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CALUMET
POINTS
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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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Downtown Calumet
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Calumet is quite an interesting destination for people who enjoy backroads adventures and seeing buildings and environments unchanged for decades, with a certain ghost town feel. Free self-guided walking tours of both Calumet and Laurium are available at the Keweenaw Convention & Visitors Bureau on U.S. 41 (the first light) at M-26/Lake Linden Road. Even when the text is boring, the guide takes you to some interesting places.
Visitor-oriented stores cluster on the first two blocks of Fifth Street, the main shopping street. It's one-way from the east as you enter downtown from U.S. 41. Some interesting businesses come and go, so it pays to amble along Fifth Street and peek in various shops. Sixth Street has more businesses, including two intact, lavishly decorated saloons from mining days, the Michigan House and Shute's, and some impressive buildings, including the Calumet Theatre, the sandstone fire hall, and at Oak and Sixth the Vertin Building, billed as "the largest department store in the north," now artists' studios. Oak Street developed as a business street as well because it led from downtown to the railroad station.
Calumet's North End near where Fifth and Sixth join Pine is a treated as a separate place. Area saloons built some beautiful buildings, and several have been restored with real artistic panache. Here are Artis Books, the Omphale Gallery, Thiele and Associates' beautiful jewelry and antiques, and North End Framing, the area's best frame shop.
Now the Keweenaw National Historic Park is giving free guided walking tours of the Calumet & Hecla industrial core and downtown Calumet from June 20 into late August, on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Tours last two hours and are 1 1/2 miles long, beginning at the park office at 25970 Red Jacket Road (the two-story horizontal rock office building) and ending at the Calumet Theater. (Tourgoers would have to walk about a mile back to their cars.) Call (906) 337-3168 for exact late August tour days.
For a good idea of the close relationship of the village to the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, the best way to enter Calumet is by turning left onto Red Jacket Road at the second light not by Keweenaw Tourist Council but instead by the rock-walled two-story office building, once the C&H company office, now home of the Keweenaw National Historic Park. You will pass through the C&H industrial corridor, first passing the red and gray stone faηade of the C&H library and the office, and then stone-faced buildings that were warehouses and various shops for making and maintaining mining equipment. Ste. Anne's church with its red steeple marks the beginning of downtown.
The independent village, not owned by C&H, was and is just five blocks long and five blocks wide from Fourth Street through Ninth, from Scott to a block past Pine/M-203. The map in the local phone book shows it quite clearly. Laurium was another small, independent village without C&H property. The village of Calumet is a tiny jurisdiction, with under a thousand residents, not much of a tax base, and housing almost exclusively built before 1913. After the mines shut down and the population plummeted, some of this aging housing had no value at all and was abandoned a way in which parts of Copper Country are akin to Detroit, also a product of booms and busts. Furthermore, the severe winter microclimate of Calumet and Laurium helps depress housing prices. Up on the high ridge, they get much more snow than Houghton and Hancock, which get a lot. Snow removal is a huge expense for local government. And heavy snow turns a 10-minute commute to Houghton into 20 or 30 minutes, with the dangers of driving in snowstorms.
Some abandoned buildings are beyond help, real fire hazards, and others are almost to that point. It's been hard for the village to get the funds to tear them down. One vacant storefront caught fire and damaged neighboring North End Framing, one of Calumet's successful businesses. Other village buildings were renovated with MSHDA (Michigan state housing assistance) funds. A few preservation-minded recipients of MSHDA funds persisted in doing renovations the right way, not the cheap MSHDA way of the time, with drop ceilings and cheap paneled walls, for instance. MSHDA units have income ceilings for a certain time period, and that had the effect of concentrating welfare recipients in the same neighborhoods. Village clerk Sue Cone, a capable stalwart, descended from miners, and her part-time assistant are the extent of the village staff.
Now things are turning around, thanks in large part to the Keweenaw National Historic Park, an industrial national park with independent "cooperating sites," officially recognized in 1992. The national historic park never would have happened without the devoted help of longtime Michigan Senator Carl Levin. In the past he has been a frequent visitor, sometimes unannounced. (He has said he enjoys the low-key, unpressured character of Copper Country and its respect for its working-class roots.) Only recently has the park acquired the staff to lay the groundwork for its mature presence in the area.
Especially since 2000 Calumet has benefited from a new wave of midlife newcomers with vision, energy, and funds to sustain startup expenses for a few years. Oddly, two especially creative couples both came from Alpena, Tim and Sue Bies at the Michigan House and Tom McKeever and Stephanie Ryalls at Artis Books. Several new owners have bought the daunting larger buildings, sometimes living upstairs. Tim Lyons' huge, four-story Vertin Building, long a landmark department store, is now full of artists.
