September 28, 2010

This morning was goodbye to Lake Superior and all of her beauty. We are starting our trip back across the UP and are driving to Manistique, MI which is on the coast of Lake Michigan. But before we left Silver City, we stopped to take one last photo of Lake Superior; not for her beauty, but to record the red streak that was washing along the shore line. This is the first time we have seen anything but clear water in three years of visits. The red streak is coming from the Ontonagon River ten miles east of Silver City. Six days ago a severe storm hit the west coast of the UP and produced large waves and several inches of rain. All of this water washed red clay into the river upstream from Ontonagon Bay. As the river flowed into Lake Superior, the northeast wind pushed the red water west, along the coast. Yesterday there was a distinct line about 100 yards out into the lake where the water turned from red to blue. The lake was so rough this morning that the color difference was difficult to see.

Our first stop of the day was in Iron Mountain, MI at the Iron Mountain Museum. The museum is home of the Cornish Pump Engine. The pump, built in 1890, stands 54 feet above the engine room floor and the flywheel extends another 20 feet below the floor. It was installed at the Chapin Mine. The iron ore seam covered an area over 6100 feet wide and was 50 to 150 feet thick. Part of the mine ran under a cedar swamp which contributed to the mine being one of the wettest ever worked. The Cornish Pump was capable of pumping 3,400 gallons of water per minute (5,000,000 gallons a day!!) from a depth of 1,500 feet. It weighs in at 725 tons. The building that houses the pump is very large and the lighting is poor. Due to this and the sheer size of the pump, it was difficult to get good photos. You can go online to www.exploringthenorth.com/cornish/pump and check out this monster.

Our second stop was in Escanaba, MI which is on the Lake Michigan shore at the Michigan/ Wisconsin border. The Sand Point Lighthouse is a “schoolhouse” design.

This is the smallest lighthouse that we have visited except for the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse. There is another very unusual feature of Sand Point… no back door! We have never seen this and are curious regarding what precautions were taken by the keeper in case of fire in the front portion of the house. Visitation for this lighthouse ended two weeks ago, so the backdoor situation will remain a mystery.

Sand Point is one of a very few lighthouses that still has its Fresnel lens still in the tower. This is a fourth order lens and is about 3 ½ feet tall. The smaller the number of a Fresnel lens, the larger the lens would be.The largest lens on Lake Superior was a second order. You can stand inside of a first order lens.

We are staying in Manistique, MI tonight. The internet in not working in the motel so we will send this out ASAP. We learned when we checked in tonight that tomorrow night (Wednesday) the electricity will cut off over a very large part of the UP for at least two hours starting at 10 P.M. Oh goody…

Tomorrow we will be going to the Garden Peninsula, and the old mining town of Fayette, MI.