Yooper

We arrived at the Bay Mill Resort Casino (BMRC) campground with a surprise waiting for us. Before we arrived though, we had the honor of passing one of the local Amish families on their way to the Farmer's Market.

Got the trailer in our spot. That Amish family we passed, passed us up, and stopped at the Farmer's Market... across the street from the campground.

Now comes the surprise. When we were getting ready to leave Menominee, we both heard a noise in one of the landing legs, but we managed to get the leg raised. Wellllll... we arrived at BMRC and got the trailer off the truck, and that was about it. That noise we heard at the last campground was trying to tell us that the "gearbox", which raises and lowers the landing leg, broke. What does that means for us? we are extending our stay here until the repair part arrives. 

We called a mobile RV repair tech in to at least get the landing leg stabilized.

With that said... we went touring.

The first stop was Sault Saint Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie).

First stop there was the Tower of History.

The tower is 200 feet, with observation decks at various levels.

Visitors may first presume that the tower was constructed for the purpose of viewing the surrounding area, and Canada. If you presumed this like I did... you would be wrong. The Catholic Church was responsible for construction. The building design was to be a modern representation of the three crosses at Calvary, and to pay homage to early missionaries. There was supposed to be an amphitheater, community center, and new church, however it never happened due to indebtedness. The tower was turned over to Sault History Sites. Anyway, the views from the top were great.

The bottom photo is the "Valley Camp", which the city turned into a museum... to be visited later this trip.

I mentioned the Catholic church had their hand in the tower, the old church is still alive and active.

After visiting the tower we headed to the Soo Locks Tour to buy tickets. We were there early and just watched some of the ships coming up the channel. After our wait we boarded the Hiawatha for the hour and forty minute cruise through the lock and beyond. This set of locks connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

History lesson: The Ojibway (pronounced O-jib-way) tribe lived in the area long before explorers and settlers came here. The purpose of the locks were/are to circumvent the area of rapids, which the Ojibway called "Bawating", meaning rapids. The area was an annual fishing location for many Native Indian tribes, due to the abundance of fish. When the Indians needed to get past the rapids, they simply carried their canoes around the rapids. 

When the English and French arrived, they thought it was an excellent area to set up shop. With the influx of trade came bigger boats. The rapids created the necessity for unloading cargo into wagons, driving them around the rapids, and reloading the cargo onto other boats to continue the journey.

In 1797, the Northwest Fur Company built the first lock, 38 feet long, which was located on the Canadian side of the river. The lock lasted until it was destroyed during the War of 1812.

 A system of logs was used to move boats to circumvent the rapids. This "portage" method was really slow, I mean months, to get past the rapids. Congress realized that something had to be done to improve transport times, so in 1852 passed an act granting 750,000 public acres to Michigan. in 1853 the Fairbanks Scale Company took on the task of building the locks. Their reason for taking on the project... they had a extensive mining interests in the upper peninsula... make more money.

In 1855 the State Locks was completed, solving the 21 foot difference in water level between the two lakes. Commerce increased immensely because travel times were reduced.

All good things come to an end, at least for awhile. The Federal Government took over the locks in the 1870s, imposing a toll to use the locks. Initially the toll was four cents per ton, but in 1877 that toll was reduced to three cents.

By 1881 there was so much commercial traffic, the locks needed to be improved. The state of Michigan didn't have the funds required to do the upgrade, so the locks were turned over to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. The Weitzel Lock was opened in 1881. The second lock, the Poe Lock was opened in 1896.

The lock we went through was called Mac Arthur Lock, which replaced the Weitzel Lock, and was built in 1943.

The Mac Arthur lock is for smaller ships, less than 80 feet wide, and 800 feet long. The new lock is capable of handling sea going vessels.

Here they are closing us in with another tour boat. They closed the outside gate, and lowered the safety cable crane.

There is a safety cable at both ends of the lock. The safety cables are in place to prevent damage to the lock should a ship break loose.

The next set of photos are the lock being raised to our exit level.

Did you notice the ore ship in the lock next to us? In the first photo the ship was barely visible, and by the fourth photo we got a good look before we exited our lock.

As we were leaving the lock we passed by some of the equipment that makes lock gates work. The locks are generally closed for several months in the winter for maintenance.

