good morning sunshine

thank you

WOW²

I agree with you Mike *WOW* !
Heaven is shining down on the U.P.,Looking at these pics you never have to wonder why they call our Upper Penisula "God's Country"
Have a Happy Healthy and Safe Holiday Season: )to all the Pasty.com viewers.

Nice shot, Mike! WOW for the 1st picture. Reminds me of my picture with the lake effect snow clouds and the sun shining through on October 14, 2002.

How fortunate we are that people are willing to share their photos, and for Charlie to be there to post them for us.

Now that I finally know what a WOW is... WOW! VERY WOW! :)

Gorgeous! Makes me even more homesick.
Happy Holidays to all.

I want to be there....

To Alex in Ga. Check out mininggazette.com classifieds. Someone named Keith is looking for musicians. I too want to move back to the Keweenaw. Fla's too hot. Just need to find employment. and yes, a double WOW for today's cam!!!!

If only we were all independently wealthy gazillionaires with no need for employment...but then, the UP would be too crowded!

Hey everybody!! Here's some great news. The Mich Tech webcams are back and better than ever. Check them out and pass it on. I've been waiting for months for them to return. They're a great picture into what's happening there. Good work Tech.
They're at: http://www.admin.mtu.edu/alumni/cams/

Angels Among Us-Is the name I give these (WOW) photos, God Bless and Protect us all over this Christmas Season and New Year to come.

Absolutely beautiful.

Joe, I'm glad to see the MTU cams back, too! The new view north is neat, but I miss the view of Mt. Ripley...maybe it'll be added. Regardless, I appreciate their hard work, esp. after the disappointing theft of equipment.

Remind me, why DID I leave?????????????

I love the MTU cams. I think the view toward the bridge is great - especially just now with the late afternoon sun - nice.

Luanne, was it the draw of the Grotto? ;-)

HEY Mike,Great shot my brother!! Another one for the milwaukee paper perhaps?

Looking at these pictures again brings up the never-ending question from a big city stiff that pines for the U.P.: Is it better to remain working in an urban area with a greater variety of jobs to choose from, but feeling trapped by urban sprawl and land locked in a sea of ticky-tacky subdivisions or to be in the beautiful U.P. with admittedly fewer employment opportunities but with wide open spaces of natural beauty? I think the second choice is the right one for long term peace and sanity. I just haven't got the nerve to make the break yet.

Mike and Donn:

Absolutely beautiful, awesome, peaceful!!!

The Z-Man

Thanks, Peggy! I really appreciate it!

Alex

Man, I'm gone only one day and these two shots have me homesick already!!!! Very beautiful photos, Donn and Mike.

Beautiful pictures, thank you! Like most who have written in today, I too wish I was living in the UP. But it might be just barely living. I am fortunate to have escaped the cities and live on a couple of acres in the corn and bean fields just 5 miles from a good paying job. The good jobs in the UP are very scarce and in past couple of decades there has been a strong NIMBY resistance to any revival of industry in the area. So leaving here for there isn't very prudent. I have a few years to go before retirement and will undoubtedly spend more time in the Copper Country. Living there full time is a possibility but I have a wait and see mind set on that. Things are changing, every trip up turns up more of the open area occupied by very large and expensive "cabins". Good for those folks, but I remember taking a "scenic route" along the Canadian side of Lake Huron - there were cabins three deep along the shore! I fear that might be the fate of the Keweenaw. Another example is what were the remote and peaceful towns of Aspin, Crested Butte, and Telluride, Colorado. They have been "developed" and now the folks that used to live there can't afford to live there anymore. The towns and the surrounding area have lost the qualities that first attracted people to them. The issues are starting to rise in the Copper Country; a ski resort at Mt. Bohemia, OK, effluent in Lac la Belle? Is that OK? My family left in the '20's when the mines began to decline, I love the area and would like to live there, but it is up to the people that are already there to steer the UP into the future. One thing for certain, if all us FIB's, Cheeseheads, and Trolls arrive with our retirement packages the UP we now admire won't be the same once we all move in.

Very well said Paul. I have seen the large cabins worth $$$$ popping up along lighthouse road in Big Bay. It is starting to happen with people who have tons of money building summer homes up there. I just hope and pray that Upper Michigan does not turn into a "playground" for the wealthy.

I hope you guys will indulge me a moment. This shot is beautiful and the type usually saved for the end of the month when we remember friends lost. I received word last night of Carol Curtin's death (she lives in Lake Linden). Carol was a warm welcoming presence in 1974 when my family moved to the UP from Iowa. Her hospitality while our stuff was enroute was memorable and it is one of many good memories of growing up up there. I grew up with her kids and have a lot of fond memories. So to the Curtins, my heartfelt sympathy to you and we'll keep you in our thoughts.

