Copper colors

Wednesday we awoke to an overcast morning which quickly burned off. There was a lot of hustle and bustle, as it was a large campground. The site across from us had 3 tractors parked to the side of his RV, and one of the workers came by on his electric cart, and stopped to talk, which lead to him telling me about his new Prius which is up on blocks 30 miles southwest of Orlando and he's hoping the 50 foot of elevation at his carport will be enough to keep the car dry from Irma!

We hitched up the car and made for the exit which may have been half a mile. Along the way the air horn blew, which surprised both of us and hopefully didn't wake up anyone. I was steering through some trees and didn't think I caused it, but we were both alert for the rest of the trip to Marquette via Highway 2 along the north side of Lake Michigan. It rained on and off but no traffic and it kept the windshield clean. The car was another matter. (Note to self: Don't buy a white tow car!)

As we are winding our way through downtown Marquette, the air horn blows off again. Definitely happens when steering! We got to the Tourist park in time for the navigator to take a nap and me to buy provisions (wine for pizza night at Julie and Jim's). I pulled the air horn fuse til I can research the cause.

The next morning was cold and drizzling. We headed east to the Keweenaw peninsula. There is a lake there and because they did a little dredging, they basically made the top of the peninsula an island. Portage Lake. Also turns out there was a a lot of copper mining there, back to 1844, like 4 billion pounds of copper at Calumet until the 60s when the cost became higher than it was worth. 

We self toured one mine. Walking down 100 steps then along the tunnel (the top tunnel of 10) about 1500 feet. and then back as the end is sealed save for an air shaft.

The ore was about 1 or 2 percent copper, and was removed and stamped to separate the copper from the rock. The end product was close to pure, and shipped to Detroit to be smelted. Hard rock mining of copper.

It was 45 degrees down there! very quiet except for an occasional dripping of water, and zero bars, so I left my phone in the car. After walking a bit down there, I started to miss the flashlight part of it!

There was lots of nice driving, and the fall colors were starting. We also went to Copper Harbor and toured Fort Wilkins. Not quite sure what they were guarding back then .... maybe the indians were gonna steal their copper back?