Early this Monday morning the old Pasty Cam photo inbox was full of weekend scenes from Donn de Yampert - a rich variety of U.P. sights, including the old church at Redridge. Some time ago we had a glimpse inside this structure, and I always wondered what the exterior was like.

What an Awesome building!

That great old church should be restored!!!

We were out at this church the second week of October when the colors were so beautiful. It was a very rainy day. We had the same thought Bruce - this church ought to be restored. We peeked in the basement windows. There was a neat old stove down there, sitting in a couple inches of water (or more) and more water dripping down from above. I don't know what it would take to restore it - a lot of money, I'm sure of that. When I looked at it that rainy day, I couldn't help but think its days are numbered. So sad. Does anyone know if there is anything in the works to save it?

Bruce,
Yes, it would be nice if it was restored. It is a beautiful building, set in a unique area right next door to my favorite fishing hole:)

Just a reminder to all you pasty cam watchers-
The 1894 wooden dam at Redridge, right next door to the church, still needs to be rebuilt. They are looking for any help your willing to give. More info can be found at Copper Range.org:

http://www.copperrange.org/discus/index.html

Brought to you by the folks at Pasty NET, of course:) The discussion board has the latest info, including how to make a donation, which they sorely need to save this one-of-a-kind site. At the bottom of the page is a link with a short history of the dam.

nice pic. do you know in calumet there are more bars than churches!! and what about laurium years ago.. bar every block and then some.. i am glad we don't have alot of bars open any more. i am not into drinking.. just how many bars were there years back? in calumet/laurium if i listened when i had michigan history i think there was like 104!!! am i right?

ashley,,,,as I can recall there were 8 bars in the 300 Block of Hecla street in Laurium when I was growing up in the 50's.

ashley, I remember a statistic of when I used to work at Shute's back in 1990..there were some 82 bars in Calumet at one point. Sadly I don't remember when that exactly was...

isn't that just crazy how many bars were around? too much if you ask me. i would rather eat pasty. in my michigan history class on a report i did from way back.. it said there was 104 bars!! i forget the year exactly, but it was way way back.

In the Texas town of Lubbock, there is almost a church located on every block...

John Steinbeck once wrote "A town with more churches than bars is a town in trouble." (from 'Travels With Charlie')

But who would want to live in Lubbock?

Steinbeck was a very wise man and my favorite author.

Where is Redridge? Where's this church?

Redridge is on the road to Freda. :)

Lubbock is located in the "panhandle" of Texas and is considered rural by most of the rest of the state. The town is built around Texas Tech University, just as we see Michigan Tech University central to Houghton-Hancock. There really is not much more there. I went to TTU to attend physical therapy school at their health sciences center. Take out ETOH is purchased outside of the city limits, however you can buy a drink at any of the local establishments with a license within the city limits. Smells of a rat doesn't it....

Like it or not, the taverns were a part of the history of Calumet/Laurium mining district. As were the Churchs. Wasnt Joes just a couple of hundred feet from the old Sacred Heart School and Convent on Lake Linden Ave?

Bars and churches, characteristic of the wide diversity of people and ideas in this country. I used to attend the old St. Charles on the west end of Calumet in the 1950's when I was a kid. It's long closed now but I will never forget it.
The Sacred Heart on Rockland St. was a grand old church too; full of statues and stained glass. It seems like that time is passed also.

I'm sorry that Curt feels that church's are trouble. Back in the mining days when there were so many bars there was many sad times. The men would get their weekend paychecks and spend it all drinking. There were alot of street fights and gangs. The men would go home and beat their wives. Many women and young children were also heavy drinkers. Times were tough and there was alot of heartache. I read some history of the mining days up here, Calumet and Laurium had quite the reputation for drinking, bars and brawling. My uncles told us many sad stories of those days. I'm glad that there aren't so many today. I think that God has helped many in those troubled times. In many ways we are blessed today because of our freedom to worship as we wish. God has watched over our country in recent times, don't forget.

All rights to worship aside, the same problems still exist today, Sue from Laurium. There is still just as much alcohol abuse today without as many bars. And there are still people spending their paychecks and beating their spouses. I don't think it has anything to do with the number of bars, but rather a decline in morals and values. Back then, I don't know what the excuse would have been. This area is prone to alcoholism. I am not sure what the reasoning is, but per square mile of population it seems the U.P. has more than its share of abuse in all sorts of substances. Of course, this is likely nothing more than an opinion, but it has been my 38 years of observations. I still love da U.P., but we are not without problems.

I can agree with you there about the morals and values declining and also how this area is prone to alcoholism. I still love it here also. I beleive it is safer here than the big cities. I grew up north of Detroit and go down often. The crime in my daughters neighborhood down there is bad. Yes, morals and values decline because of many other reasons besides drinking and bars.

Anybody know what year the church was built? Would sure like to be able to go back in time and talk to the carpenters. Cant tell for sure from the picture, but the foundation looks like it might be Jacobsville sandstone.

I'd love to see a picture of the Redridge School. Is it being used for anything right now?

