Day 4 - Around Copper Country

This part of the U.P. is on Eastern Daylight Time, so it's hard to get to sleep by 9 PM when it's still just about broad daylight outside.  Our plans for the day included some research on Bill's connections, and a tour of Bootjack.  We started with breakfast at Lindell's Chocolate Shoppe in Lake Linden.  This is definitely an institution, with very private booths, and oak everywhere. To top things off, our breakfast was excellent, one of the best I've had on the road.

Lindell's 

Flashing Lindell's interior

A booth at Lindell's 

After Lindell's we decided to make a run out to Bootjack to see where Bill's grandfather's cottage once stood.  The state had taken the land for a boat launching area on Portage Lake, and the only possible sign is a bunch of large rocks that probably were part of his breakwater - not worth a picture, especially with a thunderstorm moving in. We did take a few shots of the house where Bill's grand parents lived and his mother grew up.  This was originally a company house provided by the Calumet & Hecla mining company.

House, much updated - it just 'ain't the same'

Back to Lake Linden for a visit to the Houghton County Historical Society's research facilities, temporarily located in the basement of an old church due to some flash flooding. Bill did learn that most of the ancestors around in 1902 worked for C&H.

Next stop, Hancock, home of Finlandia University and the Finnish Heritage Center. It's also the home of the Kaleva Café, known for Finnish style pasties, which we naturally had for lunch.  We got some good information on the role of Finnish immigrants and their descendants, as well as some pronunciation hints - the Finnish language is unrelated to any of Europe's big three families (Romance, Germanic, Slavic).

Back to Lake Linden, where we saw that the Historical Society museum was open.  Interesting exhibits, and it has a short train ride available:

Dummy engine once used in the copper mines/mills

 The sun was shining, the clouds well to the south, so we headed out to Bootjack once again. It's all so built up along both Portage & Torch lakes, one can't get close to the water for photography. We continued to Jacobsville so Bill could reminisce about childhood visits to the Jacobsville store for an Osogrape and pictures of the Jacobsville sandstone cliffs. The old lighthouse there has big No Trespassing signs, and even wants $5 to take pictures from the road.  We finally found a spot without a house or sign to get this shot of the cliffs overlooking Keweenaw Bay.

The varicolored Jacobsville sandstone

On the way back, we stopped at another institution, the Dreamland Hotel (ca 1913), where we shared a local beer.

Dreamland sign

The old hotel 

The moose & muskie -they've been there as long as Bill can remember and likely much longer

We returned to Calumet to visit the Keweenaw National Historical Park visitor center.  Bill found some information that a distant cousin in Finland would like.  Then it was another excellent pastie, this time at Tony's in Laurium, a stop at a supermarket for some of that local beer, and back to the motel.

113 miles for the day, 1025.2 for the trip.  Tomorrow it's Copper Harbor and return via scenic routes.