Wednesday, June 14, 2023
This was always going to be a drive day. With that in mind, I was packing up the car bright and early. There was no more rain in the forecast, just some morning fog.
With all the stops on tap for the day, I was glad to have hit the sights in Christmas the day before. I still drove through on Hwy 28. Instead, I stopped into the next town west, Au Train.(pr; Oh-Tran) The name comes from the French term for a shortcut.
There was only one stop planned here, Scott Falls. There's a small park across the highway and it was an easy dash across the road due to the light morning traffic. Unfortunately, I shot them on my phone. You can see the falls on this video posted by MI Roadtrip.
On the backside of the parking area is a short trail out to the beach. Not the greatest view this morning.
On one side of the platform sits a historical marker Face on the Rock. I had no detailed information as to where exactly the face is located. In the damp fog I really wasn't feeling it anyway. But, you can read about it here:
From Au Train, it's a thirty-two mile drive along Hwy 28 with plenty of roadside parks with views of Lake Superior. Just not so much today.
I considered a stop into Tory's Woods Nature Preserve. There's a 2.2 mile loop trail through the preserve that would be a great excuse to walk around a bit. A few too many trail reviews included "boggy" and "poorly marked." In the end it didn't matter. I never saw the turnoff or any signs.
Ten miles east of Marquette, Google Earth showed a marker for something called The Funky Beach House. Intrigued, I tried to find out more. It's just the name the owners gave it. It's not actually that odd. You can see their Air B&B listing here:
By now you know I can't resist a good sculpture park. Lakenenland is right alongside the highway. Tom Lakenen is a welder by trade. In a 2015 interview with the Detroit Free Press, he said he "wanted something to do other than drink beer every night."
So, he started bringing scrap metal home from job sites and experimenting. The first few pieces he put in his front yard. City officials said they constituted signs and forced him to move them back off the road.
Meanwhile, Lanken kept creating. He found a thirty-seven acre lot. He wanted to put his sculptures where people could see them. They were "just sitting there rusting. What good is that?"
The township wasn't happy. First they told him he could only have one sign out front, not two. They threatened to ticket him for a long list of things. One winter, he decided to cook and serve hotdogs to the snowmobilers who regularly visited the park. Even though they were free, he was told they were considered "prepared food" and he would need a permit. The Health Department came back when they found out he was serving hot coffee. They told him instant was fine, but brewed coffee was also considered prepared food. The hassles slowly dissipated as the town council members changed. These days they seem to welcome him.
As for the snowmobilers, there's a snowmobiling trail that cuts through the park. Riders routinely stop in wonder at the unexpected find. He offers them hot chocolate and loves the conversations with the riders.
It's hard to miss from Hwy 28. After pulling in and parking, I just started walking around. I hadn't been there very long when a pick-up rumbled in. It was Tom himself. I waved and he waved back. I would have loved to chat with him.
There were a whole lot more photos. Once again... on the phone.
The only drawback to the place were the mosquitos. I was constantly swatting them and every time I got back in the car a bunch would join me. I really didn't want to bring out the insect repellent if I didn't have to.
I left Lakenenland and drove the rest of the way into Marquette. The first stop was the Marquette Harbor Light. The first one was built here in 1853, but was replaced twelve years later with the current one.
Presque Isle State Park(pr; PRESS-kll) takes its name from the French for "almost an island." Erosion has separated and rejoined the island with the mainland multiple times. The basis for the island formed a billion years ago. Magma rose and partially melted the underside of the rock that was already here. The old rock slowly eroded away and the magma bubble remains. Thus, the area known as black rocks. The turnoff from the ring road isn't marked. It's the sharp turn outward on the far side of the island.
Yes, this is a second Presque Isle
When I was planning this trip, I came across an interview with a geologist who has studied Michigan's rocks for decades. It took place in a small roadside park that even had historical markers. They said the park was "just outside Marquette". I couldn't find it.
I even took a drive up a county road because Google maps showed a small roadside park with no more information. I found the road leading to the alleged park. The No Trespassing Signs nixed that idea.
