Have you discovered Copper Country Reflections? A great way to browse through the history of this region. Chuck Voelker has built a museum's worth of vintage images... sort of the "Pasty Cam of the Past".

Check out the other shots from the April 8 snowstorm, and lots of mining era photos at Reflections.

For those who are new to Pasty Central, you may not yet have discovered that this website, with its hundreds of pages and thousands of pictures, is a project of Still Waters Assisted Living Community in Calumet. Several of our residents were romping in that snow on April 8, 1909. This Home for the Aged, as its primary purpose, serves the low income elderly population of our area, though we provide assisted living for private-pay individuals as well.

This winter has been especially hard for Still Waters, for a number of reasons, of which you can find out more here. Thanks for stopping by Pasty Central, and we hope you'll come back often. Something new every day!

OK, this just raised a question (or rather, my wife raised the question while looking over my shoulder). How was the snow plowed before there were trucks? Were there big horses that were branded 'Oshkosh'?? I never thought about that before!

enjoyed going thru the REFLECTIONS site you mentioned. nice collection of history in this area. thanks, again for your effort.
looks like shoveled sidewalks were the way people mainly moved about. streets were mostly the place to throw the snow into?

I also had an opportunity to look at REFLECTIONS and really enjoyed it. I was born and raised in the Calumet area and remember my parents talking about the street cars and the C&H mining company. I visit your web site almost every day and find it very interesting.Keep up the good work.

Pat in PA
Don't know what the brands were, but horses definitely did the plowing. Even the road between Calumet and Houghton, if memory of things read about that era serves me well.

2 observations:
Whoever built the original Harter's(#1 Pic) deserves some kind of builder's award for a "construction" that has stood the test of time.
Antique Post Card(#2 Pic) would make for a great album(er, CD) cover.

Pat in Pa.
Actually the roads weren't plowed as we see today. Since there were no automobiles or trucks to get stuck, the streets and roads were cleared sufficiently for the hearty pedistrians and horse-drawn sleighs. They used a relatively small, by todays standards, scraper pulled by one or two horses. The driver stood on a platform above the blade and controlled a couple of levers that adjusted the height of the blade. When his scraper was full he dumped the snow in a pile at some designated place where it was then shoveled into wagons. This is how they handled the snow in the business districts. Other streets were rolled by a roller pulled by horses to compact the snow. One of my earliest memories was of a roller coming down our street in Ahmeek pulled by a Caterpillar tractor. Today they would call this trail grooming.

To: Bill P., CA Tues 4/10/01 remarks 4:52pm....... Thanks for that information Bill, it answered alot of my questions. Wonderful pictures...as usual

My daughter,Bonnie Larson, from Rapid City sent me an email suggesting that I buy a dictionary so that I can spell pedestrians correctly. I'll try to improve my proof reading. Sorry!!

You know, I don't notice any ice hanging from the eaves of any of these buildings, nor do I see any metal on the bottom edge. Everyone warm inside?

As they say: They don't build things like they used to.

As another might add: And thank God for that!

I went to the Holy Rosary school in Lake Linden a through "44" and right across the street from the school was a large parking lot where the snow was pulled by the horses with the scrapers so at this time of the year when we would get out of school us tykes would decend on the pile to see what showed up from each day's melt.

Seeing this postcard reminded me so much of Christmas shopping in Calumet this past Dec., 2000. I had just moved to Calumet/Laurium in Oct. New Job, New Life, New Adventurers. What I found was a wonderful area I came to love quickly. On the weekend before Christmas I went shopping in downtown Calumet. Snow was falling in huge flakes. As I got out of the car and walked down this very same street in the post card, the music "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" filled the air along with snowflakes and a snow build up. People walking and shopping, smiling saying "Hello" to strangers. I was in "Aw" of what I was seeing, I knew for sure I had walked back into time. Take the same picture in the same area of that post card, position people in amost the same area and you will see the same Calumet.
Thank you Pasty.cam of reminding me of what I'm missing, to bad my job didn't pan out. I sure do miss the UP. I hope Calumet revives and survives. Hopefully, I'll get to visit again someday. I sure did enjoy living in Calumet/Laurium. Thanks Calumet for a memory I will cherish forever.

hello