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KEWEENAW BAY
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
Hanka Homestead. A self-sufficient Finnish farm as it was in 1920, with simple, authentic furnishings. No siding masks the Scandinavian log construction ...
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Region: Keweenaw Peninsula
KEWEENAW BAY
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 | | Highway 41 North | | Few of today's passing motorists on U.S. 41 realize this was once a significant copper processing port. In this historic photo. the stamping plant is viewed from the long shipping dock. | In the 1930s, when U.S. 41 was rerouted as a scenic highway with a bay view, it bypassed the village of Keweenaw Bay up on the bluff. You'll find the village if you turn west and go up the hill where the highway sign says "Community of Keweenaw Bay." There's a new firehouse and a community hall where many plays are performed because it has the only proscenium and stage curtain in Baraga County. Founded as a French farming community, Keweenaw Bay boomed briefly after the Mass Mining Company built its stamp mill here. Copper-rich rock mined at its Mass City mines was hauled 35 miles by rail to be pulverized and turned into copper ingots.
Pilings from a long dock just south of the Michigan Department of Transportation roadside park can still be seen. Thousands of pounds of fish a week used to be shipped to Chicago from here. Many old-timers from Houghton and L'Anse remember coming to dance at the Michigan Ballroom just north of the docks.
Back to Keweenaw Peninsula
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KEWEENAW BAY
RESTAURANTS,
LODGINGS
& CAMPGROUNDS
These are our choices, not ads.
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KEWEENAW BAY
RESTAURANTS
See also: Baraga, L'Anse, Chassell, Houghton.
CARLA'S RESTAURANT
(906) 353-6256; carlasinn.com
Fresh fish, from-scratch cooking, and a cozy atmosphere with a good Keweenaw Bay view make Carla's an attractive dinner destination, favored by locals and visitors alike. ("The fish you eat here today slept last night in Keweenaw Bay," as the sign says.) Copperware accents the warm knotty-pine walls of this simple restaurant and bar.
Locally caught whitefish or lake trout dinners (around $13) and char-broiled steaks are menu highlights. So are excellent hamburgers (under $6 with fries). Dinners include potato and vegetable, plus soup and salad bar, or less expensive lighter side entrées without salad bar. Sandwiches are served any time. Desserts are homemade. Shortcake with local berries is served in season. Butterfinger ice cream pie is a hit. There's outdoor dining on the deck.
Doug and Carla Engle, owners since 1979, like to serve the community, not only here but in their day jobs, too. He teaches in L'Anse's alternative school. She is a nurse.
Smoking permitted only in the bar and in the new addition. It has booths, local memorabilia, and a fine view. (—April, 2008)
On U.S. 41 6 miles north of Baraga. Hours: open year round. From mid-May through mid-Oct. open Mon-Sat, 4-9 p.m. Bar with limited food service open until 11 p.m. Otherwise open Thurs-Sat 4-9, bar with limited food service until 11 p.m. Family friendly. Full bar.
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KEWEENAW BAY
LODGINGS
See also: Baraga, L'Anse, Chassell, Houghton.
CARLA'S LAKESHORE MOTEL
(906) 353-6256
This charming older roadside motel with 10 small, clean, attractive rooms adjoins the very good Carla's Restaurant and bar. Each room (no higher than $49 for two, in summer some rooms are $60 for four) is individually decorated and overlooks Keweenaw Bay and the Huron Mountains. Rooms have phones (free local calls), TVs with 5 channels, in-room coffee. (A satellite allows for a choice of one extra channel, beamed to every room.) There's a sauna, flowers and gardens, and a small terrace area with outdoor furniture and that grand bay view across the highway. Road noise from passing trucks will bother light sleepers and perhaps others, too. Rooms are gradually being air-conditioned, which will help cover up noise. A beach is accessible across highway; it's sandy some years and other years more rocky. On snowmobile trail. Two beachfront cabins a half mile down the road, not on the highway but off a quiet access road 35' from the shore, rent for $300/week.
On U.S. 41 six miles north of Baraga. Open year-round. Handicap access.: call. Too small for wheelchairs. Children: 12 & under free, $5/extra person. Dogs: $5 extra.
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KEWEENAW BAY
CAMPGROUNDS
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