These locks are not like most locks, there are filled and drained using gravity. Filling a lock, a valve is opened on the high water level side, filling the lock. To drain the lock a valve is opened on the low water side to equalize the water level.

Let's talk quickly about "the other lock", called Poe Lock. The Poe Lock constructed in 1896 was 800 feet long, 100 feet wide. With the increasing size of the ships transiting the Great Lakes, in 1968 the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers enlarged the lock to 1200 feet long, and 110 feet wide. Unfortunately with only one lock this size, transit is again slowed down. In 2009 ground was broke to create another lock the size of the Poe Lock. The new lock is being built in the location of the Davis and Sabin Locks, and due for completion in 2030.

Hydroelectric power plant that provides electricity to the locks.

Let's get back to the tour. On the way out of the lock the boat passed under a railroad tressel passing from the United States to Canada.

the upper forward bridge is the International Highway between the two countries. The raised section of the tressel is an update of the jack-knife style on the right. The rest of the tour on the water heading toward Lake Superior. The tour took us by one of the largest steel plants... in Canada.

This steel plant in some form has been around for over a hundred years.

The tour boat made a U-turn and headed back to the lock. While in the lock people have the opportunity to look down upon any ship/boat in the lock.

The observation deck is located in a park with an information center... which we did not visit.

Exiting the lock we headed by the Davis and Sabin Locks, the electric power plant... and the reason the locks were built... the rapids.

Another U-turn, and off to the docks we raced... at about three knots.

By the time we returned to port, it was time to get something to eat. The Elks lodge was closed for a special event, so we stopped in at Antlers.

This is a local family restaurant that serves a lot of atmosphere. Besides all the stuffed animals on the walls and ceiling, there were the occasional bell, horn, and siren sounding... just to liven the place up a bit more. After lunch we headed home.

There is one thing for sure up in this area... lighthouses. Today we stopped at a little museum in town before we headed for a lighthouse. The museum is run by a family in Brimley, and working off donations.

Here is a picture for you fishing fans... I know I would eat good for awhile.

If you having a problem seeing the weight of this trout, it was 50 pounds.

Off we went to the Point Iroquois Lighthouse, just up the road. This lighthouse overlooks a portion of Lake Superior, called Whitefish Bay.

COVID strikes again, giving the historical society the opportunity to do repairs to the lighthouse. The climb to the top of the lighthouse was a no-go. We could not even visit the gift shop. There is a nice walking path to the shoreline, and around the lighthouse. The bottom photo is on the backside of the lighthouse.

The original lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's house were built in 1855, and the light first shined across the water in September 1857. Because of increased traffic through the locks, a new brick lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's residence were built in 1870, replacing the original wooden structures. It wasn't until 35 years later that improvements were made. The improvements included doubling the size of the living space, a boathouse, hundreds of feet of concrete walkway, fog signal, and a new barn. In 1933 the lighthouse was modernized, to include electric generators. 1962 saw the decommissioning of the lighthouse by the U.S. Coast Guard.1982 rolls around, and the Bay Mills-Brimley Historical Research Society create a partnership with the Hiawatha National Forest for the purpose of opening the lighthouse to the public. In 1988 the lighthouse museum is opened.

The Whitefish Bay area was, and is, home to the Ojibwe (Chippewa) Nation. The Chippewa are actually descendants of the ancient Ojibwe bands of Indians. The French and missionaries arrived in the area in the 1600s, and created a fur trading partnership with the Chippewa.

Trivia fact: Iroquois Nation of Indians, from New York area, were known to be a vicious, warring with other Indian tribes.

Here is where the trivia comes into play. In 1662, the Iroquois decided they wanted a piece of the fur trading business. The Iroquois attacked the Chippewa... bad thing to do... the Chippewa defeated the Iroquois. The Chippewa attacked during rain, early in the morning, while the Iroquois were sleeping. The Iroquois were slaughtered, but two were left alive to go back to their home and relay information about the battle.

The Chippewa named the location of the battle "Nau-do-we-e-gun-ing", "Place of the Iroquois Bones". At late as the 1700s bones were sighted on the beach by a fur trader. The victory by the Chippewa stopped westward expansion of the Iroquois Nation.

On the way back home we made a decision to drive up to the Mission Hill Cemetery and overlook, cuz it was on the way home.

