233/365 - Powderhouse Doorway

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One of the Baltic Mine's three (!) powder houses, as viewed from the inside. We found this while looking for a totally different powder house. Then, we found another one -- also not the one we were looking for. By the time we found the right one, it wasn't that surprising any more!

The powder house is pitch black and smelling of ancient dust. It was surprisingly clean of graffiti and junk. Taken on the first day of this year's Copper Country Explorer weekend.

232/365 - Edge

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An edge. Despite knowing what this is, it always looks like an optical illusion to me at first -- is it up or down? Inside or outside?

230, 231/365 - Pizza and a Gear

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Fresh homemade pizza, on homemade crust, with homegrown herbs and local veggies. Wow, I feel like a hippie.

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... and some teeth to eat it with!

This old old OLD-fashioned cement mixer up at the Quincy Mine is quite a beast to behold. It's got gears, teeth, and belts everywhere.

Perhaps I should start a series all about gears!

229/365 - EERC Tree Obituary

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The EERC Tree was found dead this morning at the age of 100. It lived a full (if somewhat crooked) life.

EERC Tree was born some time around the year 1910, in the middle of the campus of the Michigan College of Mines. As a young pine, it stood near the old highway. As it grew, it became known for its curious 30 degree tilt from vertical, caused by some combination of tall buildings, steam tunnels, and hard winters. The tree saw many changes, as campus grew up around it. In 1974, its namesake (the Electrical Energy Resources Center) was built nearby, conveniently taking its name from the tree (and solving a long-standing mystery concerning its name).

EERC Tree was much loved as a campus landmark. Throughout its long life, it was regularly elected to be the student government president, Homecoming queen, and Winter Carnival queen. It was also a dividing point for campus-wide games of capture the flag, and a frequent waypoint for drunken students stumbling home.

"I always loved the EERC tree. It was the only tree I could climb just by getting a good running start" said David Clark, a local graduate student.

In recent years, EERC Tree suffered from several unidentified maladies, causing it to slowly lose branches. In the end, it is perhaps best that it was put out of its pain at this time. It is suspected that ninjas from the MTU facilities crew did the deed, sometime between 9 pm Monday and 8 am Tuesday.

EERC tree is survived by its elder brother Big Oak, its many younger siblings in the Nobel Laureate Grove, and a gigantic number of children spread throughout the greater Houghton-Hancock area.

A recent photo may be viewed here. It will be dearly missed.

228/365 - Breakers

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After two days of 40mph winds, waves were crashing at the north Portage Entry breakwater (the "Breakers"). This shot was taken about 15 minutes after sunset, as waves crashed over the breakwater.

227/365 - Self portrait with Hammock

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Me, in my hammock, with a good book (and a bug net!). I had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon up on Quincy hill, strung between two pine trees, reading, resting, and phoning home.

226/365 - Stope

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A stope in the Delaware mine, an old copper mine far north in the Copper Country. I spent two hours in the mine today, taking photos with my full kit. Yes, the photo is straight -- the lode at the Delaware was at an angle of 24 degrees off of horizontal.

225/365 - Storm clouds

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Crazy storm clouds, as a front passed through. It replaced our hot, muggy, sunny weather with hot, muggy, rainy weather.

224/365 - Mill wood

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A brief outing today -- to the old Central Mine's stamp mill. "Central Creek" (the east branch of the Eagle River) supplied water to the mill, which processed copper-bearing rock from the ridiculously rich Central Mine. It also took away the tailings, which filled up the surrounding countryside, destroying trees and plants of all kinds. To this day, preserved wood sticks out of the sands (where only a few scrubby plants grow) as a reminder of the devastation of the mill's sands.

223/365 - Rainbow

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Today would be a good day to go looking for a pot of copper (or gold!) somewhere over on Quincy Hill. After a sudden downpour, the sun came out strong and bright and gave us a beautiful, huge, double rainbow today. This is just one end, as the clouds began to clear.

222/365 - Eyes

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The lovely Sarah...

221/365 - Sign of the times.

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Times are tough in the UP... even the for-sale signs are feeling it.

216, 217, 218, 219, 220/365 - Mathfest!

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These photos come from my recent trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to attend the Mathematical Association of America's summer conference: Mathfest. Above is a view from the car, as we drove south.

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A light in the very ritzy William Penn Hotel, where the conference was held.

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Signs at the, uh, strip mall next door to our hotel. What a strange combination...

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Rusty corners at a service plaza on I-80.

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Giant rolls of shredded wheat! ... or, harvested straw in a field near my parents house, on our way back north.

214, 215/365 - Campus Lines

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Shadows in the bridge between Rekhi Hall and the Library on the MTU campus.

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A drain, recently painted on campus.

213/365 - Mill Sunset

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A stairway -- and a big drop from the upstairs if you're not careful -- in the Quincy #2 Mill. Sunset is beautiful, even in a place so thoroughly destroyed as this.

212/365 - Old Copper Falls

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Yesterday, I set out to find the old Copper Falls Mine. The Copper Falls property is extensive, and there were at least 5 different mines on it -- mines, not shafts, because each mine had several shafts, adits, and many buildings.

The Old Copper Falls mine is very old indeed, and it's located right in the bed of Owl Creek. It's also about a mile (through dense woods) away from anything even vaguely like civilization. By "civilization", I mean, a road -- of any kind -- paved or not.

So, when I bushwhacked my way down to the old mine, I felt very proud indeed -- until I realized that I wasn't the first one there. Three prospectors were already standing in the streambed, just below where the stream disappears into one of the old shafts. They were examining what they thought was the original Copper Falls Fissure -- the seam of copper which started the mine.

They had apparently walked up the streambed from the mill sands below. I chatted for a while, watched them do some very dangerous prospecting (standing over a shaft!), and then bid them farewell and started bushwhacking my way back uphill.

The top photo is a shot of the nearest bit of civilization to the Old Copper Falls mine, about half a mile uphill. It's the Eagle Harbor Shortcut road, and it runs past a very large number of old mines.

After taking this photo, I continued on to my car. Just as I was getting in, a jeep containing the three guys who I had met at the mine came past, jaws dropping as they saw that I had beat them (bushwhacking uphill!) to that corner. One of them yelled "did you HIKE all this way?!" as they went past!

211/365 - Jelly!

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After picking wild raspberries a few days ago, I processed them into delicious jelly. I only got three half-pint jars, but it was worth it!