Michigan, Day 16...Singing Sand

 Friday, June 16, 2023

     So far, two motels have had contactless checkin,  They text you the room number and the four digit keycode for the door.   Without my phone, I wouldn't get those texts.  My other big concern is just how much will I be able to recover from T-Mobile's version of the cloud.  And I'm going to miss the easy use of Google maps to navigate.  Sure, I have plenty of paper maps.  But still, no searches for things near me.  

     Today was another drive day, but there was a whole lot to see and do.  Hwy 41 took me out of town and heading north.  It was also 45 degrees when I left.  

     My first stop of the day was Kingsville.  My AAA map had a lighthouse labeled as the Keweenaw Waterway Lower Entrance Lighthouse.  It marks the entrance of the Portage River from Lake Superior.  I got as close as I could without passing No Trespassing and Private Property Signs.

     

     Just a few miles north was the entrance to the Sturgeon River Sloughs State Wildlife Management Area.   Not much wildlife to see.  

     I stopped in Chassel for gas and coffee.  I only mention it because it's the first time I had encountered Death Wish Coffee. Their claim is double the caffeine, but no bitter taste.  In 2018, they even had their coffee delivered to the International Space Station.  Great logo, too.   You'd get a photo if I had a phone at this point.  Ugh.

    HUGE shoutout to Patty at the Houghton, Michigan Walmart.  For $50 she hooked me up with a very basic smart phone and one month's service.  It feels weird though.  It's much lighter in weight than my S-21 was.  The photos aren't that bad, either.  But, I do miss some of the functions and apps.

   

     There's only one bridge across the Portage Canal between Houghton and Hancock.  It's also Bridgefest weekend.  If I had stuck around I could have caught another free concert and a parade.  

    Shot with the Walmart burner phone...

    On the northern side sits the town of Hancock. That's where you'll find a memorial to Finnish immigrant Lauri "Big Louie" Moilanen. His claim to fame, at eight feet three inches, he was the tallest person to ever live in Michigan.

     Moilanen's family emigrated to America when he was four.  By nine, he had outgrown his parents.  As an adult, finding work wasn't easy.  Mining was the biggest employer in the area.  But, mines are generally cramped spaces, not suitable for tall people.  He would up working for the timber industry until his death at twenty-seven.  

     This is where I picked up Hwy 26 towards my next stop, Dollar Bay. This is the third community founded and named after Robert Dollar.  

     The community of Mason used to be a mining town. The Quincy Mining Company built and operated a stamp mill to crush ore and extract the copper.   Construction began in 1860. Two more stamp mills were eventually added.  After WW1, the price of copper dropped and the mills closed. All that's left are some remains of the original mill.

    The mills were located across the road from Torch Lake. When the ore was crushed, all that remained were small pieces of gravel called stamp sand. Thinking it was worthless, it was simply dumped into the lake.

     By 1910, new methods of extracting copper from stamp sand were being developed. The owners of the mining company realized they had all this waste product in the lake and it was potentially worth a great deal of money.

     In 1914, two dredges were built to suck up the sand and pump it into a new reclamation facility. When the mills eventually closed, the dredges were simply abandoned. Dredge #1 sank and is underwater. Dredge #2 still sits near the shoreline.

    As for Torch Lake, it's a federal Superfund site.  You can read more about its status on the EPA's webpage.

     If you keep driving north into Tamarack City, the long abandoned Ahmeek Stamp Mill sits right in downtown.  Unlike Quincy, there are No Trespassing signs all over.

    With plenty of time, I decided to take the scenic route east towards the lakeshore and the town of Gay. It was named after Joseph Gay, one of the owners of the Mohawk Mining Company. They dug copper nearby and built a stamp mill that operated from 1898 to 1932. All that's left is the smokestack.

    Well, a smokestack and an environmental disaster.  Just like the Quincy Mill, the stamp sand was simply dumped off shore.  One estimate was 25 million tons.  There is a current effort to dredge up the stamp sand.  As much as possible, it will be dumped back into the mine.  The state is also building a jetty out into the lake to keep the toxic sands from moving down the coast of Lake Superior and polluting more the coastline.  

     The goal is to save an area known as Buffalo Reef, a major spawning ground for whitefish and lake trout.  

     You can read more at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources website.  The state is spending $10 million with another $3.7 from the EPA for the cleanup. 

     That gray along the coast from Gay southward, that's stamp sand.  That's how big this problem is.

     Already a logging community, the population grew to about 1,500. Logging continued until the railroad left in 1965. Now there are less than a hundred year round residents.

     The most prominent business in town if the local bar and grill, simply named the Gay Bar. As you might expect, they have fun with their name and sell a lot of cheeky t-shirts.

     It was just after noon when I arrived.  Not thinking food, I did stop in for a pint and had an interesting conversation with one of the owners.  Bruce told me about a place only the locals know about.  It's labeled No Trespassing, but the owner doesn't care if you cut through.  The road leads to one of the highest points in the U.P.  He claims the view is spectacular, on a clear day.   I didn't want to backtrack, but made a note of it foe the eventual drive south.

    The route I chose followed the shoreline of Lake Superior, eventually coming to a the Bete Grise Wetland Preseve.(pr; Bay Dee Gree) The name comes from the French for "gray beast."  

   On the outskirts of Lac la Belle, a brief stop at Haven Falls.

     Lac la Belle, from the French for Lake the Beautiful, was also the site of a stamp mill and shipping port. These days it caters mostly to summer tourists. I came for the beach. Native American legend tells the story of a woman who lost her love to the lake. She spent the rest of her life on the beach crying and calling to him. These days it's more commonly referred to as the Singing Sand Beach.

    If you rub your hand in the sand, it makes a pronounced squeaking sound. To make this happen, the grains of sand have to be mostly the same size, about a third of a millimeter across, and spherical. The moisture level has to be just right, too. And if the sand is packed down like most beaches, it won't sing.  When you rub the sand, it causes vibrations in the grains which in turn creates that sound.  If conditions are right.   I couldn't make it work.  

    But, you can hear the sand do its thing here:

    It was time to go.   Great drive...

 My last stop of the day was Copper Harbor and the Buena Vista Motel.  When I booked, they were apologetic about the cheaper rooms being sold out.  This view cost me all of $10 more a night.  Not bad at all.  

    As the day waned, I simply grabbed my camera and took a stroll through town, ending up at the Brickside Brewery.  It's a typical brewery.  In all honesty, the beer tasted a bit flat.  

    From the walk...

     I took my time working my way through some that were really good and others that were simply okay.  But, it was the conversation that was the most intriguing.  I learned more about hunting wild turkeys vs. raising them than I ever expected.  The conversation then shifted to which is worse, mosquitos or ticks.  

    The woman who runs the food truck wandered in with the new menu.  Their season starts tomorrow.  Live music this weekend!
     While I was out exploring, the ferry from Isle Royale National Park returned.  The only way to get there is by boat.  The Park Service runs a daily ferry out and back.  It's mostly people camping for a few days.   The ride each way if over three hours.  If you take a day trip, you only get three and a half on the island.  

     The problem is, seating is limited.  And since most passengers are heading out one day and back another, a seat might not be available for both ways.  That's what happened to me.  So, I just watched the ferry come and go.  Perhaps another time.  

    It's the least visited national park, but if you ask the locals, it's the most revisited.  One of these days.