Portage Waterway

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A long pier ends at a navigational light and foghorn at the Waterway's southern entry. Freighters seeking refuge from storms can tie up at the dock beyond the pier.

The unusual 21-mile waterway that separates the northern Keweenaw from below is the result of an ancient geological fault, an enormous east-west fracture perpendicular to the peninsula's lofty spine of hard rock.

Thus, as one reaches the Quincy Mine above Hancock when driving south on U.S. 41, the highway suddenly plunges, the road winding to lessen the angle of descent. The bottom of the fault, of course, is the waterway itself, with a single bridge connecting the two sides and separating Houghton from Hancock.

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The southern entry viewed from the west.

The Waterway consists of 3 segments: From its eastern entry is 14-mile-long "Portage Lake." The next 5 miles west is called "Portage River." The final 2 miles was solid land until a shipping canal was dug (at great expense) and completed in 1873, shortening shipping routes by 100 miles and permitting vessels to avoid the potentially perilous route around the northern tip of the Keweenaw during stormy weather.

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Steep hillsides on both sides of the Waterway's liftbridge mean motorists must make sharp turns to get onto the bridge. With such short lead-ups a drawbridge wasn't feasible.

Very few freighters use the Waterway today, a blessing to motorists who face lengthy waits as the maddeningly slow lift bridge rises, remains up there for the vessel to pass, and again slowly lowers.

Such lift bridges are themselves uncommon. The one here is used because there isn't enough straight road distance from one side to the other to permit the more common drawbridge.

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The Waterway's northern entry is actually a 2-mile canal. Before 1873 this was dry land and boats had to make the long, often perilous journey around Keweenaw's northern tip.

The most common boat big enough to regularly require the infrequent bridge raising is the U.S. Park Service's Ranger III, which leaves its Houghton dock Tuesdays & Fridays at 9 a.m. and returns Wednesday and Saturdays. Tall sailboats passing through also trigger the loud horn familiar to Houghton-Hancock residents, signaling another traffic backup is about to occur.

Another oddity of the Portage Waterway is the narrow arm of water that juts north from the Waterway's Torch Bay. This 4-mile stretch past Dreamland's old dock opens into Torch Lake. Lake Linden and Hubbell owe their existence to Torch Lake, for it provided a convenient waterway for shipping copper to Lake Superior and beyond. The enormous facilities that processed the copper-bearing rock railroaded from the mines above have now mostly disappeared. But drivers along M-26 between Ripley and Lake Linden can still see many odd-looking vestiges of these plants.

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