Lake Linden, MI - Ironwood, MI - Saginaw, MN

 July 19 - 24, 2025

On Saturday, July 19 we drove to Linden Lake Campground in Linden Lake, MI.  It was 50 amp electric and water for $33.00 per night.  It was a nice stop to do sightseeing and errands.

On Sunday it was a beautiful day and we went to the Quincy Mine Smelter.  There was a mine tour but we've already been to coal and iron mines on this trip, as well as a pit copper mine six years ago, so we decided to skip that.  The smelter was a walking tour that took about an hour and was well worth it.  We first started watching a video about the mine and smelter.  Then we were given hardhats and started on the tour.

Our guide gave us information that she had looked up on her own in addition to the standard tour info.  The smelter was built in 1898 to process the copper from Quincy mine as well as other local mines.  Quincy started with several sandstone furnace buildings and support structures, and then added additional buildings as technologies changed over time.  With the decline of the industry after World War II, the local sources of profitable copper diminished to the point that it no longer made sense to keep the facility open.  Plus the EPA came in and said they had to make a lot of upgrades to stay open, so they closed the smelter in 1971.  Fortunately, rather than scrap the facility, the company locked the doors, put up a fence, and left the complex intact.  The fence is probably the reason that the equipment is mostly still here as no one could load up their trucks and sell it all for scrap.

One of the five furnaces.

The local area had the purest copper so it was easier to process and made a better profit.

Lots of rust.

A customer could order what weight (40+ pounds) they wanted for their needs.  These were some of the forms the copper would be put into.

They tested the copper output in this lab building daily to make sure the quality was good.

A steam engine generated electricity that powered the plant.

You can see the date 1898 on this building.  They don't make stuff to last now like they did back then.

Boiler room.

The safe where they kept the payroll, etc. in the superintendent's office, which is now the tour office.

Copper displayed in the office/gift shop.

After the tour we were on our way to get lunch and run some errands and got stopped by this bridge.  The whole roadbed raises so boats can go underneath.  You can see the top of the road between the signs and the signal.

The next day we followed the Copper Harbor Guide Along tour.  One of the stop was this snowfall thermometer.  That's a lot of snow!

Another stop was a waterfall viewed from this bridge.

This beach was supposed to have interesting rocks but we didn't see any.

We drove to the top of Brockway Mountain, which is 720 feet above Lake Superior, and had our picnic lunch.  What a beautiful view!

This is looking down on the Devil's Washtub.  This natural volcanic rock formation is a blowhole that blows when the water conditions of the lake are right, which they weren't when John hiked down there to take this picture.

The waters of Lake Superior are so clear.

The last town on the peninsula is Copper Harbor.  Just beyond the town is the beginning of US 41 that goes from this point to Miami.

Here you can see that Miami is only 1,990 miles away.

On Tuesday, July 22 we drove through the rain and a thunderstorm to Curry Park in Ironwood, MI.  It was my birthday and I made brownies to celebrate.  First brownies we've had in months!

It's a city park with 50 amp full hookups for $40.00 per night.  It was right next to a busy highway and was only quiet in the wee hours of the morning.  Not a destination but served our needs.

On Wednesday, July 23 we drove through Wisconsin to Red Pine Campground in Saginaw, MN.  It's 30 amp full hookups for $50.73 per night.

Site #75. 

I finally found someone that had an open appointment to cut my hair, which I really needed, so I got that done on Thursday.  That should do me until I get home.
 

On Friday we took a small part of the North Shore Guide Along tour.  There are fires in Canada and the smoke is pretty bad.  You can't see where the lake ends and the sky begins, so I didn't take any pictures.  I wanted to go to Betty's Pies as it's a famous stop along the route.  I researched their pies and there were some that I could eat, so we went there for lunch.  I had a hamburger which was really good and John and fish and chips, which he said was ok.  We were pretty full so we took our pie to go.  We had things we needed to do so got some fuel and came back.

Tomorrow we'll be...

Roving on...

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:3

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

 July 17 - 18, 2025

On Thursday God gave us a beautiful day, so we went to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  This park was authorized by Congress in 1966, the first national seashore.  We stopped at the visitor center and picked up a map, and I got my passport stamp.  We drove to the first stop, Sand Point.

Sand Point Beach

Then we drove to Miners Castle.  I love the rock formations and the color of the water.

Panorama of the beach from Miners Castle overlook.  There was more to see in the park, but there isn't a road that connects all the points without backtracking a lot, so we decided to just do those two stops.  We decided this because we were going on the Pictured Rocks sunset cruise that evening, and we figured we would see more on the cruise than we would from land.  This was a wise choice.

We left the campground around 7:00, stopped in the gift shop to get a can coozie for my collection, and went to get in line for the boat.  They have it set up really nice with chairs so everyone doesn't have to stand in a line.  There were two boats and both were nearly full.

We left the dock at 8:00.  Our first stop was the East Channel Lighthouse.  It was used to guide ships into Munising Harbor.  It opened around 1870 but was closed in 1913 because new lights were installed in Munising.  As the guide explained, it was pretty isolated there.  The lightkeeper and his wife lived here, along with their 12 children!

We cruised along the shoreline, and I took so many pictures there's no way I could include all of them here.  In the winter the water in the rocks freeze and expand, which causes sections to fall.  Our guide said you can tell which have fallen recently because the rocks are large, and the ones that fell a long time ago are small because the wind and waves have beaten them up.

The different colors come from the streaks of mineral stain on the face of the cliffs.  The streaks occur when groundwater oozes out of cracks.  The dripping water contains iron, manganese, limonite, copper, and other minerals that leave behind a colorful stain as the water trickles down a cliff face.

I don't know the names of all these places so just enjoy the pictures.

The many colors were beautiful and changing. 

Our guide said people used to be able to go under this arch, but it collapsed in the 1930s.

This one takes some imagination to see the Indian head.  The part that sticks out is his nose, the straight line beneath is his mouth.  You can't see his eyes very well from this angle.

This is called battleship row because it resembles a row of battleships lined up.

We pulled into the cove and got really close.

The white lines are from the boat antennas.

This tree doesn't have anything to grow it's roots into, so you can see a root going to where it can get some nourishment.  Unfortunately it's not looking very healthy so many not last through many more storms.  It's sort of like we are.  We need to be rooted in Jesus for life now and eternally.

Spray Falls.  This waterfall never freezes.  The portions on the outside will freeze into columns, but the center always flows.

We turned around to go back and it was cold.  Not the coldest I've ever been but it was nice to get warm again.

I love the way the setting sun reflects off the stone on the inside of the arch.

The other boat was a little ahead of us and you can see it through the arch.

We had a beautiful sunset!

That was a full day but we had a great time!  I would recommend the cruise as you can see so much more from a boat.  The sunset cruise was really nice as the colors really popped.

Today is laundry and blog day, and tomorrow we'll be...

Roving on...

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:3