September 25, 2010

After two days of rain and high winds it was nice to see some sunshine today. As you can probably tell by now, we like lighthouses. Last year we drove within 150 feet of the Eagle River Lighthouse and never saw it. The lighthouse was built in 1857 and was vital to guiding ships into Eagle River Harbor, which was the home port of the Cliff Copper Mines. In 1873 the price of copper fell drastically and the Cliff Mine closed. Very few ships were sailing by Eagle River Harbor and in 1908 the lighthouse was decommissioned. It became the first lighthouse on the Keweenaw Peninsula to fall into private hands when it was auctioned off on August 2, 1908. The winning bid was $925.00. As you can see from the photo, it has been added on to several times, and without seeing the top of the light tower, is not recognizable.

Eagle River Falls is on M-26 just east of Eagle River. With the recent rains, the falls were quite impressive.

Just west of Eagle River the waves were running about 4-5 feet, left over from the past two days of storms. Yesterday they were running 6-8 feet in this same area.

In this area of Lake Superior, the beaches can be very different in a short distance, some with fine sand and others with large rock formations. This beach falls in between, with small stones covering the beach. Most of the time, the colors are varied but on this beach they are a reddish color and are very deep.

Next up was the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, built in 1871. The tower is 44 feet tall. It is unique in that it is red brick on one side, and the brick is painted white on the opposite side (note colors in the photos.) This allows ships to identify the lighthouse in the daytime. At night the lighthouse also has a unique way to be identified. It has a white light and a red light (see the red light in the photo) with a 10 second alternating flash of the lights.

The Monks make it, and it is oh so tasty…that is Thimbleberry jam from the Jampot! We heard about it last year and purchased a jar. It didn’t last long. When we stopped at the Jampot (check it out online) today, they still had a few jars on the shelf. The Monks of the Holy Transfiguration Skete Society of John, all five of them, run the Jampot. One of them told us today, “Some days we work 36 hours non-stop”. They make all kinds of pastries, breads, jams, and jellies. They sell out of the store from Mother’s Day until the last day of October. The rest of the year they sell online. Great stuff!

We have a sign to share with you today. This was spotted at Cat Harbor, just west of Eagle Harbor, MI. Most of the area is very, and I mean VERY, sparsely populated. We met a lady (a volunteer) at the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse who said she was known as number 23 because she was the twenty-third, and last, person counted in the census!!

Tomorrow we will be traveling to Brockway Mountain by way of the covered highway. We hope to have some good photos of the fall colors to share with you.