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CALUMET
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
Albion Station Glassworks
The transfer station of the Houghton County Traction Company was a busy place for decades after the streetcar lines were constructed in 1900. Here cars came and went from three directions: Calumet; Laurium and Hubbell; and Mohawk. A streetcar stopped every 15 minutes during operating hours. Mining families welcomed a chance to get out and shop or visit.
To Alexander Agassiz, CEO of Calumet & Hecla, the car line was trouble, necessitating many trestles to go over C&H's existing tramways for rock cars. Furthermore, historian Larry Lankton adds in Cradle to Grave, "he did not want trolleys to transport worker unrest."
Today this little-altered frame building seems perfectly suited to being a museum/workshop. Here are Dick Dana's bottle collections from the four-county area (Houghton, Keweenaw, Baraga, and Ontonagon) and his glass-blowing studio, where recycled bottles are melted and blown into traditional, functional forms like vases, plates, bowls, and carafes, usually in earth tones, displayed and sold in the front room.
Visitors are welcome to observe glass-blowing whenever Dick or an apprentice are at work. Woodcarver Stuart Baird (Dick calls him "world class") is at work mornings, creating birds of prey like a peregrine falcon, or a broad-wing hawk, or a kestrel.
A dark, library-like museum room houses medicine bottles, many, many beer bottles, soda bottles, whiskey jugs, and more. Milk bottles are in a room with a cream separator, wringer washer, and ice box. Then there's depression glass, dishes, and a wood stove.
On Rockland just north of Pine in Albion Location east of Calumet and north of Laurium. From U.S. 41, 3/4 mile north of the blinker light at the National Park Headquarters, look for M-203 intersecting on the left. Turn right onto Pine. Or look for sign on U.S. 41 heading toward The Hut. (906)337-0257. Open from May thru Christmas. From June thru color season open Mon-Sat 10-5. Otherwise open 11-4. Handicap access: 2 steps to enter. Single steps between rooms.
Downtown Calumet. Bustling again, downtown was hopping 24 hours a day when the mining boom was at its zenith, from 1890 to 1913. Today it features Ste. Anne's ethnic museum, lavish historic taverns, plus outstanding shops and galleries: skis, bikes, copper books and gifts, minerals, jewelry, beads, art glass, Ojibwa pottery, beads, and more ...
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Coppertown Mining Museum and Gift Shop. Mining aficionados, woodworkers, and those interested in machines, foundries, and labor and Copper Country history won't want to miss this seasonal museum. ...
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Calumet Theatre and Village Hall. One of the Kewenaw's glories, the elaborate 1899 opera house looks much as it did when touring stars played here in mining days. Authentically restored paintings and ornament. A memorable venue for concerts, films, plays. Tours available. ...
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Norwegian Lutheran Church. Norwegian Lutheran Church resembling Old Country architecture, once a wreck, being painstakingly restored. ...
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Calumet's North End. Cheap, often ornate historic storefronts have attracted several original shops: a bookshop/coffee bar, art gallery, dazzling antiques/gems/jewelry store, and the area's best frame shop. ...
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Site of the 1913 Italian Hall Disaster. 73 people, mostly children, died in the stampede that followed when someome yelled "Fire!" in the Italian social hall. It was the 1913 copper strike's defining event, memorialized in song by Woody Guthrie and others, and in story, photos, vivid websites, and a film. ...
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St. Paul the Apostle Church. A magnificentl Catholic church built by Slovenians between 1903 and 1908. Seasonal afternoon tours show off the splendid stained glass, paintings, and altar. ...
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C&H Library/future Keweenaw History Center. Built by the wealthy Calumet & Hecla copper company as a community library, this unusual stone-faced building contains office and work areas of the Keweenaw National Historic Park. Some day it will house the Keweenaw History Center. ...
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Keweenaw Convention and Visitors Bureau. Free tourism and history handouts and knowledgeable advice. Booklet and website include all Keweenaw parks and natural areas. A highly recommended stop for anyone spending time in the area. ...
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Calumet's North End
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Casual visitors might miss the elaborate storefront architecture and interesting shops near Pine at the north end of Fifth and Sixth streets, traditionally home to many saloons. Don't miss the beautiful cornice at 432 Fifth, now painted in purple, teal, and gold Look up to see evocative architectural details circa 1900.
Here are some of the noteworthy businesses.
• NORTH END FRAMING. Paul Grathoff does sophisticated custom framing (he's the choice of many artists) and carries a few retail gift items, too. He's getting out of limited-edition prints in favor of selling framed copies of old maps and photographs about the area. He has given his building a historically appropriate facelife. Paul is a Calumet native and the third generation of his family to have a business on Fifth Street, so he has an intimate view of the changing local scene. His grandfather, whom he didn't know, was a barber, his mother a beautician. 414 Fifth between Elm and Pine. (906) 337-0054. Open Mon-Fri 9:30-5, Saturday by appointment. Wheelchair access: one step.
• ARTIS BOOKS. Stephanie Ryalls and Tom McKeever have an eye for rehabbing old buildigs and providing the little display touches like framed graphics that turn a bookstore into a most inviting environment for lingering and browsing. Here, as in their former Alpena bookstore, they have added a coffee bar.
Seating in the light-filled back room invites customers to relax and read or play checkers. Their stock is mostly used and rare books, with some new books purchased as publishers' overstocks. What you see is only part of their constantly changing inventory. A good deal of their business is on the internet. Books of accessible poetry by Calumet transplant bard T. Kilgore Splake (not his real name) are always here. Stephanie and Tom have the key for the Oomphale Gallery next door and can open it upon request. 429 Fifth between Elm and Pine. (906) 337-1534. Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat 10-5. On Wednesdays Stephanie is at the Vertin Building. Handicap access: three steps.
• OMPHALE GALLERY. A classy, co-operatively run art gallery, Omphale mounts new shows every month or so, mostly one-person shows or thematic shows by area artists, and occasionally shows of work by pupils at Calumet schools. Curators are volunteers, and the art they choose is seldom bland. The gallery does not have a co-op shop with items by members, and does not focus on work by its own volunteers. See www.omphale.org for details. (In classical mythology, Ompahle (AHM-fuh-lay) was queen of Lydia, possibly an earth goddess of sorts, who bewitched Hercules and bought him as her slave.) The gallery is supported by its gala spring and fall auctions with fabulous smorgasbords, in which art and other things like restaurant meals and services are auctioned off. 431 Fifth between Elm and Pine. (906) 337-2036. Staffed hours: Mon, Wed, Fri 10-4, Sat noon to 4. At other times, ask for key at Artis Books next door. Handicap access: three steps.
• J. THIEL AND ASSOCIATES. The peripatetic gemologist Jeff Thiel opens his intriguing shop when he's around, and he tries to be around regularly in summer. Increasingly he is focusing on fine jewelry (antique, reproduction, and contemporary), gold, and gemstones. Minerals and the possibilities for buying and preserving historic architecture are what brought Jeff to Copper Country from Ann Arbor. His shop, one of the area's most memorable, also has popular culture collectibles (antique metal toys, books) and old things from Copper Country, plus a changing parade of new artifacts like the dog-headed Buddha in meditation pose from a few years ago, or cameos, Russian portraits painted with a single hair, or opal and jade carvings. They're all displayed with an artful eye in the legendary Pichiotino's Cabin Inn saloon. 436 Sixth Street near Pine. (906) 337-1780. By chance or by appointment, often open in summer. Handicap access: many stairs.
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