Preserving the Old – August 26-27, 2015

This part of the Upper Peninsula is ALL about copper and everything that used to be connected with the boom days of copper.  Just north of Houghton, where we are staying, is a town named Calumet that was created around the C & H Mine, hiring people from all over the world from 1849 into the 1930s.

The paternal philosophy of the management provided all kinds of benefits to the workers such as health care, housing, schools, good working conditions, churches and social clubs and lodges.  With wages higher than most other jobs in the country, this area was ideal for immigrants wanting to bring families from their home countries and many did just that.  There are still high concentrations of Italian, Scottish, and Austrian American populations in this area.

In the mid-1950s, Calumet decided (since the mines were gone forever and no other industry to take its place) preservation of the past and the rich history of this area was in their best interest and that is what they have done.  The old red sandstone buildings have been repurposed to house museums and exhibits of the days gone by and are now part of the Keweenaw National Historic Park.

St Anne’s Catholic Church

St Paul the Apostle Catholic Church

The historic Calumet Theatre, originally opened in 1900, has been restored and is still in operation.  Just this past week there was a performance of a live act and the theatre hosts “dinner and a movie” nights periodically for the local residents.  In its prime, this theatre hosted the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Wallace Beery and John Phillip Sousa.  The grandeur of the interior is still very evident.

Calumet Theater

Inside Calumet Theater

One of the senior managers of the C & H Mining Company built a house in nearby Laurium at a cost of $50,000 in 1908 and contains 13,000 square feet within its four floors.

Laurium Manor – Laurium, MI

The interesting thing for me was the history of this house and how it was brought back to life as a functioning bed and breakfast.  It seems two students from Michigan Tech saw the house while they attended college here.  They moved to California after graduation but always remembered the house.  From the time they saw it to the time they eventually bought it in 1989, the house had had several owners and the last was an antique dealer who striped the house of stained glass windows, fixtures and all the lovely furniture.  Over time they got the opportunity to buy the house, or what was left of it, and gradually restored it one room at a time until they made the decision to leave Silicon Valley and run the B & B themselves.  Library

Hallway

One of the bedrooms

In the Carriage House there is a turn-table used to get the Pierce Arrow car out once it was driven in.  I never knew this, but the early cars had no reverse, so if you drove into a garage, you had to push it back out.  This ingenious couple have found a Pierce Arrow and repaired the turn-table to add more authenticity to the house.

Turntable in Carriage House

Now they own several historic sites as vacation rentals and are very active in the historic preservation of this area.

Farther north, there is the Fort Wilkins National Park which was built in 1849 for the sole purpose of maintaining the order when this area first opened for copper mining.  After two years, it was determined not to be needed and deactivated until  1867 when it was activated again for a short while.  As a result of the minimal use, the buildings were in good enough shape to preserve and opened as a historic museum.

Inside Ft. Wilkins

Of course, there is no shortage of lighthouses or waterfalls on this peninsula.

Copper Harbor Lighthouse

Silver Falls near Copper Harbor

Jacob’s Falls

Eagle River Falls

Sand Hills Lighthouse

Some of the lighthouses are now private residences and not opened to the public, which is the case with Sand Hills, but we peeked anyway.