Marquette

Waiting at Marquette.

I'm reasonably sure Debbie-- Preacher Debra --took this photo. Marquette, Michigan's, Soo Line (DSS&A) dock , in 1977 (or perhaps 1978). The wooden trestle which connected the dock with the approaching tracks was removed a few years back; it was a glorious structure. And a fire hazard, and an obstruction to Marquette getting on with it's life. Nonetheless, I miss it. The dock itself remains; let's hope they find something to do with it. Reasonably sure, Jowo? Yup. This is from the same set as the Chief Wawatam photograph. As I said with that picture, the box is labelled Richard, but some pictures appear to be Debbie's.

I was trespassing. I admit it. Palmer, Michigan; the edge of an open pit iron mining operation run by Cleveland Cliffs. Sometime in the late 1980s. This plant processes taconite ore (rock) into pellets for shipping to steel plants "down the lakes." Nowadays you can take guided tours of the Tilden Mine, which is adjacent to this property. I've not yet done so, but I shall. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100. Scanned from a print.

By 1990 it was really quite clear that the Soo Line Ore Dock would never be used again. But some of us were probably hopeful. Taken from the downtown park (properly, Ellwood A. Mattson Lower Harbor Park), which was a couple weeks old when this photo was shot.... Camera: Minolta Freedom 100. I took a similar photo with a panoramic camera at the same time, then lost the camera. Would have been interesting to have that roll of film....

Here's a better illustration of the layout of the Marquette upper harbor coal dock. The ship Presque Isle is snugged up against the ore dock, and has run its unloader to the coal dock. The whole thing's conveyors and similar transport mechanisms. The really neat thing about the Marquette upper harbor is how close you can get to the boats. This photo shows that well.

Interlake's Elton Hoyt, 2nd, at Marquette's Presque Isle dock, sometime in the late 1980s. (The original Elton Hoyt, 2nd, was boss of the Pickands Mather [Interlake] fleet.) This ship is now sailing as Michipicoten. An old scan; we'll find the negative some day and rescan. Until that time, I rather like this picture. Shot with my Minolta Freedom 100.

August 1990: The ship named Presque Isle beside the ore dock called Presque Isle in Marquette, Michigan. Beyond the dock is Marquette's Presque Isle Park, which may explain something. But the ship's probably named after Erie's Presque Isle. I posted another photo of this ship some time ago, with a comment on the mixed paint job the ship would be sporting a couple years hence. This photo shows the original paint scheme. The ship is unloading coal into the conveyor system known as the Presque Isle Coal Dock. A piece of that facility clips the upper right corner of the photo. The conveyor moves the coal to piles around Wisconsin Electric Power's generating plant (still another facility named Presque Isle). Strangely, the (ship) Presque Isle is too wide for the ore dock to reach the hold's center, so she'll head elsewhere for an ore load. Properly speaking, Presque Isle is not a ship at all; she's a barge with a tug boat built into her stern. If you study the details in this photo, you'll see how they fit together.

Breakers, at Marquette (from at or near McCarty's Cove, it looks like), on a dark June day in 1992. Camera: Chinon Genesis III

Part of the complex of buildings surviving at the Cliffs Shaft Mine, in Ishpeming; photographed in the early 1990s (my notes say 1992, but I don't fully trust them). This is the greatest and most interesting of the Upper Peninsula's iron mines. This remarkable (and decidedly photogenic --link from Michigan Tech) mine closed in 1967, but has recently reopened as a museum. Virtually the entire complex still stands.