We made it.
We are in Calumet, Michigan. That’s where my grandfather, Herbert, I understand was born in 1891. That’s about all I knew before deciding to take a trip here. To say that it was a trip to find my roots, would be sort of a half-truth; actually it is an excuse to get away to a new place. It is more about taking a trip and spending time with my husband, doing what we love to do – exploring out-of-the-way places.
Calumet is a town where every building has a story. The years 1898 or 1890 years are engraved into he red brick above the doors. This was a town built on copper, it was a town built on dreams, but it was a town built on the hope of a better future. People came from England, Canada, Finland to work in the copper mines. and the side-industries needed for the mineral. The immigrants built glorious buildings, glamorous Victorian mansions for the bosses and simple miner homes for the laborers. It was a town of more than 60,000, they say. And Friday nights were a time to celebrate.
Even though the buildings are solid, well-dewsinged, meant too last, they couldn't satnd up to the economic pressure of a mining industry gone bad. Calumet is a town that died. It died so quickly when the mining industry closed down that the empty buildings are ghosts of broken dreams. One building is going up for auction, and if you give a buck, you’d probably get it. People just walked or ran away from here, looking for a better life. Their dreams died with the copper business.
But people are coming back; people who are not afraid of hard work, and like those before them, are building on their dream, so the town is starting to take on new life.
Stops along the way:
Night one: Duluth, stayed with Nick, Echo, Stella and Charlie;
Next day: Fabulous quilt shop in Ironwood, Michigan
Pasties in Ontoagon, Michingan
Carrousel Winery, South Range, Michigan.
Michigan House and Brew Pub, Calument, Michigan
No comments:
Post a Comment