Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: mihistoricsite

On Lake Huron, north of Alpena, Michigan.

The kitchen in the lighthouse at Forty Mile Point, north of Rogers City, Michigan. For now, at least, the last picture in this set.

From the beach, in front of the light. They tell me there's a shipwreck down the beach a bit, but we didn't go looking for it, largely because the flies were pretty aggressive. This lighthouse looks more like a schoolhouse than most. That house is a duplex; half is in use, I gather, while the other half is the main part of the museum. Forty Mile Point on Lake Huron, just north of Rogers City.

This attractive window overlooks Lake Huron at Forty Mile Point Lighthouse, near Rogers City.

There's a fine museum at Forty Mile Point Lighthouse, near Rogers City. This is the restored kitchen.

Fishtown in Winter..... Leland, Michigan.

Fishtown in winter.... One last view of the river, and the dam. This is similar to a photo I posted a few days back, but shows more detail on the buildings. Fishtown @ Leland, Michigan. Better large! There's a super-large (2800 pixel-wide) version of this pic , if you want to examine the details....

Fishtown in Winter.... Sometimes y' just gotta live with high contrast. Sorry 'bout the blown out beach behind, and the other odd effects.... This is the last building on the southern dock/boardwalk at Leland's Fishtown. Clearly the worst-maintained building in the set; it certainly looked abandoned when we were in Leland last week. A teensy bit of Janice Sue shows on the left. Tomorrow I'll show you that entire row of buildings, then we'll resume our tour of Fishtown proper.

Fishtown in Winter.... Another, more direct, photo of fishing boat Janice Sue, docked at Fishtown in Leland, Michigan. Although this is a brand-new photograph, it's pretty easy to find century-old photographs which don't look much different from this (for instance, inside Leland's Bluebird restaurant). Fishtown's a really remarkable place. Things change, over the years, but not enough that you notice.

This door's in a bunker-like building near Calumet & Hecla's Red Jacket shaft, once the world's deepest mine at 8000 feet. I presume the building originally held explosives. Now part of the Keweenaw National Historical Park in Calumet, Michigan; shot from the Coppertown USA museum.

My family has a long tradition of vacationing in or near Leland, Michigan--for instance, my Cathead Bay pics were taken only a few miles north from here. Historically, Leland was a fishing village on Lake Michigan, and Fishtown was the village heart. While Leland's always been a tourist destination, tourism's become the town's mainstay in the past few decades. Fishing, correspondlingly, has become less important. More like unimportant, except to the few fishermen who remain, and to those tourists who come mainly to fish; there are charter boats catering to those folks. By 1973, Fishtown was already transforming itself into a commercial tourist attraction. As I recall, there were still some real fishermen selling fresh and/or smoked fish in the place at that time. I'm not sure you can find that, now. [Rich says you can; see below .] For the record: The look of this place was (and remains) authentic, rather than touristy, and it's well worth a visit. Camera: Argus C3. Roger Dinda photograph, scanned from a slide.

Explored! #260 on Friday, September 21, 2007. Thanks! At the Sleeping Bear Lifesaving Station. The tracks made it simpler to get the boats from the boathouse to the water. That's Joan, of course. Another picture from our trip north in late February.

Champion Mine, Painesdale, Michigan, 1991; this is the entrance to the headframe. The last copper mine to close on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Functioning as a water works at the time; I suspect it still is, but that's not clear at the site. Taken during a tour with the Soo Line Historical and Technical Society's DSS&A Special Interest Group. Now a restoration project, and a potential museum.

Another Calumet and Hecla building; downtown Calumet, Michigan. This building was used to maintain the drills used by the miners as part of their daily work. Part of the complex of buildings which forms the heart of the Keweenaw National Historical Park.

This is all that remains of a town called Onota, built in 1868, which smelted iron on the shores of Lake Superior. The town burned down in 1877 and was abandoned; only the furnace remains. The structure's been restored somewhat in recent years; 20 years ago it was in danger of collapsing into its component rocks. They've also added some historical commentary which wasn't there when I first found the place. The current town at more-or-less the same place is called Christmas. Really. It's near Munising, and the Pictured Rocks lakeshore. The Bay Furnace campground is one of the finest I know, albeit with only minimal facilities. This photo dates from June of 1998. I have earlier pictures; perhaps someday I'll post them. ================ You'll perhaps have noticed that I'm kinda partial to iron-foundry ghost towns....