Dave actually played the "Heikki Lunta Snow Dance Song" for me at Tom Stiglich Day this year.
A little known fact about the whole Heikki saga is that both Da Yoopers and Conga Se Menee (a Finnish-American reggae band from Marquette) also wrote songs about Heikki Lunta in the 1990s. "Guess Who's Coming to Sauna- Heikki Lunta" was actually a local hit on the radio when I was in high school. Conga Se Menee's leader, Les Ross Jr., passed away last December. Les's father, Les Ross Sr. is a well-known musician in the UP. It is the songs by Conga Se Menee- not as well known as Dave's songs, for sure- that I need. But it's good for me to hunt out there for as much information as I can.

Thanks, guys,
Hilary

Hillary -

What was/is Tom Stiglich Day?

Hilary
Try DaYoopers web site They may have Conga Se Menee tapes or cds

m go blue fantastic win for the colts

Hilary try wluctv6.com or wluc tv.
I bought my copy of conga se menee at the "someplace special store" years ago{I do not know if the stores are still up there or as you hinted at, if copies are still sold anywhere}. my employer ..a radio station promptly lost my copy.I know Finland Calling at tv 6 also video taped the group.I am not sure they would still have it. You also may find it at a radio station near Marquette..It is a great song and tape ...Do you know if they ever did a second tape/cd?

A mention of canga se menne ..just to prove they exsisted EH!
http://www2.helsinginsanomat.fi/english/archive/news.asp?id=20040113IE6

looks like you can buy conga here
http://www.elderly.com/recordings/artist_list_with_images?aname=Conga%20Se%20Menne&cat=15

Back in the 40's, when I was in grade school, I played in the band at a Father and Son night. Four members of the Red Wings hockey team were the guests and somewhere around the house I have the program with the autographs of all four including Gordie Howe. I probably won't be able to find it. I had no idea that hockey had started in the UP or that it was 100 years old.

http://www.congaonline.com/

"pro" hockey started in the UP.

Until the mid-1980s it was generally accepted that ice hockey derived from English field hockey and Indian lacrosse and was spread throughout Canada by British soldiers in the mid-1800s. Research then turned up mention of a hockeylike game, played in the early 1800s in Nova Scotia by the Micmac Indians, which appeared to have been heavily influenced by the Irish game of hurling; it included the use of a "hurley" (stick) and a square wooden block instead of a ball. It was probably fundamentally this game that spread throughout Canada via Scottish and Irish immigrants and the British army. The players adopted elements of field hockey, such as the "bully" (later the face-off) and "shinning" (hitting one's opponent on the shins with the stick or playing with the stick on one "shin" or side); this evolved into an informal ice game later known as shinny or shinty. The name hockey--as the organized game came to be known--has been attributed to the French word hoquet (shepherd's stick). The term rink, referring to the designated area of play, was originally used in the game of curling in 18th-century Scotland. Early hockey games allowed as many as 30 players a side on the ice, and the goals were two stones, each frozen into one end of the ice. The first use of a puck instead of a ball was recorded at Kingston Harbour, Ont., in 1860.

doug brown wasn't there, the only players of recent memory were tony mcKegney, craig wolanin, shawn burr and eddie mio.

Hey Roy in TN, who and where are you?
I too attended those Calumet Armory games with my dad, uncles and cousins. We would stand behind the top row of seats and "keep moving" to keep from freezing. The windows were wide open in those natural ice days. But what hockey games they were, especially when the Radars played the Pioneers. What great memories. We would thaw out when we got back home in Copper City.

You guys are the best! Thanks for the Conga links! They are really helpful. Typing in "conga se menee" in a search engine only pulls up a lot of websites from Brazil. THanks for proving that I wasn't just imagining their existence... I go now to place an order.

Hilary

By the way- Tom Stiglich Day, August 14th or so each year, is a party put on at the Cliffview Inn in Phoenix in honor of Cliffview's former owner, Tom Stiglich. He's a fixture in the local folklore and one heck of a fantastic guy. His recipe for Vollwerth's footlong hot dogs at the bar (Burn them until they're blackened all over and split into shreds) is still followed faithfully by the bartenders there. I rent a cabin at the Cliffview in the summer when I conduct my fieldwork and fill in at the bar whenever Holly and Barney need help. On Stiggy Day, the Cliffview has a liscense for outdoor liquor sales and also gets a band to play- it is a lot of fun! Tom comes from his current home in Calumet/Laurium for the day and holds court with the people who have been his bar's patrons over the past 60 or so years. It is truly fun.

Hilary

I tried "conga se" in qoutes in google.I gotta place an order too..

Hi
I love that picture of the old ice surfacer, what is the story behind the picture? was this picture taken in a local rink? do you know who the rink rat is manning the machine?
I would love to use that picture on my webpage:
www.cchockeyhistory.org

Did anyone see the semi that was hauling a half of a prefab home on Monday nite hit or get stuck under the bridge headed North? What a traffic snafu! Wish I would have had my camera. I was able to post on the photo from Monday.

I'm a die hard red wing fan. Nice picture!