Amen, to words about the great pictures...and also about the dangers of development. As a yooper heading home next year after decades in metro areas, I have seen the future and it is us. Too many of us. Don't know the answer except, "The U.P.? Geez, I hope you don't have seasonal distress syndrome...it hardly ever has sunshine in the winter, which lasts 11 months. And say, ever hear of blackflies and no-see-ums?"
Also, whatever you do, don't direct trolls to this website!

I just want Mike Curtin to know his mom is proud of him for lots of reasons, today it is his beautiful picture of Little Bay de Noc. I loved it before I realized it was Mike's photo. Donn, your picture is great, too!! You "boys" are artists as well as proud yoopers. Hope the rest of you folks know you don't have to be rich to live in the UP just gratefull for what you have and the simple pleasures in life.......

To Richard, Paul, and YWB. Unfortunately, if you want to see the Keeweenaw of the future, I think you can look to Traverse City, Petoskey, Mackinaw City, Charlevoix, Ludington to name a few places.
"Up North" has really been discovered by the affluent. This is sure to change the character of our beloved pennisula. Funny, 30 years ago many of these people couldnt even tell you were the Keeweenaw was. I hope we dont see it bought up, fenced off, paved and denuded, so that the wealthy can build a city to go from a city and think they are "Up North". This is what happened to the towns already mentioned.

Frank C., Obviously you've been!! When I tell most people where I live they usually just snicker. People have no clue where it is until I explain the Mississippi and Dubuque. Though I have met another yooper down here who lives near the grotto. I was at her garage sale and she looked at me and says" you must be Paula's sister". Turns out she's from Painesdale and knew my sister. Small world. (And I don't think it was the lure of the grotto!!!)

Having spent every summer at our family cottage on Sandy Lake (down near Twin Lakes) where the loons fly in every night and the view across the lake is that of wild, undisturbed shoreline, we were distressed this summer to find that a Wisconsin developer had put an access road on the northwest shore of the lake and was marketing the lots in his words "on pristine Sandy Lake". How pristine will it be when we add the boats and jet skis from those yet to be built cottages to our tiny lake? When I spoke to the developer, he said it was inevitable that it would be built up. I just hope the development won't ruin my view.

Don’t worry Froggy I think the long cold snowy winters will keep a lot of people from retiring to the Keweenaw.
Julie from Novi here in central lower Michigan (West Branch Gladwin area) a lot of people buy vacation property or retire and move in and like you ounce they are here they want no one else to buy and move in because THEY LIKE IT THE WAY IT IS.

froggy said, "Funny, 30 years ago many of these people couldnt even tell you were the Keeweenaw was."

You have to remember that up until 15-20 years ago, a vast majority of the land in the Keweenaw was owned by a few mining companies and it was not for sale or lease. It wasn't fenced, nobody cared if you hiked, fished, hunted or picked berries but it wasn't "public" land. I know a number of people who would have liked to have been able to buy certain property way back when, but you couldn't. Now that it is being sold off in the form of individual parcels, some people are angry because of access restrictions to shorelines by private owners for example. It may be upsetting, but in reality wasn't it always private property in that sense?

Thank you for the pictures...I have lived in Texas for a while(the needs of the military) but I hold dear memories of this beautiful U.P. where I grew up. Thanks for helping us stay connected.

tlg- Yes much of the land was owned by the mining companies. But even a common person had access to a little bit of natures beauty. The mining company didnt seem to mind much. I dont think many people are willing to share their beach or woodlot with a stranger however. That may be the issue. Hate to see the area look and feel like the lakeside areas downstate. Wall to wall buildings and water access restricted to those who are able to pay a couple thousand a foot for frontage.

We were lucky for many years. But it is just not possible for one company to own so much land anymore. Get the Nature Conservency to buy it all and take it off the tax rolls!! That will help the ecomony! I am being sarcastic. Too bad we can't have our cake and eat it too.

not the same! Ive been gone since 1981 -I know the U.P. is not the same.Ive been in wa. state since 1984 ands its not the same. P.S. ILL BE BACK..........

As stated by Paul in Illinois
"The good jobs in the UP are very scarce and in past couple of decades there has been a strong resistance to any revival of industry in the area."

If the U.P. and/or the Keweenaw would promote industry instead of tourism maybe your sons and daughters would have good paying jobs.
Then they could by up the lake property and woodlands build nice homes and stay in their home land instead of moving away to find jobs.

I'm spending my summer in Skagway, AK. but
miss the UP. There's beauty here. but looking
forward to seeing the beauty there this winter.
Need a job, though. How are things looking?

Why is the upper peninsula part of Michigan?

to Lou Woodford

See http://www.geo.msu.edu/geo333/toledo_war.html