McLain State Park, Hancock, Michigan (Upper Peninsula)
Blaine called the auto parts store around 9:30 this morning. Remember Jeep part was supposed to be in by 9:00? They got the part!
Unfortunately, they got the wrong part.
But at least they knew that before he drove our disabled vehicle over there. Sigh . . . The right one should be there in 3 days. Well, that’s all well and good, but we’ll be miles away by then. Sigh . . .
So now he’s back on the phone, calling Jeep dealers near our next stop. “Sure! We can fix that! But we can’t get you in until sometime next week.” Gulp! That’s waaaay too long! Especially since it’s our only vehicle! They agreed to order the part and Blaine will install it himself. It’s just too bad he has to take a day to do this, but since this is our life, these things are bound to come up.
Once he was done, we rode our bikes around the Park we’re camped in. It’s a pretty big place, so we were gone for a while. We went to the store that was closed last night, just to look around. It was small. There were lots of kids. It was too early for ice cream. We left.
Aren’t these pretty?
They were outside the Park Office.
I liked our bikes in the background. : )
What a difference 15 hours makes!
Like the fog hanging around? We did!
Finally, butterflies that didn’t take off when we got close!
It was fascinating watching them eat!
Somewhat blurry, but you can still see the detail!
Splendid!
We were in desperate need of a few grocery staples by now, so Blaine checked the MacGuyvered gas line again and deemed it short-distance-worthy. The nearest grocery store is 8 miles away. My boy scout put our bikes on the back of the Jeep “just in case”. He has a lot of faith in me. I suspect I would’ve just stayed in the Jeep until he went and got help . . .
Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.
We drove to the next-door historic town of Calumet. (CAL[like calorie]-you-met)
What great buildings! So great, we decided to walk the streets a bit after a Subway lunch and before we shopped. We had to drive back into town, though. It was just a bit too far to walk from here.
Lunch View!
Not so great, but at least we had benches to sit on, and something interesting to watch. : )
This guy and his family (?) of six, evidently broke down. They were eating at one of only two tables inside Subway, as they waited for a tow.
“Visitor Center, that should be a good place to park.” So we did.
And it turned out that the Visitor Center was actually a National Park Visitor Center! And what a VC it was! This place was terrific! We ended up being in there for 1 ½ hours. Lucky for you! This was going to be a really short post. Not so much now. . .
The side of the Visitor Center
I liked the fire escape. : )
St. Anne’s church across the street.
More on that later!
Great story!
Former First Presbyterian Church – 1893 (on another corner)
Now in the National Register of Historic Places
It’s now the Calumet Art Center
Let’s go inside! I’ll put any descriptions I have under the picture.
Copper was a big deal here for many years, but when workers organized and management refused to improve working conditions, they all went on strike – for 9 months!
Workers on strike.
One of the main reasons was the change from a three man team for drilling, to a one man machine.
This wasn’t just a cut in personnel, it was also felt to be unsafe, as workers would be in areas alone with no help should something happen to them.
There was a video in this room, but I took pictures because of the beautiful woodwork here.
So what’s the door on top for???
A bell that rings from the other side of the door so someone can be let in, and a swinging peephole so they knew whether or not to let the person on the other side in. : )
We came to find out that this used to be the Masonic Lodge. Very exclusive.
You had to be voted in. Each member cast their vote into this box.
More white than black, you’re in.
If not, you’re black-balled!
And now you know where that term came from!
I thought the design of this knife was really nice.
This was an interesting bit of info.
They had a section with a bunch of old portraits. Some were labeled, some were not. We really liked those, but we didn’t take pictures of them all. : )
This tragedy took place during the strike.
Striking workers and their families were at a Christmas Party.
Someone yelled “fire” and there was a stampede to try to escape.
There was no fire.
I meant to take a picture of this, but must have been distracted.
The information adds to the newspaper information, though.
These are artifacts depicting the variety of religious beliefs in the community as almost everyone was a new (or fairly new) immigrant
The mine owners found it beneficial to support these churches as they believed they produced moral and upright workers.
Another bit of interesting . . .