In 2003 Calumet became one of about a dozen Michigan communities to become a Main Street Community and a recipient of downtown economic development help from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Trust has developed a strategy for "commercial district revitalization through historic preservation and economic development." Grant money is augmented by matching funds raised locally to pay for a coordinator (Tom Tikkanen of ReMax/Douglass Real Estate at 104 Fifth Street, brother of the illustrious Finnish folk musician Oren Tikkanen) and an office over Tom's real estate office. Funds also pay for training sessions for volunteer committees to promote the area through special events like the Pasty Fest with parade on July 2, walking tours, and more. The program also provides design assistance for approved renovations in a historic vein. Main Street has already had one tremendously beneficial effect: bringing longtime residents, business owners, and newcomers together to work on projects. The site, www.mainstreetcalumet.com , has a helpful business directory, interesting news, an online newsletter, and details about the national Main Street program.
Here are downtown highlights, arranged from south and U.S. 41 to north.
KEWEENAW HERITAGE CENTER at STE. ANNE'S. The beautiful stained-glass windows are now restored, the stenciled walls cleaned, and this once-derelict landmark sandstone church is much closer to being finished as a multi-ethnic heritage center. The 2005 exhibit on company housing is dense and informative. To learn more, click on Keweenaw Heritage Center at Ste. Anne's.
COPPER WORLD. The selection of copper items here is tremendous, almost overwhelming. Items range from copper teapots, plates, and molds to copper specimens, burnished sailboats, weathervanes, windchimes, spinners (hang them from a porch or a branch), and copper jewelry. There's always something new, like indoor-outdoor weather stations and hand-carved driftwood, and it's all on the web site. Second-generation owner Tony Bausano has an excellent selection of videos and books about the region and about mining. A video monitor lets you preview videos. Copper World occupies what's thought to be the oldest wood store building, from 1869. Now that the big storefront restoration/renovation project is over, Tony is back in local politics as the head of Calumet's Village Council. With his wife Joyce doing the books and children Chris and Tim on the floor, Copper World is a family affair. Next door brother Mike has Calumet Mercantile, with many, many kinds of fudge and wrapped candy in barrels. 101 Fifth at Scott (906) 337-4016. From June 20 thru Labor Day open Mon-Sat 9-8, Sun 1-4. Otherwise Mon-Sat 9:30-6, Sun 1-4. Wheelchair-accessible.
CENTER ICE SKATE & SPORT. Hockey is huge at Calumet High School. This store caters to serious skaters. 117 Fifth. (906) 337-1990.
HERMAN JEWELERS. For this versatile, fifth-generation store, owner Ed LaBonte's father Herman makes jewelry of Keweenaw greenstones and half-breeds (copper and silver) and Lake Superior agates. There's also a coin department. Ed's repertoire of useful repairs includes fixing clocks and watches and soldering broken eyeglass frames. 220 Fifth. (906) 337-2703. Mon-Sat 9:30-5 and by appointment. Wheelchair access: one step.
THE OFFICE SHOP. This helpful, carefully edited little store lets you buy one of this and three of that, unlike OfficeMax. It carries budget greeting cards, two for a dollar. 218 Fifth. (906) 337-2210.
BEDAZED. Theresa and Mike Thompson's eclectic shop reflects what they like, which changes from year to year. It started with beads, rocks, minerals, and fossils, local and worldwide - all of which are still here. The Thompsons continue to be involved with rocks. In winter and spring they go off digging (the rose quartz is from Hot Springs, Arkansas, the quartzite from Arizona), buying, and also selling rough rock to lapidaries. They sell their new minerals here and buy from local mineral collectors, and Theresa makes jewelry here while she minds the store. The Thompsons have a similar business in Arizona.
The store has a freewheeling 1960s feel, what with occasional exotic home accessories and slinky, soft clothes from Village Visions in San Francisco, often richly patterned. Tom makes tables of sandstone slabs with elk antlers acquired out west. It's in one of downtown's most attractive brick buildings, originally a hardware store with a photographer's studio upstairs. A sunburst embellishes the upper corner. Because Theresa and Tom own their building and live upstairs, they can afford to come and go. After a two-year hiatus, they expect to be here from June through October. Teresa plans to create a garden/park in the vacant lot next door (trades of perennials are welcome) and have a rotating outdoor sculpture display in conjunction with her friends at the Omphale Gallery. 300 Fifth at Oak. (906) 337-8888. From June through Labor Day open Mon-Sat 11-7. Call for fall hours and possible may hours.