One of the Redridge locals told me that the old school house was purchased from someone who is using it as a camp. I noted that he is caring for it as there are curtains in the windows, a new roof and walls are painted. The foundation of the old church in the wild is probably Jacobsville sandstone from what I saw Sunday afternoon. If you all are interested, Mr. Clarence J. Monette, has written a paperback entitled "Redridge and Its Steel Dam", ISBN 0-942-363-41-8. In this paperback are some great pictures of the school house (1926, 1978, 1989) and the old church formerly the Finnish Evanglical Church, as seen in 1983.

Yes the Copper Country had/has a lot of Bars, Taverns, Saloons or what ever you want to call them. And it is true that there are many cases of abuse of both alcohol and families. But we tend to see it from the view point of the present. The view from 100 years ago when the Copper Country was experiencing the its peak years had many similarities to today's - there was concerns over too many bars and what went on in them, but there were also those who saw them as something good for the good things they provided. The Bars, like the churches were divided along ethnic lines. Schute's (German)was right down the street from Pitcicino's (Italian). This was a land of immigrants, European immigrants, and the ethnic bar was the link back to the old country. For every one who got in trouble in those bars, a dozen had their beer or wine and went home and back to work in the morning. It wasn't an easy thing to come to this country. My Grandfather from the non-Copper Country half of the family arrived from Germany in the 1890's, he almost starved until he made some connections with other German immigrants in the Scranton, PA coal fields. They were all veterans of the Prussian army and organized an assault team to break through the Irish lines around the hiring office at one of the mines, such was life back then.
To the peoples credit back then, they did build and attend all those churches, again along ethnic and religious lines. The communities were built around those churches - and those bars. Yup, more good came out of the churches than the bars, but the bars weren't the source of all evil. Evil has a way of surfacing with or with out bars.
Today the problem may not be due to the fact that there are alot of bars but more due to the fact that there aren't alot of good paying jobs. That isn't limited to the U.P.

Does anyone remember Phils Northwoods Bar on Fifth St. in Calumet? My Mom and Dad owned it for years-after my Dad passed away in 1964 my Mom sold it and it was later known as the Red Garter. It has since burned down.

In the early 1970's I delivered the Milwaukee Journal on 5th, 6th,7th & 8th streets in Calumet...There were still several bars, just in Calumet
Starting on fifth, heading north, there was
1-The Grey Hackle
2-315 Club (The Pub)
3-Red Garter Inn
4-L&L
5-College Inn
6-Sharons Bar (Yesterdays)
Turn onto Pine
7-Perko's Tavern(Next to Harters Party Store)
Turn south on Sixth
8-Pichitinos
9-Schuttes
10-Michigan House
11-Luigi's (actually on Portland)
Turn West on Portland
12-Pasich's (Corner of Portland and Eigth)
Turn North on Seventh
13-Al & Angies(Across from Eva's, destroyed by fire)
14-Eva's(Now Randys)
15-Grants(Corner of Oak and Seventh)
16-Eagles Club(Old Italian Hall)
17-Curtis Chappel had a bar near the corner of 8th and Oak also...Until he had an "incident" with the police
18-Ooops knew I'd forget one...The Town Pump on 6th
So, that's 18...did I forget any ??
All the proprietors were great customers...Great people....Many memories of my youth abound.

Mistake....Pasich's was on the corner of Portland and Seventh,.....Pete Pasich, one of the nicest barkeeps on my route.

Last summer when I was in Redridge I heard that someone had bought the church and was going to make a gift shop in it and also have an outdoor grill and picnic tables outside. Don't know if this is true or just a rumor. Never heard anymore about it. Does anyone know?

the church looks small and sad and lonely

I believe bars are the worst thing to ever come around. Drinking should be banned and alcohol should never have been invented. It only causes problems.

This is a very nice picture of the church, and i agree that it could use some fixing up.

Pete Pasich was my cousin. He just past away 2 years ago in Aug. I believe. He was 87. You are right, he was a great guy, and always spoke his mind.

I say tippin' is like anything else- it's okay if done in moderation.

The Red Garter had the best ribs anywhere. The rib sauce was in an old pot on the back of the grill. I wondered if it was some secret receipe until I saw the cook filling it from a bottle of Open Pit! Oh-well.

RSomero CA,
NOOOOOO, please tell me it isn't so!! It wasn't really Open Pit!! It couldn't be! My hubby and I still talk about the Red Garter Ribs being the best ever! Like you said.....Oh-well!!

(At the risk of getting off on a tangent...)
anonymous says:
"Drinking should be banned... It only causes problems."
We tried that once, from 1920 to 1933; "Prohibition", the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act. That "great experiment" sure cured those problems, didn't it?

What it did do is give rise to the violent organized crime, political and police corruption of the 1920's, necessitating greatly increased expenditure of tax receipts for policing and incarceration, costs, all to no avail. See the link: Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure The repeal of prohibition greatly reduced crime, including organized crime, and corruption.

In more recent times -- for the past couple of decades -- we've seen many billions of our tax dollars poured into the "War on Drugs" rat hole, all with curiously similar effect.

