For some in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a ghost town is home | Hacker News Reader

For some in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a ghost town is home

freep.com

42 pointsrmason25 comments

I used to live in Duluth, 3-4 hours west, and have explored the Keeweenaw Peninsula. I love the UP. I spent a week exploring this area... took some photos of a tiny 4 headstone cemetery in the woods by an old copper mine. Most of the UP is quite desolate, and this area, even more so since it’s not on the way to anywhere.

Like everywhere up there, it would be paradise if not for the extreme winter. Houghton, just south of there at the base of the peninsula, has a tech university campus and is fairly populated.

‘“There used to be nothing but whorehouses here,” said the wiry 29-year-old, pointing into the woods, recounting family memories.”’

Family memories?

The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness nearby is another place I’d suggest exploring.

Most of the UP is quite desolate, and this area, even more so since it’s not on the way to anywhere.

And even when Phoenix was on my way somewhere, I don't think I ever stopped there.

> Family memories?

Stories he'd heard from parents and/or grandparents.

cf "institutional memory"

If you ski, Porcupine Mountains rents a few yurts back Off the ski trails that are quite comfortable (if you’re into that sort of thing).

A related aside...

I have a desktop background photo from the very early 1900's... it's of a copper stamping mill that was not so far away from where the article is set. However, in that image there's a "ghost image" that was on the original plate that you can faintly see.

I couldn't resist and ended up finding an online source for the actual image that was ghosted onto the plate that was my background: http://www.shorpy.com/node/11417

And then I couldn't resist finding out if I could find that location in modern day Google Maps.... and I did! The details I posted in the shopry.com link.

It was an interesting divergence for a couple of hours and I learned a fair amount about the area the article is talking about and the town of Calumet, Michigan which the photos in question document.

Ah, the modern age...

EDIT: I see that I didn't post anything about the background image with the ghosted impression on it back then when I commented... I just found another link to that (perhaps not surprisingly from shopry.com, http://www.shorpy.com/node/15713, though that's not where I originally found it)

That is a fascinating photo. Thanks for posting the link. I find the "decay" of towns like this to be fascinating.

Traveling along old Route 66 (especially old diverted sections) is another way to see this sort of "decay".

There is a Woody Guthrie song about that town during a strike - "1913 Massacre".

I love the U.P. I have been there almost every year of my life, first from Illinois where I was raised, and now I make the trip with my kids from California. I love the forests, the lakes, and the rivers, and I try to let my kids experience that (there isn't much uncrowded freshwater in southern California). The people, being very Finnish (like half my family), are best described as stoic.

I have to say, from reading TFA, it sounds quite appealing. I'd guess good internet service is pretty uncommon in those parts, which would limit its potential as an isolated remote-work kind of place. But if you're financially independent and like solitude, sounds pretty good.

There’s 4 or 5 areas with gigabit actually from smallest ISPs like packerland / CCI. They’re in some of the more populated areas of course.

Depends on just how remote you want to be. Broadband is available in the more populated towns. When I was in Houghton, the only major service interruption I remember was from a backhoe operator digging where he shouldn't.

Most of the towns in the area have decent internet, although I remember having a lot of outages, at least a few every winter during bad storms. I'm not aware of any gigabit connections but the speeds are enough to stream movies, play games, and fiddle around online. If you go off into some of the more remote areas, like 10-30 minutes outside of a town, you're largely stuck with satellite internet.

Yes I would be there more if I could work some of the time. Our family property doesn't even have reliable cell service much less wired Internet.

As someone from Michigan, the UP, while great in its own right(just as the rest of the state of Michigan outside of Detroit and it's suburbs), is very much being idealized here.

I live on the west coast now and the beauty simply does not compare. I can't speak specifically for California but even SF, its surrounding hills and even the time I've been in LA make the UP pale in comparison.

We're talking about dirty rural communities with no mountains, and no oceans- forget about jobs. Oh, and I hope you like hot summers and freezing, feet-of-snow and ice winters.

There is a reason some places are more expensive than others.

I grew up in the Keweenaw, expert recreator (mountain biking, skiing, hiking), got a few degrees from Michigan Tech, and succeeded in getting a job there (it was my goal for many years). If any HM folks are ever wanting to visit, I host couch surfers. alex (at) hirzel.us

> The Keweenaw Peninsula is the upper peninsula of the Upper Peninsula. It’s the state’s northernmost region...

One minor nitpick: Isle Royale, the entirety of which is a National Park, is farther north, in Lake Superior.

I went to university in the Keewenaw (Michigan Tech). It's also where I started learning how to run a company. I spent 5 years of my life there.

Happy to answer questions about anything tech related there!

What was the biggest blizzard you witnessed? I visited for a weekend and there was about 4 feet of snow in a 36 hour storm.

I was there from 2008 to 2013. This gives a fairly good break down: https://www.mtu.edu/alumni/favorites/snowfall/ I saw a lot of snow storms there over the years. Neat fact: The houses in the UP actually have doors that lead nowhere on higher floors in case your first floor is buried :).

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that NASA launched satellites from Keweenaw peninsula in the sixties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keweenaw_Rocket_Range

Never been there but it's on my list when I get back. From what I've been told you need a 4wd vehicle as you need to fjord a stream.

Is there a Wifi Hotspot there? I see people in the photo use their tablet (iPad?) to read things?

For a so-called "ghost town", that's too tech advanced :-)

> For a so-called "ghost town", that's too tech advanced :-)

Maybe they just never comment on anything! ;)

Is it a ghost town if it's not deserted?

I was born and raised in the Yoop, Lake Linden is my hometown! I've talked about it on a little on HN in the past so I'll just paste my previous comment but if anyone has any questions about the area I am happy to try and answer them.

The Yoop is a lovely area with loads of history and extremely kind people. It is also sadly filled with crushing poverty and brutal winters. I grew up in Lake Linden and one interesting location that isn't a mine is the abandoned Calumet Air Force radar station [1][2]. The copper mine in houghton is absolutely worth checking out and the tour is pretty great if you are into mining or anything historic. I've taken the tour a few times, you only get to go down a few levels due to the rest of the mine being flooded but it is still very interesting. This mine was a big one but the entire area was dedicated to copper and was extremely rich with the stuff. The mine, and others, actually closed down in 1933 due to low copper prices but reopened a couple shafts in 1937. I forget when they closed back down but I want to say it was in the mid 50s.

Michigan Tech claims that from Quincy alone, up to 756 million pounds of copper were produced from 1856 to 1925 [3]. The mine, with 90 levels, went to a final depth of 6,225 feet with a finial shaft length of 9,260 feet [4]. I'm not sure how reliable it is, I've only ever had my eyes on the Quincy Mining Company financials, but the national park services claim that over 10 billion pounds of copper were produced from the area [5].

Just this summer I was talking to an old timer who worked with the local mines pulling core samples and doing general geologic work. According to him there is still a massive amount of copper in the ground but with regulations and the completely dilapidated infrastructure, there hasn't been development for decades. With the rise in copper prices I have heard rumors of a few people buying up mineral rights in the last year or so but nothing too interesting beyond that. Personally I would love some deep pockets to come into the area to reopen the mines and revitalize the area, not sure I'll ever see that in my lifetime though.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbYbO-my46I

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calumet_Air_Force_Station

[3] http://www.mg.mtu.edu/MINE_SHAFTS/shaft5zd.htm

[4] https://www.uh.edu/engines/mineno2shaftcrosssection.jpg

[5] https://www.nps.gov/kewe/learn/historyculture/copper-mining-...

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