NORTHWOODS MEMORIES. The inspiring family history scrapbooks created by owners Mary Witheridge and Jeannie Anderson show what beautiful, informative, creations of archival quality can come from snapshots and studio portraits without any obvious drama. Ask to see them! Mary and Jeannie's business happened without any small business loan or other special funding help. They're thrilled to be away from the sprawl that overtook their former homes in Waterford, northwest of Pontiac.
Customers can come in and work, using special scissors and getting ideas, for a small hourly fee. There are so many scrapbooking papers available that each shop has different inventory. Mary and Jeannie participate in an annual fair with other shops in the area. 320 Fifth between Oak and Elm. (906) 337-4007. Open Mon-Thurs 10-6, Fri 10-7, Sat 10-5.
CROSS COUNTRY SPORTS. Staffed by owner Rick Oikarinen and a crew of avid mountain bikers and cross-country skiers who helped develop the Swedetown Trails. They are happy to give visitors specifics on the area's fabulous mountain biking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing opportunities. Sales and rentals of cross-country skis and snowshoes. Downtown at 506 Oak between 5th and 6th. (906) 337-4520. Open Mon-Fri 9:30-6, Sat to 5. Wheelchair access: one step.
The MICHIGAN HOUSE CAFΙ and BREWPUB is in the corner railroad hotel, restaurant, and saloon from 1906. The original saloon interior is well worth a look for its elaborate tile floor and massive bar with a wonderful mural showing jolly German picnickers, all drinking Bosch Beer, brewed in nearby Lake Linden. The greens and browns of numerous stained-glass windows, lamps, and backlit doors harmonize with the mural. The bar is the best part, but there's a surprising Moorish fireplace in the dining room. Take a peek even if you can't stop in for a bite.
Tim and Sue Bies, longtime Keweenaw visitors and fans, were visiting their son at Michigan Tech in 2000 when they saw the foreclosure sign. Their kids were grown up, and they were seized by the idea of rehabbing the hotel and starting a restaurant. Within six months Tim had quit his mechanic job in Alpena, Sue had sold her play therapy business, and they moved up to tackle the renovation. They hauled out over two tons of trash and bad plaster. A new ventilation system has done a lot to remove the smell of decades of beer and tobacco. Neither had any restaurant experience, though Tim had grown up on a family-run resort on Houghton Lake, surely an initiation to the unremitting work required by owning and running a restaurant in an old building requiring constant maintenance. Sue and Tim studied up intensively, with good results in terms of both food and atmosphere. Their work on this local landmark is much appreciated. Occasional weekend entertainment adds to Calumet's nighttime scene. Tim and Sue have made the third floor into their residence and created weekend kitchenette apartments on the second floor. At Sixth and Oak. Open 11:30-10. Closed Wednesday. (906) 337-6849. Wheelchair: yes.
THE VERTIN BUILDING. This handsome, four-story brick department store building was the showplace of the north when it opened in the 1880s. Its scale and style are more that of St. Louis or Milwaukee, with lots of big windows. Today the Vertin Building seems poised to become an active art center. It's owned by the fearless landlord-developer Tim Lyons. Supported in part by his wife's professional job, he has been able to acquire other large and prominent historic buildings that are long-term projects. These include St. Joseph's parochial school in Lake Linden and a corner bank building in Laurium (now an office for doctors, social workers, massage therapists, and others).
Here at the Vertin Building the concept is art. Only recently have things really come together. Its open, light-filled spaces are no longer grungy but quite attractive. Works by 30 artists are in the ground floor VERTIN GALLERY, along with the arts section of Artis Books. The catalyst and on-site organizer has been potter Ed Gray and his MISKAWABIK ED GRAY STUDIO (906-337-5950) on the second floor, now joined by Abbey Green's ABBEY ART GLASS STUDIO. 220 Sixth at Oak. Entrance is on Oak. (906) 337-5950. From Mem. Day into September, open daily. Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5. Call for fall hours. Wheelchair-accessible: ground floor only.
Until recently a central figure in the Saugatuck, Michigan, art scene, Ed Gray is widely known for his earthy smoke fired and pit-fired pottery. His clay work draws on his Ojibwa sensibility and respect for natural elements and traditional forms and techniques. An inner spirit attracted him to Copper Country, where natural elements are close at hand. The copper itself was appealing, especially the native copper worked here by Native Americans in the recent and very distant past, including his own great-grandfather.
Copper glazes have their own tradition in pottery. After all, Mary Chase Perry Stratton named her celebrated Detroit studio Pewabic Pottery after the Pewabic copper mine in Houghton County, near her childhood home in Hancock. Doubtless Saugatuck's lack of roomy, affordable space for home and studio was also a factor in Ed's move to Copper Country.
