Next month will mark 75 years since a stormy night off the Keweenaw point, involving a ship's famous cargo. (For a summary of the events, see Exploring the North's City of Bangor page.) We mention the subject on this week's Shoebox Memories so you won't miss a special presentation of this historic event, Thursday, October 25, 2001 at 7pm in the Eagle Harbor Community Center. Read more about Mark Rowe's program in Pasty Central's Event Calendar

Our thanks to Eric Nordberg of the MTU Archives for sharing from the biggest shoebox in the Copper Country!

The road they used to get the cars off is still there - or it was 10 years ago. The part from Horseshoe Harbor to the "car road", as we called it, is pretty hairy, though. The last time I was there, we spent a few minutes canted at a 30 degree angle while driving down a running stream... Oh, the memories! The beaches out there are some of the most wonderful I know in Keweenaw. You can spend an entire day searching for agates and never see another soul!

Thanks, how interesting. I didn't realize I could come to pasty.com and get a lesson in history. Keep up the good work!

Another source of information on the wreck of the City of Bangor is the third volume of Dana Thomas Bowen's trilogy on Great Lakes shipping, "Shipwrecks of the Lakes". This, and its companion volumes "Lore of the Lakes" and "Memories of the Lakes" have long been out of print, but can still be found sometimes in used bookstores.

Chapter 33, titled "The Keeweenaw Collects", describes the wreck of the City of Bangor, and there are three photos of the stricken ship on page 105.

A couple of years ago I learned that my godfather, Phil Petermann of Laurium & Eagle River, had been one of the men who drove the Chryslers over the ice to shore that January.

The City of Bangor has special meaning for me in that the crew of the Bangor stayed at my grandpa and grandma Bergh's house (the house I grew up in) at the west end of Copper Harbor. My father, W. Howard Bergh, had just turned 13 years old. My grandfather had just killed a pig for meat for the family for the winter, which they were able to share with the crew. My dad told about the men lying all over the floor of the house while thawing out. His job was to mop up the water puddles as the snow and ice melted off the men. My grandma was kept busy trying to cook, and tend to the men's hypothermia and frostbite.

Later, my grandfater, Ole Daniel Wilhelm Bergh, and my father helped to drive the cars off the boat.

At 78 years of age I took my first trip to the
Copper Harbor area to attend a "Senior Saints"
conference at Camp Gitche Gumee. A part time
worker at the Camp told me about your web site,
and I found the story of the City of Bangor.
My father Wallace J. Smith sailed the great
lakes for 7 years after serving in the Navy during
the Spanish American war. He told many stories
about his days on the lakes, but I had not heard
of the City of Bangor before. He left me a copy
of Shipwrecks on the Lakes, and I will read it now
with much greater interest. Thank you kindly,
Wayne E. Smith, 716 S. Indiana Ave., Auburn,