This is an active Native American Indian cemetery that has history. There are many Native American Indians resting here along with a few crew members from the SS Myron steamship, whose bodies washed ashore months after the shipwreck. There were quite few graves that were marked as unknown, there are a lot of family sections as well.

From my understanding the cemetery is almost to capacity, and they're looking to expand it, but that will take donations apparently.

When you turn around from the cemetery, there is a beautiful view looking out to Lake Superior.

Here is what it looked like finding this place.

Can you identify which road was on the way up, and which was the departure? anyway one of these roads got us back home.

The next day we headed out to visit another lighthouse site, Point Whitefish, with a shipwreck museum.

Info at: https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com.

This lighthouse began its service in 1849, and is still active.

Because it is an active lighthouse, there is no touring of the actual lighthouse, the radio beacon, fog signal, and light having been automated in 1971. The reason this lighthouse is still active... course turn for the cargo ships. While the lighthouse was manned personnel were stationed there, and housed in barracks; there were several boathouses storing the rescue boats. 

The lighthouse specifications were that it was "to be constructed of split stone or brick and laid in good lime mortar, 65 feet tall, 25 feet at the base, 12 feet at the top. On top of the tower is to be an iron lantern of an octagon form... fitted with 13 Winslow Lewis lamps with 14 inch reflectors". The lanterns used sperm whale oil, and could be seen up to 17 miles away.

One of the barracks was turned into the shipwreck museum. The museum is the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum... let's go in. The museum was founded in 1978. The museum is dedicated to all the sailors that lost their lives at sea on the lakes, the most famous of course is the Edmund Fitzgerald.

For a small museum, there is lots of information. The first that grabs the visitors senses is the light beacon in the center of the museum.

Around the outer walls of the museum are tributes to the tragic shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. The first recorded shipwreck was the Invincible in 1818, when she was blown to shore by a big time Northwest gale. 

The crew did manage to struggle to safety ashore, however the ship was destroyed.

The first steamship to travel Lake Superior was the Independence, built in 1844.

September 1853 was a bad time for the Independence. The ship was steaming from Sault Saint Marie when there was a boiler explosion, killing four crewmembers, sending her to the bottom of Lake Superior. Visitors can view actual hull from the Independence.

In 1897 a ship by the name Niagara was overloaded with iron ore, and being towed by the ship Australasia. Through the day the winds increased, and became furious gales.

The towing line parted, causing the Niagara to go adrift, a ferocious wind blew the foresail out of its bolts. Because the sail broke free the ship lost stability and fell into the troughs between the waves. The Captain and crew launched the yawl (small boat), and began rowing. The seas as rough as they were caused the small boat to capsize and go down, followed by the Niagara.

The next tragedy was caused by a "kind gesture", and that unlucky steamer was the Vienna. 

 The Vienna was traveling downbound near Whitefish Bay, was laden with iron ore and towing a barge. They sighted the Nipigon, which was towing two schooners, headed upbound. The two ships were in the same company's fleet. Both ships altered their course to greet each other, unfortunately the Nipigon veered off and rammed the Vienna. Both ships dropped their tows, the Nipigon tried to tow the Vienna to shallow water, the Vienna crew is saved, the ship sinks 146 feet to its resting place.

Last tragedy we will look at is the Edmund Fitzgerald. The display is only a small tribute to this ship.

In 1997 the bell was raised from the ship, and a replica was placed on the ship; the replica has the names of the crewmembers. I will talk more of this shipwreck later on.

From the gift shop we walked over to the lighthouse keeper's residence. Most of the furniture was left by one of the lighthouse keepers.

The upstairs was all bedrooms. Downstairs was a mix of business and pleasure.

The lighthouse keeper hard at work.

The kitchen was one of busiest rooms in the house. Besides feeding the keeper's family, it was occasionally required to feed survivors of shipwrecks, and Coast Guard personnel visiting from other stations.

One of the longest resident keepers at the Point Whitefish lighthouse was Robert Carlson, and his wife Anna. The Carlson family arrived in 1903, and departed in 1931 when Robert retired after 40 years of service in the Lighthouse Service. Anna operated the U.S. Weather Bureau Reporting Station there for 22 years, added an extra $10.00 a month to their income.

Above is a photo of Robert and Anna with their grandchildren, circa 1925.

At Point Whitefish another form of notification was used to warn ships regarding their location to the shore... the Submarine Bell. 