Seeing the Vertin Building space and its possibilities for creating an artists' community clinched Ed's decision. A year later, most of the big building is full. "Ed is the whirlwind of the project," says his Vertin Building neighbor Abbey Green. "He has incredible energy." Read Ed's story in the "artist" section of his web site, www.edgraystudio.com . See the process of pit firing and smoke firing, done at a different location, under "studio." Ed set up his studio in half of the Vertin Building's second floor, started giving classes -mostly in clay but in drum-making too, and holding drumming circles (the second Wednesday starting at 7 p.m.) for anyone interested.
The way Ed teaches clay classes from beginners up, working with clay is more than just a hobby or artistic enterprise, it's a spiritual thing. And it's certainly not about fashion. He calls his clay class "an experience in learning the ancient techniques of hand building, wheel work, smoke and pit firing. When the basics are achieved, I then ease the student into the quest to find the inner creative voice. . . . I draw my use of clay and primitive firing techniques from my mentors, our ancestors. Honoring the ancestors from which the art of pottery was formed and respect for each other's style is tantamount to the integrity of being a true clay artist."
Soon Ed was joined on the second floor by stained glass artist and restorer Abbey Green moved her ABBEY ART GLASS STUDIO (also 906=337-5950). She says the Vertin Building's open spaces are "nice for the synergy and activity of the building. Abbey got seriously involved with stained glass when she lived in Novi in suburban Detroit and her position as the general manager of the Silverman's restaurant chain became too much. Her main work is designing custom architectural stained glass in styles to suit the particular environment of each building, from abstract to Queen Anne Victorian. She also teaches classes and restores and duplicates antique glass (she's doing the replacement stair hall glass at the Laurium Manor Inn) and does appraisals and estimates. Some small pieces are for sale. Abbey and her husband went Michigan Tech in the 1970s and spent every vacation in the area. In 1990 he got an actual job here (most people have to make their jobs), and they moved to Copper Country, where historic stained glass abounds. She is happy to discuss stained glass projects and problems by appointment or when she's in the studio.
The Vertin Building's main floor is the VERTIN GALLERY, where over two dozen artists including Jan Manniko, Finlandia professor Phyllis Fredendall, painter Jack Oyler, and all building tenants (Ed Gray's clay pottery, Abbey Green's stained glass, Jack Oyler's playful paintings including takes on tourist sights). Other artists with studios here are silversmith and jeweler Frank Dyl; retired Copper Art craftsman David Wallo, now doing black and white photography; and poet-publisher T. Kilgore Splake. 220 Sixth at Oak. Entrance is on Oak. (906) 337-5950. From Mem. Day into September, open daily. Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5. Call for fall hours. Wheelchair-accessible: ground floor only.
CALUMET POST OFFICE. Inside is a dramatic W.P.A. mural of broad-backed miners at work deep within the earth. Sixth at Portland.
SHUTE'S 1890 BAR. Next to the Calumet Theatre, this landmark saloon is a friendly and ungentrified local gathering spot that welcomes visitors from down below. Originally it was an Italian saloon, Curto's. Shute's (pronounced SHOOT-eez) is the Croatian surname of Bernie Shute, still an occasional customer, and his father, who ran it for 76 years between them. (The name in Croatian was actually Sutj.) Shute's still has the magnificent original back bar, booths, and all the trappings of boom-town saloons. The bar itself has a splendid stained-glass canopy with vines. Elaborate plaster caryatids frame the raised dance floor. The owner's restoration has won high praise. The long scenic mural of Calumet in the mining days is a 21st-century creation. 322 Sixth, next to the Calumet Theatre. (906) 337-1998. Open daily, noon to closing (2 a.m. or whenever no one's there). Wheelchair access: two steps.
UPPER PENINSULA FIREFIGHTERS' MEMORIAL MUSEUM. The historic Red Jacket fire station is an impressive old sandstone building, an important part of the Sixth Street streetscape. The museum consists of a few old fire engines (a 1919 LaFrance, a 1930 LaFrance, a 1942 Ford) and miscellaneous memorabilia. You can see the firemen's quarters upstairs, pretty much as they were left 20 or so years ago. Signs are sometimes duct taped to vehicles, and interpretation is minimal. In 2004 the staff couldn't field many questions. Cigarette smoke and a loud radio were a distraction. Skip this unless you are quite interested in firefighting equipment. 327 Sixth St. across from the Calumet Theatre. No phone. Early June into Sept. Mon-Sat noon to 3. Donations appreciated. Wheelchair access: ground level only.
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