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LAKE LINDEN
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
Lindell Chocolate Shoppe. A gem of a classic 1920s sweet shop, the interior all aglow with stained glass and golden oak. Currently closed, for sale. ...
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St. Joseph Church
Lake Linden's French-Canadian community was already 50 years old, with some very prosperous members, in 1910 when it was building this beautiful, twin-towered church, its fourth church building. It's a remarkable church in many ways —for its size and prominence in the townscape, akin to a European church's; for its nearly intact pre-Vatican II interior replete with heavenly scenes with clouds, and a row or two or decorative electric lights; for its windows depicting key scenes from the life of Christ and some saints, including Joan of Arc; and for its outstanding music.
The large Cassavant organ was expanded by noted Michigan organ builder James Lauk. Organist and music director David Short has successfully developed competent congregational singing, not mumbling, and the Mass is actually sung! It's all a treat for Catholics who look back fondly on the church in the 1950s. (The homilies, it should be said, are quite up-to-date.)
The church has two facades. The east façade was designed to face the lake. (That part of the lake is now the high school football field.) In 1910, the fledgling Michigan Highway Department changed the highway route to its present location, to eliminate some twists. So the church built another, even more impressive facade on the west.
St. Joseph is one of those Michigan parishes that are the historic hearts of ethnic communities now widely dispersed. Thus it was possible to raise some half a million dollars for the church's and organ's recent renovations.
701 Calumet/M-26. (906) 296-4191. Visitors welcome weekdays after Mass until about 2:45. Sunday Mass 8 and 10 a.m. Weekday Mass at 7 a.m. in summer, 8 a.m. otherwise. Wheelchair-accessible.
Houghton County Historical Museum. Lots of interesting old stuff here, from miining relics to old snowmobiles ...
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Houghton County Historical Museum
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The onetime Calumet & Hecla smelter office and medical dispensary now houses the collections of the Houghton County Historical Society. Representative shops, businesses, and rooms of homes from the early 20th century have been recreated using artifacts from the museum's extensive collection. On the grounds is Lake Linden's CCC-built log warming house for skating, with still more artifacts which are perhaps more interesting for their randomness: a Soap Box Derby car, a license plate collection, old sleds, the switchboard controls first used on the lift bridge. This is definitely a "community attic" museum rather than a museum that uses artifacts to tell key stories in local history. Some of the best displays are in the three-story dispensary's lower level, including a very large dollhouse. Ask for directions to the handmade skis and to the Guts Frisbee display. (That sport originated in the Keweenaw in the 1970s.) If your ancestors were from Houghton County, chances are they are connected to something here.
For rail fans, Copper Country has been a magnet, what with its short-line mining railroads and diverse engines and equipment, more plentiful 20 years ago than today. Some railroad equipment has ended up here. The Soo Line caboose that was on the last train to Copper Country in 1983 is now open to visitors here. C&H Engine #3, used on the narrow-gauge 36" track between Calumet and the Lake Linden stamping mill, is now under shelter on the grounds. The Traprock Valley schoolhouse is here. So is Lake Linden's old Mineral Range Railroad Depot. The museum office is in C&H's fire hall, shared with Copper Land Arts & Crafts gift shop (906-296-9191).
The museum has installed railroad tracks behind the museum going to the waterfront and back. It now offers train rides in season and on spring and fall weekends. New leaders are taking the museum in new directions and trying to get on top of its vast collection. Funds are being raised with sales of large colored reproductions of old county maps. The bookstore includes reprints of some important Copper Country titles. Visit www.houghtonhistory.org for details.
On M-26 south of downtown Lake Linden. (906) 296-4121. Open daily from June through September from 10 to 4:30, Sun 12-4. NOTE: if no one is in the museum by 3:30, volunteers start closing it up. Tours by appointment given any time of year. Fee includes train ride. Adults $8, seniors & students $6, children under 12 $4. Wheelchair accessible: ground level of main museum (i.e., the basement, entered from the side) and most outbuildings.
Return to Lake Linden
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