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Hunts' Guide to Michigan's UPPER PENINSULA

JUST OUT! A new edition of Hunts' Mapguide to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Over 300 entries, all conveniently located on maps and chosen because we think they are the coolest things to do in the U.P. (No ad tie-ins!) Great choices for restaurants, hikes, shops, adventures, museums, boat trips, waterfalls, vistas, road trips, and much more! To learn more click UP MAP GUIDE

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CRYSTAL FALLS
POINTS
OF INTEREST

Iron County Courthouse. This 1890 courthouse, among Michigan's most memorable, has just been meticulously restored. The courtroom and history room/research area are of special interest. ... more

Downtown Crystal Falls. A classic 1930s WPA post office mural; a 1920s theater with impressive organ; an exceptional sausage shop with takeout sandwiches and soups; a shoemaker/shoe store that's a time trip, a big antique shop; and a pasty/pierogi factory that sells seconds for less. ... more

Harbour House Museum. This unusual cement block house with two-tiered wraparound porch is a local house museum with an outstanding collection of Ojibwa baskets, beaded clothing, and more. ... more

Paint River Boardwalk. Easy access to a beautiful in-town stretch of river ... more

Crystal View Golf Course. A scenic, inexpensive 9-hole course on the steep slope of the Paint River valley, with mature hardwoods framing a grand view of the town ... more

Horserace Rapids. A delightful attraction - not just the rapids but the path twisting around massive boulders among birches and then towering dark pines down to a magical glen. ... more

Runkle Lake Park and Recreation Complex. A mile east of Crystal Falls, this 1920s park has swimming and a beach on Runkle Lake, a log shelter in the pines, a fishing pier, tennis, volleyball, and basketball courts. ... more

Glidden Lake & Lake Mary Plains Pathway. A swimming beach and 10-mile hiking trail through pine plantations and oak uplands adjoin this 23-site rustic campground ... more

Peavy Pond & Michigamme Reservoir /Wisconsin Electric Power. Fishing, paddling, boating, and primitive camping in wilderness areas are possible at these impoundments with long shorelines and many arms. ... more

Bewabic State Park. The four Fortune Lakes are fishing and birding destinations at this beautiful, uncrowded state park with picturesque CCC projects and a good, sandy beach. ... more

Chicaugon Falls. A mile hike leads to the top of this striking, little-visited waterfall that creates a dramatic deep glen among massive, dark boulders ... more

Margeson Falls. Tough to reach, but the reward is a waterrfall in a striking canyon ... more

CRYSTAL FALLS

Harbour House Museum

A really unusual house and an outstanding collection of Ojibwa baskets, beaded clothing, and other artifacts set this local house museum apart from others.

Harbour House is an unusual variant of Queen Anne house with prominent gables and towers. It's constructed of rough cement block, not wood. The museum board refers to it as done in a "steamboat style," in which twin porches, one upstairs and one down, wrap around the entire house, giving a grand view of the meadow and Paint River Valley to its immediate east.

Builders of cement block houses, in vogue before World War I, were almost always progressive experimenters and innovators in many other respects. The Harbour House, built about 1900 by master mason Fred Floodstrand, was on the cutting edge of that trend. Owner John Harbour was an area businessman who owned a saloon and several farms.

Furnishings of the parlor and dining room are typical of the area. Scrapbooks illuminate Crystal Falls life of various eras.

The upstairs rooms are given over to exhibits on mining, schools, military veterans, and children's toys including a miniature carousel. Many toys can be picked up and played with. The women's room includes clothing.

People involved in the museum have been told that its materials about Ojibwa culture the best in the Upper Peninsula, and perhaps the Middle West. They are stylishly displayed in an upstairs room. On permanent loan to the museum, they are the private collection of Dr. Earl Nyholm, who has returned to his native Crystal Falls after retiring as professor of Ojibwa culture at Bemidji State University in Minnesota, where he taught the Ojibwa language. His full-blood Ojibwa grandmother inspired his interest in the subject. He made a video for the Smithsonian on building birchbark canoes. He also builds wigwams. There's one at the Paint River Hills campground across the river.

17 N. Fourth at Spring north of downtown. Open Mem. to Labor Day, Tues-Sat 11-4 and other times and seasons by appointment. (906) 875-4341. Off-season phone: (906) 875-0217. Admission $2/person or $5/family. Handicap access: OK for downstairs, not for second floor or restroom.

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