Is there a lesson here that we missed?
George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Sir Winston Churchill: "A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it."

No, I'm not into "drugs" (unless you count "caffeine"), I don't even smoke.
As a taxpayer, I'm just getting tired of picking up the tab for a repeat lesson in the futility of "Prohibition". There has to be a better, less costly and more effective solution!

Moderation, huh? So, then is it OK to kill in moderation, rape in moderation, and pillage in moderation? No, it's not. Wrong is wrong.

I would love to see a picture of this church covered with snow. Bet it's a beautiful sight! Hope someone can post one later this winter.

Yes it was OPEN PIT bbq sauce....
But, it was OPEN PIT,RESTAURANT RECIPE, which is different than the stuff you can buy at IGA...
It is available though at all Gordon Food Service Facilities...
Another hint...The Red Garters secret seasoning blend was Lawry's Seasoning Salt, That's it !!
Try it...

Life is what you make of it. So do not judge one before you judge your self.

I gotta say that that picture of the church has inspired the most amazing diversity of discourse! And it was almost all about bars and/or drinking! I bet the same sort of discussions went on inside that church back when it was being filled with people instead of memories.

Of course not, Anony also! If the topic were heinous crimes I certainly wouldn't feel that way.

Hey S,
How about Terrian's (sp?) Bar. Might have gone on before your paper route or may have been a block off of your route, but I do remember it being in Calumet. I hang out with a Terrian daugher when spending some time up there. I thought I was a real stud muffin! My best recollection is 1967.
Dave

Dave....
Al & Angies was owned by the Terrians(sp)....Hence "Terrians" or "Al & Angies"
As I said above, it was located across from Eva's on Seventh St.
It was destroyed by fire along with Public Chevrolet's Body Shop which was to the south of the bar and Snow's Body Shop which was to the south of that....

S,
Totally amazing! Thanks for bringing back some great memories. I'll contact you by email for more. No reason to bore the group with my yooper history.
Dave

The bar on 8th Street was "Palm Gardens" then "Jim's" then "8th Street Bridge"
now its a parking lot.
Picchitino's is spelled with two "c's"

And who can forget Eva's dog "Sandy". ya-ya-ya

My grandfather, Andrew Tikkanen of Beacon Hill, was the last person to be buried from the Redridge Church. His funeral was May of 1946. My aunt, Hilma (Tikkanen)Koivu of Mass City, painted a beautiful picture of said church. (She is deceased) My cousin Linda (Marttila) Paananen of Iron Mountain owns the picture. She inherited it from her mother, Impi (Tikkanen) Marttila of Liminga. The picture was given to Impi by her sister, Hilma.

I knew Mr. Tikken, we delivered a quart of milk
every other day for a whole nickle, he also came
to bathe at our sauna on Saturday nights, he was a
good friend of my parents

To Faye Keturi,Ill
My Mother Helmi (Tikkanen) Seppala spoke of the Keturi family. She was the oldest child of Andrew Tikkanen. In fact, one summer when we were visiting the U.P., we drove to the house the Keturi family lived in. My Mother was a good friend of one of them. I don't remember the name. Perhaps you can tell me which person was my Mom's friend. My Grandfather was a wonderful man and I understand everyone liked him. I loved visiting him every summer. Please answer.

As for the bars, I live in Zeeland, mi and we have no bars at all. But we have achurch on every corner. I live in ottawa co. we have to drive to allegan county on sunday if we run out of beer, no sales of alcohol in ottawa co. on sundays.lol christian reformed. oh, well. as for the fighting, my family on my dads side came from ahmeek. he had an uncle Jim, i think that's what his name was. actually it was his great uncle. He said this was around the 1910's or 20's in the calumet area. Jim Williams was his name and he was known as the toughest guy around back then. He actually bit a mans finger off in a fight. My grandfathers name was Russel Williams and my grandmothers name was Agnes Schimetz. I know this is a long shot but does anyone remember them? They left the area in the late 40's i think. My dads name is Donald. Anyway thanks for the website, i really enjoy it.

Dear Sirs or Madam,
It is a great pleasure for me to greet from Mongolia. My Name is Tumendemberel(Mr). I work Association Against Alcoholism and Drug Abuse NGO of Mongolia. Alcoholism is a concerned concept in Mongolia during transition period to a market economy. Since 1990, Mongolia has seen a steady increase in the use of alcohol and alcohol addiction. Research by professor D.Erdenebayar /director of narcology center/ esimates that alcohol users rate is 51.2% of the population under 35.
The problem of alcohol abuse affects both men and women and is nation wide, with the highest levels found in tne capitl city, provinces and towns.
Therefore, we need support to the rest excepting.
We want to cooperate with you in the future.
Regards,
Basan Tumendemberel (Mr) Officer of the Association Against Alcoholism and Drug Abuse NGO of Mongolia

A friend of mine is looking for the records from a Grace Reformed Church. She says it was on Grand Blvd in Detroit. The year was 1926. Can anyone help us out?