Day 5, Tuesday 15 September 2026 - Around the Copper Country
I got moving about 0600, not sure what I would do. It had rained overnight and was still cloudy, and the forecast said partly cloudy & lots of wind. I looked out the window, saw some blue sky, and said “Copper Harbor, here I come.”
I pull out at 0706, without breakfast, and head north on US-41. I pass through several small former-mining towns and past establishments like The Last Place on Earth and Prospectors’ Headquarters, then I turn off on questionably-maintained Cliff Drive. There once was a prosperous mine under these cliffs.
MI-26 takes me to Eagle River, once a shipping port for the Cliff Mine. A bridge gives me a decent view of Eagle River Falls.
Jacobs Falls is down the road a bit; I always associated them with the hymn.
One stretch of MI-26/Lakeshore Drive along Great Sand Bay has some pretty significant dunes, enough to require a stairway to access.
Eagle Harbor is well-protected by a line of rocks that leave break up storm waves. It also has a scenic lighthouse – I’m trying to find an ideal spot to shoot from, when a gentleman wearing a ‘Vet’ cap says, “follow me, I know the spot.” So I do, he is right.
We got to talking. Small World alert: He was a close friend of my two summer friends from almost 70 years ago! I dig out a few pictures I plan to donate to the local historical society, he tells me his son is an officer on a laker. He tells me one will pass in view shortly, so I head for Brockway Mountain Drive. The road is ill-maintained and I hurry carefully. I arrive, and there it is, MV American Century, a 10000 foot ore carrier. Picture time:
Enough of that gale force wind on the mountain top, I head down to Copper Harbor & Ft. WilkinsState Historic Site. It was established on 1842 to protect miners from each other and the Ojibwa (who were promptly relocated elsewhere). It’s nicely restored and well interpreted; even better in summertime when 1st person living historians greet you.
I drive through Copper Harbor, noting that the Isle Royale Queen IV did not sail today – rough weather creates clean-up problems. A store advertises gear for Isle Royale hikers, and breakfast pasties. For non-Yoopers, a pasty is essentially a self-contained meat-and-potato pie and is the U.P.’s national dish. I get a veggie pasty while cursing that lone star tick. It’s good! I also pick up a fleece vest & a T-shirt while waiting.
That pasty is hot from the oven, so I drive to a little park in Lac La Belle to enjoy it after it’s cooled a bit. This is Haven Park, home of Haven Falls; it also has a picnic shelter named THE HeAven.
I’m now on the Gay-Lac la Belle Road along Keweenaw Bay’s shoreline. The water is rough, even in this relatively-sheltered bay.
The water glitters by act of sun and wind.
If your town is named “Gay” after some old mining exec, you have to have The Gay Bar.
I now head toward Lake Linden, but first I turn off on the Bootjack Road. I pass the Dreamland Hotel, a restaurant/bar long established even when I was a child in the ‘50s. I pull off in the boat launching area and look in the brush for foundations of my Grandpa’s cottage. Wait a minute! They didn’t take it! It’s still there, two lots away!
I stop at the HCHS Museum in Lake Linden to chat about my research visit tomorrow; a visit to the recently-accessible Houghton-Douglass Falls, highest in U.P., complete my day.
Tomorrow is breakfast at Lindell’s in Lake Linden and several hours of research in the morning; afternoon TBD.
For the day: 175 miles; for the trip: 1177.9
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