This device was designed in 1912 and sent an electric signal, primarily used during foggy weather. The bell here was submerged in 30 fathoms (180 feet) of water, mounted on a 15 foot tripod, and was activated by the lighthouse keeper. You ask... how does the ship hear the signal? the ship used a simple listening-through hull device. The bell operated until 1925, when it was replaced by a radio beacon, still functioning to this day.

After leaving the keepers house we hit one of the boathouses.

The Beebe McClellan surfboat was rescue boat of rescue boats, and a major player in the Life Saving Service. Remember, the Live Saving Service was the precursor to The U.S. Coast Guard. The boat was lightweight and flexible in rough waters, and could get close to ships in distress, rescuing many sailors from tragedies. The boat was manned by six to eight oarsmen, and a coxswain (or keeper). Lightweight is just an interpretive expression... this boat can in at 25 feet, and 1300 pounds.

It was the responsibility of the keeper to choose the method of rescue, whether it be a surfboat, breeches buoy, or life car.

This is a "breeches buoy". The boat crew would pull this piece of equipment to the site of the distressed vessel. A line would be shot out to the vessel, with instructions in English and French, on how to secure the line on the ship.

Using the breeches buoy could save one life at a time, the life car could save six adults, or eight children at one time.

The Life Safety Service conducted weekly boat drills during the active season for shipwrecks. The training consisted of launching boats, endurance rowing, capsizing and righting a boat. These were necessary skills to be an effective surfmen. Between 1871 and 1889, the surfboats were launched 6,730 times, rescuing 6,735 survivors. During this time period only 14 boats capsized with survivors onboard, drowning 41 people, 27 life saving personnel and 14 shipwreck survivors.

The hardest part of the Life Saving Service was finding bodies wash ashore during nightly rounds. In 1919 when the steamer Myron went down, they spent all night looking for survivors. However, later they found a lifeboat with eight dead sailors, encased in ice.

Let's move on to a different chemical makeup of water... running. Our next stop was Tahquamenon Falls, upper and lower. 

At the lower falls visitors can rent a row boat to get closer to the falls, we did not rent a boat.

From the lower falls we headed up to the upper falls.

From the parking lot it was about a half mile walk to the falls. to get to the falls in the bottom photo I needed to hike down 96 steps... which meant 96 back up. I know it might be hard to see, but the original steps, railroad ties, are behind the metal stairs.

You may have noticed the water has a brown tint. The tint is caused by the tannins that leach from the cedar swamps the river drains. The upper falls has a nice brewery/restaurant with good food and drink. After lunch we headed home. 

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned anything about our broken landing gear. We had to extend our stay while waiting for the gearbox. We received the parts, the repair service came out, and further investigation indicated that our trailer needed to go to their shop for additional welding, before the new landing gear could be installed... another stay extension.

Since we were now waiting for the actual landing legs, we went on tour again. We headed back in to Sault Saint Marie, to the Valley Camp, which they turned into a museum. This museum went much deeper in the history of the Edmund Fitzgerald disaster. If you pop back up to the Tower of History, one of the photos provides a good look at the Valley Camp.

Additional information: https://www.saulthistoricsites.com/

First we'll walk the Valley Camp. Originally the ship was christened Louis W, Hill in 1917, and about 1955 the name was changed, and steamed the Great Lakes until 1968.

The older ore ships had to be unloaded from the pier with a Hulett Automatic Ore Unloader. The unloader was invented by George Hulett in the late 1800s.

The first unloader went into operation in 1899, it was steam driven, with a 10 ton grab bucket, and could unload 275 tons an hour.

Newer ore ships are self unloaders.

The "holds" of the Valley Camp are full of exhibits.

The bottom photo is a look down into one of the bilges along the side of the ship.

One of the exhibits was Fresnel (pronounced Fray-Nell) lenses. It was interesting to learn that there are eleven "orders" of lenses, the first three orders being the strongest. Of the eleven orders, two through seven are used on the Great Lakes. Those used on the Great Lakes have a distance range of 5 to 20 miles. Try to image carrying around one of these "order" 2 lenses, it only weighs in at approximately 3,530 pounds. In the early days these lights would have used oil to create illumination. 

Before heading to lower decks, we entered the upper deck of the fireroom and engineroom.