Be sure to note the contrast between this picture and the next. : )
And here I thought communal bathing went out with the Romans. . . .
Some of the young labor force.
You may think this is terrible, but remember the times.
Is it better to have child laborers who can support their families in the absence of the father (who was the main and in most cases, only, bread winner), or have the family starve?
Welfare didn’t even begin until 1935. . . .
Housing provided by the company.
Look at that! Real radiators heat this building – or at least part of it.
I’m certain it didn’t originally have a cage around it though. : )
My grandparents had these switches in their house!
We used to have these rope pulley windows in our old house when I was growing up.
Reconstructed parquet flooring to replicate the original!
Isn’t it gorgeous?!?!?
Some not so interesting information, unless you’re into “Green”.
This is original flooring.
There was only so much money to restore.
They haven’t been able to complete the project yet, but they did a couple of sections to showcase the original.
The copper-colored portion of this pole is one of them.
This small section was another.
When we came out, the church across the street was now open for visitors and we spent another 30 minutes in there, which was also very interesting!
The Docent attending today is a volunteer. She’s helped restore parts of this old church. When you here her describe the condition of this building, it’s really remarkable what they’ve managed to accomplish!
The Archdiocese decided that there were too many Catholic churches (in fairly recent years, but I don’t know when) and this one was on the chopping block. It was sold to a guy who not only ran an antique business in it, but also lived here. “You know how to spell antique, don’t you? J-U-N-K!” the Docent told us. Then she proceeded to tell us what horrible conditions this place was in when certain members of the community learned of the man’s death (” . . . and no one was sorry to see him go.”), and began raising money to purchase it for rehabilitation.
The story’s in the pictures.
St. Anne’s was built in 1900 for the French-Canadian community from local Jacobsville red sandstone.
After hearing the details of the condition of this place, I’m really surprised any of the original is left.
Praise God, the guy didn’t destroy everything!
This organ is not original.
I don’t remember what happened to the original one.
This one was donated.
When they accepted the gift, they had no idea how large it was!
It had to be disassembled to get it into the building. Fortunately, one of the men was just OCD enough to take pictures and number all the pieces as it was taken apart.
Unfortunately, the man died before it was reassembled, but because of his meticulous labeling, the volunteers were able to reassemble it! And it works!
After this, we were ready to walk the streets, and that took another 45 minutes or so. We purchased an inexpensive booklet describing many of the buildings around town, so the one’s we discovered that are in the booklet, I’ll tell you something about. If there’s no label, we know nothing.
For some reason we’re unaware of, some of these buildings are called “blocks”. We thought many they took up a block, but if that’s the case, the roads have changed. . .
Holman and Williams were grocers. In 1900, they rented the other half of their store to a Jewish businessman who sold dry goods and clothes.
This used to be the Michigan Hotel.
I have no date., but it was designed as a showplace for the Bosch Brewing Company and often served elite clientel and provided carriage service that brought its patrons from the Mineral Range Railroad Depot.
The Red Jacket (the first name for the town – before Calumet) Fire Station. It was built in 1900.
Opera House and Town Hall
It has 1,200 seat capacity and opened on March 20, 1900.
We weren’t permitted access to the inside because they were preparing for a military band show tonight.
St Paul the Apostle Church
It was originally called St Joseph’s with a congregation of Slovenians, Croatians, Austrians and Italians.
When the populations grew, each of them built their own churches.
The name was changed when the Archdiocese combined churches.
This one was built in 1902 from the same type of sandstone as St. Anns
This is the first Catholic church we’ve encountered where the doors were the doors were locked during the day! So instead, I put my phone tight up against the glass. : )
Built 1891
Pretty sure it wasn’t a Mexican Restaurant.
There were different businesses in this one building, but look how the outsides were different.
Another former church.
I don’t know which one, but it seems that now it belongs to a greenhouse.
And we were only planning on going to the grocery store . . . . 😊
“Cowboy chops” for dinner.
I think they called them that because they’re so huge! Of course, we ate them all and since we did, we had to go for a walk. This time, I managed to corral him to just the asphalted drive around the campground. 😊
A lot of erosion around here.