Central Ironwood

A colorful treat awaits Fabric Patch customers. Owner Joanne Kuula is at the left. The Ironwood area supports a number of interesting shops downtown, on U.S. 2, and on Lake Street at the railroad tracks.

Hardly a shopper's paradise, downbtown Ironwood does have some splendid vestiges of mining boom years. The central area has more life than first meets the eye. To be sure, commerce has moved out to the highway along U.S. 2 to the point that downtown has far too many empty storefronts. Albert's, a wonderful old-fashioned store known for its timeless outdoor clothing, closed in 2000 after its owner died. Now a Wal-Mart is about to be built, and older shopping centers are sufferring.

Aurora, Ironwood's main shopping street, continues west across the Montreal River into Hurley, Wisconsin. There it becomes Silver Street, and it's still lined with bars from the boom years, when Hurley was a wide-open town famous for taverns, brothels, and visits by celebrated Chicago gangsters.

Ironwood, in contrast, was controlled by mining company bigwigs and friends. Its residential "show streets" extend east on Ayer and on McLeod, which parallels to Aurora one block north and south of it.

The heart of downtown is along Business Route 2, on Suffolk south of the train tracks and then west on Aurora. Businesses are arranged from north to south.

The handsome 1892 Ironwood Depot now houses the local history museum with displays that bring back to life many aspects of Ironwood's past. (More local history displays are at the Memorial Building.) The railroad room also houses the chamber of commerce. It's open weekdays year-round.

• OLD DEPOT PARK MUSEUM. The handsome 1892 Romanesque Revival depot houses the Ironwood area museum and Ironwood Historical Society research center. (The Gogebic Range Genealogical Society is now housed in the Bessemer Area Heritage Center. It can be reached through the Ironwood Carnegie Library's Joe Carlson at 932-0203 or by calling Ed Sandene at 906-667-0743. Members are happy to do research for descendants outside the area, for a small donation.)
  The museum's first room deals with the area's railroad history. The home of the Chamber of Commerce, it is open weekdays throughout the year.
  Other rooms in the museum are open in summer or by appointment. Competent exhibits cover mining and life on the range. Exhibits on social history and town history have gradually been installed in the Memorial Building. (See separate point of interest.)
      Good use has been made of dramatic and poignant newspaper clippings, for instance, about the 43 miners entombed by a 1926 cave-in at the Pabst Mine. A common kind of letter to the editor was poignant queries from married women from the old country seeking wayward husbands who had come to America seeking work and apparently started new families, abandoning their first wives.
   Much more material, including many photos and printed matter, is in files visitors can ask to see.
  150 N. Lowell west of Suffolk, clearly visible to your right from Bus. Rte. 2/Suffolk just before you reach the center of town. (906) 932-0287. Open daily with guided tours from Mem. to Labor Day, noon-4. Otherwise by appt. (call 932-4142). Donations appreciated.
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  Dennis Swanson with a kayak he's making for a Vermont customer. His wife, Terry, makes colorful pottery in an adjacent space.

• MASTERPIECE BOATS & UP NORTH DOWN SOUTH POTTERY. Dennis and Terry Swanson have taken advantage of Ironwood's cheap downtown real estate to create an interesting studio/shop, used as a production base when they're not traveling to boat and art shows. Since 1995 Dennis has been developing construction methods for handcrafted cedar strip/fiberglass boats: three canoe models, one kayak, and a rowboat. The wood glows with five coats of spar varnish. These boats are wonderfully handsome and practical, too. Most range from 37 to 56 pounds and sell for around $1,800 to $3,000. Dennis also designs and builds custom boats, which is a welcome change from his former job as a financial analyst. No method of mass-producing cedar strip boats has yet been devised, he says.
      Terry's colorful, fanciful "sack bowls" and decorative stoneware make for a lively contrast with the sleek wood boats.
  113 S. Suffolk/Bus. U.S. 2. Call first before making a special trip: (906) 932-4375.
  
• NORTHWIND NATURAL FOOD CO-OP. This spacious co-op is a good place to find camping luxuries like granola, trail mixes, juices, cheese, crackers, and pancake mix. It carries farm-fresh eggs and, in season, locally grown organic produce, including berries. Here are nutritional supplements and books, organic skin care products, and a fetching array of soaps and beeswax candles made by local people.
  210 Suffolk/Bus. U.S. 2, just south of Aurora next to First of America bank. (906) 932-3547. Mon-Sat 9-6. Wheelchair accessible.
  

  This pocket park at Aurora and Suffolk, landscaped and maintained by volunteers, shows how the loss of a prominent building doesn't have to wreck the appearance of a downtown.

• POCKET PARK. Fabulous flowers fill the gap left when a large landmark sandstone bank building, badly deteriorated, was taken down. The late Gerald Kinnunen at the Modern Portrait Studio around the corner on Aurora led the landscaping effort. Benches let you sit down and enjoy the floral specatcle.
  Downtown at Aurora and Suffolk/Bus. Rte. U.S. 2.
  
• IRONWOOD THEATRE. Part Moorish, part Italian Renaissance, this 700-seat theater was the Upper Peninsula's biggest picture palace when it was finished in 1928. Recent restorations have gold-leafed the interior pilasters and proscenium and again revealed elaborate painted decorations. Generations of local youth were enthralled by the murals' alluring female nudes and plump cherubs cavorting on clouds on the ceiling.
  

  The Ironwood Theater has an unusual, handsome bronze entrance marquee and neon sign. The interior of this 1928 Moorish-Italian Renaissance picture palace is even more alluring.

      Most of the theater's furnishings are intact, but the murals had been painted over in a misguided attempt to brighten up the place for a locally filmed scene in "Adventures of a Young Man" (1962), about the young Ernest Hemingway/Nick Adams returning from World War I. The Ironwood premiere with stars Paul Newman and Jessica Tandy on hand was a big, big local event. Critics called the film "overblown," "pretentious," and "embarrassing."
      Today the Ironwood Theater sponsors a concert series from jazz to big band to chamber music, plays, plus plays by its in-house production group, and more. About once a month there's touring entertainment. Local school concerts take on extra glamor when performed in this beautiful setting.
  For events, call (906) 932-0618. or look in at www.ironwoodtheatre.org. Fridays in summer $5 noontime concerts at 12:10 feature a variety of interesting music. Sometimes the Barton theater organ is played.
      Stop by the office weekdays for impromptu tours ($2).
  107 E. Aurora, downtown. Office open Mon-Fri 9-4. 906-932-0618. Wheelchair-accessible except for restrooms, which are on the lower level.
  

• DAN'S ANTIQUE MALL. Three floors of old stuff makes for good browsing in this well-organized mall. "Antiques" may overstate most of it, but you can find a lot from the 1940s and 1950s.
  111 E. Aurora next to the Ironwood Theater. (906) 932-5002. Open 7 days a week, year-round, 10-5 Central Time. Wheelchair access: main level.
  
• FABRIC PATCH. 3,500 bolts of fabric make this a paradise for quilters, from beginners to experts. Its roomy new quarters are in a four-square brick doctor's home/office from the 1890s. Now there's breathing room and more space for quilts, hangings, and garments. Books, patterns, and helpful advice are on hand. Ask about one-day workshops. Owner Joanne Kuula would love to track down info about the original owners, a Dr. Bellehumeur and his wife, Mary.
  100 W. McLeod at Lowell, a block south of Aurora and 3 blocks south of the old location. (906) 932-5260. Mon-Fri 9:30-5, Fri to 6, Sat to 4. Wheelchair accessible except for 2nd floor.
  

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