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HOUGHTON
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum. One of the country's finest collections of U.P., Michigan, and world-wide minerals, artfully displayed and interpreted by professional geologists. ...
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Michigan Tech. One of the country's major technological universities provides a dramatic entryway to Hougton and lots of exceptional winter activities. Ice sculptures for the MTU Winter Carnival are worth a trip! ...
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MTU Archives/Copper Country Historical Collection. Lots of interesting old photos and loads of historical documents from a fascinating region ...
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Downtown Houghton. Shops, eateries, historic saloons, and a brewpub line Shelden Ave., with its handsome sandstone buildings and a dramatic location a block uphill from the Portage Waterway path and Bridgeview Park. ...
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Keweenaw Gem & Gift. Gemologist and geologist owners provide expert perspective on Copper Country rockhounding, agates, copper, greenstones, datolite, and more. ...
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Keweenaw Gem & Gift
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Gemologist Cindy Flood and her geologist husband Ken provide all manner of expert assistance at this large Copper Country gift shop and jewelry studio. They can point rockhounds in the right direction with free maps, rent them a metal detector for $15 a half day, sell them hammers and tools, help identify found stones, and fabricate and repair jewelry. Books pertaining to Upper Peninsula geology and minerals are for sale. Jewelry using greenstone (Michigan's state stone) and local agate and copper are a specialty. At Ken's fabricating studio in Dollar Bay, slabs of copper are sawn and polished for use as bookends and clocks, and freeform copper crystals are "grown" on straw into fanciful shapes. Visitors are welcome; ask for directions.
The Floods' web site, www.copperconnection.com , has a helpful Michigan mineral section, with an illustrated primer on Upper Peninsula minerals, answers to frequently asked questions, and helpful tips on finding agates, cleaning copper, and much more. The store has a very large selection of copper wall hangings, containers, and other copper accessories, and specimen minerals from the U.P. and beyond. Currently on display is the Point Mills Nuggett, a float copper mass twice the size of the famous Ontonagon Boulder that launched early copper explorations. A logger unearthed it near Dollar Bay. It has been sold but the owner hasn't had it delivered. Other even larger copper masses have been found elsewhere, too large to be removed.
On West Memorial Drive/M-26 just south of the blinker at Sharon Ave. by Pizza Hut. Look for the green tower. (906) 482-8447. Open Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat to 5. From May thru Dec. also open Sun noon-5. Wheelchair-accessible.
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