We welcome
your comments
experiences &
corrections.

E-mail us

Hunts' Guide to Michigan's UPPER PENINSULA

Home

Search

U.P. Maps

Regions

Towns

Restaurants

Lodgings

Campgrounds

Points of Interest

Fun for kids

Waterfalls

Wayne Premo's Waterfalls

Beaches

Canoeing & Kayaking

Hikes

Lighthouses

Walks

Mountain Biking

Notable U.P. Shops

Specialty foods

Maritime

U.P. History

Useful Information

Links

About us

UP Travel Map

HANCOCK
POINTS
OF INTEREST

Quincy Mine. The U.P.'s best all-around mine tour combines geology, a gee-whiz tram ride, social history, monumental engineering technology, and an optional underground experience at one of Copper Country's two richest mines. ... more

McLain State Park. Two miles of beautiful Lake Superior beach, a lighthouse pier, and 443 diverse acres provide wonderful beach and woodland walks, good birding, and stunning sunset views for campers and day visitors alike. ... more

Portage Waterway. The 21-mile stretch of water results from an ancient fracture of Keweenaw's spine of hard rock ... more

Downtown Hancock. Unlike many downtowns, Hancock's remains a one-stop business center with many useful shops, a department store, resale stores, arty specialty stores and galleries, a toy store, gun shop, home-owned bank, and bookstore with specialties in regional, the environment, and Scandinavia. ... more

Finlandia University/Finnish-American Heritage Center. Finlandia University (the U.P.'s only private college) and the associated Finnish-American Heritage Center form the U.S. epicenter of Finnish culture. They offer exhibits and lectures. ... more

Finlandia University Portage Campus

The former St. Joseph's Hospital, now renovated, has become a business incubator and studio space for Finlandia's design department, a cornerstone of its plans for repositioning itself for future decades as the Jutila Center for Global Business and Design. It has become a hub for creative energy, in addition to housing university offices and components of Michigan Tech's MTEC SmartZone.

A walk down the corridor from the north side entrance passes studios for yoga, piano lessons, meditation, wellness counseling. High-tech computer software startups are on higher floors. Things being made here are on display for sale in the atrium: for instance, vases and coffee cups by high-caliber student potters, jackets by Distant Drum, Joyce Koskenmaki's memorable big paintings of birches.

Big studio spaces are in the high-ceilinged rooms downstairs: Finlandia's ceramics and glass studio, the fiber and fashion studio, the woodworking and modeling shop and graphic design studio. Artists' and Finlandia studios welcome visitors; see directory.

Outsiders come in for the cool, friendly DAILY GRIND CAFÉ (906-487-7455; Mon-Fri 8-5), a coffeehouse with free wireless internet. The menu consists of espresso and related coffee drinks, smoothies, tea; soups, muffins, and scones made on the premises; salads, flavorful and healthy panini sandwiches, and wraps ($6-$7). Three tables look down the Keweenaw Waterway, especially beautiful early in the morning. Some old-timers come for lunch largely for the fun of seeing how their old hospital has changed. Many customers are Tech students from across the waterway. Takeout welcome. Catering available. Regular events have included live music or poetry at noon on Friday, and at the moment, alternative films and discussion at 6 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month. (Call to confirm.)

From West Quincy/M-20 west of the fork at Gino's, turn south onto 200 Michigan at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. No smoking. Open year-round weekdays 8-5. Wheelchair-accessible. More parking on Water St. by the medical office building.

Deja vu & Daily Brew Antiques and Collectibles

One of Hancock's more elaborate and fanciful Victorian homes sits on the city's biggest lot. (The previous owner added many playful touches that aren't authentic to the period.) New owners Muriel Ruonavar and Keith Halls plan to serve coffee (not espresso drinks) and pastries. Customers can sit inside, on the porch, in the turret, and outside. There's wi-fi internet available.

Their stock of antiques and collectibles, strong on Depression glass and cut glass, also includes furniture. It takes up much of the house. Visitors can walk the grounds and see the outhouse and sauna. (—Sept. 2007)

1109 Quincy/M-203, ¼ mile past Gino's, west of downtown Hancock. (906) 483-2143. Expected to be open Mon-Sat 8-5, Sun 11-4. Handicap access: call.

Keweenaw Co-op Natural Foods & Groceries. A great place to stop for picnic and camping provisions, with a tasty deli section, gourmet and international fare, unusual sauces and bulk foods, and an impressive selection of wines ... more

HANCOCK

Portage Waterway

DonHunt

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.

Don Hunt

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.

Don Hunt

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.

...continued below...

Don Hunt

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.

Return to Hancock