Log_MI-GL_2019

Pure Michigan

Upper Peninsula

Think about the geography of the Great Lakes area and you may wonder about this area being part of Michigan and not Wisconsin. Well, in the 1800’s Ohio and Michigan settled a land dispute and Wisconsin lost.

The Mackinaw Bridge, one of the world’s longest suspension bridges at 5 miles, was opened in 1957 to finally connect lower Michigan to the Upper Peninsula.

View from Mackinaw City View from Mackinaw Island

Lake Superior

At 31,700 square miles, Lake Superior is the largest fresh-water lake in the world. Its deepest point is 1,333 feet. Its surface is 602 feet above sea level. Watching the waves roll into the shore you feel like you are on the shores of an ocean.

Along Au Sable Light Station Trail Atop Au Sable Light Station

The fury of the lake This is video - click to play

Picture Rocks Lakeshore National Park

Years of wave action along the cliffs have created colorful Picture Rocks.

The discovery of copper and the dangers of navigation created an even greater need for lighthouses on Lake Superior.

Old Grand Island Lighthouse Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

AuSable Light Climbing the tower

Copper Harbor Lighthouse

Copper is King

Before the California Gold Rush, beginning is 1843 prospectors came to the UP not for gold, but for copper. This area contained a wealth of PURE elemental copper, the result of both volcanic and glacial actions.

In 1844 Fort Wilkins was built in remote Copper Harbor to keep order between the prospectors themselves and the native Indians during the Copper Rush.

Pure copper Underground copper vein

Moving men, ore and water out of the mine from depths of over 9000 feet required a powerful hoist system. In 1918 a specially constructed hoist at the Quincy Copper Mine near Houghton, MI, became the world’s largest steam powered hoist.

Quincy Steam Hoist cable drum

Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park

This large wilderness area rises abruptly from Lake Superior forming a 12 mile long escarpment. Although black bears are numerous in this park, we did not encounter one on our hikes.

Escarpment and Lake of the Clouds Hike along the Presque Isle River

Many waterfalls and rapids

Tahquamenon Falls State Park was one of several beautiful state parks in which we camped and hiked. This park even had an ice cream parlor we walked to from our camp site.

Jim rows across the lake

Lower Falls Upper Falls

At Fayette Village Historic State Park a 19^th century industrial community has been preserved. This local was one of the UP’s most productive iron-smelting operations. As we walked around this site we could not help but compare it to the 1700’s iron furnaces in the NJ Ramapo Mountains. The same process was used with technology upgraded for steam power rather than waterwheels.

Fayette Village

We conclude this posting with some mathematic history.

Thacher’s Calculating Instrument

This cylindrical slide rule, made by Keuffel & Esser, was used to accurately and rapidly compute miner’s wages from 1870’s to the 1940’s. The inserted cylinder is the “slide” around which the outer wheel rotates. Using this instrument you could multiply, divide and calculate squares and square roots. It is equivalent to a conventional slide rule almost 60 feet long.

Thacher’s Calculating Instrument

For the curious, see: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1131290