The ship carried 300 tons of coal. The boilers on this ship burned 50 tons of coal a day. The boiler fires were maintained by 2 Firemen and a Coal Passer. These guys worked in conditions where the temperatures ranged anywhere between 120 and 130 degrees daily, in four hour shifts.

The engine was nothing I was familiar with.

This Triple Expansion steam engine was commonly used in the shipping industry in the early 1900s. The "triple expansion" is derived from the re-use of the steam through the engine. The incoming steam from the boiler was 183 p.s.i., that much pressure could not be used by the piston, wasting pressure. So what happens is the expansion functioned the piston, and the steam was passed from the "high" pressure cylinder to the "intermediate" pressure cylinder, where it was expanded again, then sent to the "low" pressure cylinder, then sent to a condenser, where the steam was turned back to water. All this was monitored closely from a gauge board.

Well... let us move on, to a steam driven steering gear unit.

BREAK TIME    BREAK TIME       BREAK TIME

The size of ships on the Great Lakes has changed since the Valley Camp's day.

In its day the Valley Camp was a large vessel at over 550 feet in length, todays vessels are running over 1,000 feet in length.

This museum also had exhibits that addressed loss of human life other than sailors. One example was the S.S. Eastland.

The S.S. Eastland  was built in 1903, for hauling day passengers, and fruit on the Great Lakes. 

She was a glorious 265 feet long, 38 feet wide, with a draft of 19 1/2 feet, and fast, however she gained a bad reputation because of her tendency to roll.

Have you ever thought about decisions you made in the past? There was a tragic decision made 24 July 1915 regarding the S.S. Eastland. The ship was one of several chartered for the 5th Annual Western Electric Employees Picnic. 7,000 tickets were purchased, 2,500 of those folks climbed aboard the Eastland... the problem with that was the ship was licensed to carry 2,400 passengers. Next bad decision that day came after all the passengers were onboard. You say... a hundred extra passengers could be that big of a problem... in a sense it shouldn't have been. 

Now let's throw a tug boat sounding its horn while passing by, and an extremely large amount of the passengers rushing over to the same side of the ship. The mad rush to the outboard side of the ship caused water ballast to flow to the low side of the ship... hence, the ship rolled over.

Here is the tragedy. The bow (front) of the ship was 19 feet from the pier, and the stern (back) was 37 feet from the pier. When she rolled over she trapped 812 people under water. All said at the end of the day, 835 people lost their lives, and was considered the greatest one-time disaster on the Great Lakes.

We went topside for a little fresh air.

Looking Forward

Looking Aft

Other than the crewmembers working in the main spaces below the main deck, the rest of the crewmembers worked above decks. Think about it, there was less than 30 crewmembers running these vessels.

Depending on the status of the crewmember, accommodations matched status.

This was the Captain's accommodations, sleeping above, work below.

The Porter's quarters.

Below deck crewmember's quarters.

Our final stop on this tour is back down to "hold" #2 for the Edmund Fitzgerald exhibit.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was constructed in August 1957. The size of the vessel was determined by the Sault Lock, therefore the end result was 729 feet long, 65 feet wide, and had a draft of 39 feet.

Refresher: all crewmembers went down with the ship in 1975. With that said, only items were retrieved from the shipwreck.

This 50 man lifeboat washed ashore the next day after the shipwreck. The location was 60 miles from Sault Saint Marie, and 12 miles north of the wreck site.

Half of lifeboat #1 was found, and recovered by S.S. William R. Roesch, 9 miles east of the wreck site.

Lake Superior can be violent at a moments notice. Buoys were positioned over the Edmund Fitzgerald in order to keep the USCG Cutter Woodrush on station. The cutter was on station while a submersible was documenting the wreckage site.

These were the buoys the USCG cutter were moored to. They look a little different from the normal... but this is what can happen on Lake Superior. The cutter was on station until a vicious wind came up and blew the cutter off station, and forced the buoys approximately 250 feet down... you see at 250 feet the pressure is ten times that on the surface.

It took a lot of petitioning, and a couple of decades, and now the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a protected gravesite. To visit the site requires a permit, and no photo taking of any bodies that may be exposed.

Time to head home... so we can wait for parts to arrive,

The landing gear parts arrived at the repair shop, so we headed to the shop for finish repairs. The repairs were completed. We spent the night on their property before departing for lower Michigan.