However, there was a silver lining to this all, I did come across an abandoned bridge, turned into a small park. The name, simply Steel Bridge.
The mystery park is located on a place called the McClure Site. Chunks of rock were discovered here that seemed out of place. It wasn't just a few rocks, either.
About 1.9 billion years ago, a meteor impacted the Earth in today's Sudbury, Ontario, over three hundred and fifty miles away. Scientists estimate the meteor to be between six and nine miles across. The impact crater is estimated to be between ninety and one hundred fifty-five miles wide.
The impact buried Marquette in one hundred and thirty feet of rocks.
Big nickel deposits were discovered and the Creighton Mine started digging in Sudbury in 1901. They've changed ownership a few times, but the mine is still open and still producing. Not only that, but in one of deepest parts of the mine, a scientific experiment is taking place to search for Dark Matter. You can see a Youtube video about the impact, the mine and the search produced by the channel Canadiana here:
I had left the motel shortly after 6A and it was already noon. Two towns west, conveniently located, is where I found the Jasper Ridge Brewery. Gina couldn't have been nicer. She translated a few things on the menu for me. I had never heard of an Italian Cudighi. Apparently it's big in the U.P. It's basically an italian sausage sandwich with the sausage in patty form. From there, the usual toppings. Quite good, actually.
To go with it, I did my usual flight of five ounce pours. The brewmaster was milling about and told me they just tapped a new habanero IPA. Intrigued, I tried it. Lots of flavor, with a little heat.
One of the things I started doing a few years ago is to rate craft beers on an app called Untappd. You can search the beer name, or find the brewery's page and scroll through their list. They hadn't named this one yet. Considering the name of the brewery and the habanero, I suggested calling it Ridge Fire IPA. He liked it. So, among the thousands of craft beers our there, I have officially named...one. My work here is done.
At about the halfway point of the day's drive, I pulled into the town of Champion. This was once an iron ore boomtown. Owners of seven nearby mines got together to figure out a way to make their mines even more profitable. Their solution, a new railroad connecting Champion to Huron Bay on Lake Superior. With that, the Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad started coming to life.
Construction began on the line in 1890 out of Champion. In addition to the twenty-eight mile rail line, a new ore dock would be built in Huron Bay. The contracting company they hired swore they could do it in a year. It took three.
Between the work stoppages for snow, the typhoid outbreak among the workers and the grades being much steeper than anticipated, work went slowly. Then there was what they named the Summit Cut.
The rail line would head up a steep grade to the summit of a large hill, then back down again. The rock at the peak was an especially hard type of granite and the cut went sixty feet deep into it. By the time the line was completed, it had cost investors $2 million. The bottom had also dropped out of the iron market.
The day came to do a test run of the new track. The only two men on the train were the engineer and Sam Beck, a railroad watchman. Afterwards, he was quoted as saying, "as the last eleven miles of the road were a steep downgrade, we decided the uphill run from Huron Bay would be a good test. I was in the cab with the engineer and we had proceeded just a short distance up the grade when the railroad gave way and we went into a ditch."
And just like that, the Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad came to an end.
You can actually drive up to close to the Summit Cut. County Road 607 makes use of the old railroad bed most of the way. I did think about it. The road's condition varied between sources.
I decided to drive as far as I felt comfortable going. The first nine miles was paved. It started out smoothly enough. There's weren't potholes or washouts, but it became the bumpiest paved road I have ever driven.
When the road turned to dirt, it was actually a better drive for a while. I had very little signal on my phone and even after driving fifteen miles up the road, it looked like I wasn't even close. I decided it best to just turn back. The Youtube channel Brian and Heather Outdoors did make it to the cut. You can see it here:
Seen on the drive up and back...
A little further west on Hwy 41 is another park. There's a parking lot and a trail down to Canyon Falls. It's an easy trail and I made it to the falls in under twenty minutes.
My home for the next two nights was the 41 Motel, right off the highway. The room was clean and perfectly fine. There was just a whole lot of road noise.
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