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A significant amount of my childhood fears was driven by K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base located about 50 miles north of my childhood home. The base was part of the United States Strategic Air Command, housing B-52 bombers and nuclear weapons. When there was ever talk in the 1970s and 80s about nuclear war, that meant bombs dropping on K.I. Sawyer and close enough for either instant or near term death. The based paired with the Soo Locks that are vital to the transportation of iron ore to manufacture weapons, meant the U.P. in general was a strategic target for our enemies, meaning then the U.S.S.R.
Of course things changed in the early 90s with the fall of the Soviet Union and with it a decrease for the need of Air Force Bases, leading to the closure of K.I. Sawyer. The economic impact on the area was huge, and while today the site is partially in use including for the Marquette County airport, some of the buildings standing unused not too unlike the abandoned mining locations that dot the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Finished reading: The Gales of November by John U. Bacon 📚
It is not always the case that I have a connection to a book that I read, but that is the case with “The Gales Of November” by John U. Bacon. Many people have heard about the Edmund Fitzgerald thanks to Gordon Lightfoot’s song, The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, but I was in fifth grade in a small town in the Upper Peninsula and had seen Lake Superior many times so I’ve always felt a small connection.
Bacon does a wonderful job of providing context, like how shipping on the Great Lakes can be dangerous and a vital part of the U.S. economy. You learn about every one of the 29 men who went down to the bottom of Lake Superior on the Fitz. And for me, I learned about the taconite pellets that I remember being carried through my home town on ore cars, most likely headed to Marquette. We would gather up some of the perfectly round, marble size pellets from the train tracks and use them for slingshot ammo.
In 2014 we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point, which the Fitzgerald was desperately trying to reach on that fateful day in November, 1975. Below is a picture of the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald, it is the only item recovered and brought up from the shipwreck. The site of the wreck is considered a grave and protected by the U.S. and Canadian governments.
No other ship has gone down on the Great Lakes after the Fitzgerald, in part because of technology but largely because the pressures once put on by shipping companies toward the captains to deliver cargo on time has abated against the risk of pushing against Lake Superior when she is angry. Lake Superior is one of those few things in the world that stands up against the ego of men.
Currently reading: The Gales of November by John U. Bacon 📚
The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a memorable event for one who grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the 1970s and I am enjoying this book that provides all of the background about the Fitzgerald and shipping on the Great Lakes. Taconite, which is lower grade iron ore that is pulverized into little marbles for shipment, was the Fitz’s cargo at the time it sank. I remember trains that ran through my childhood home in the Upper Peninsula that carried the taconite to the ore docks to be loaded on these ships. The marbles often fell off the ore cars of the train on to the tracks and we used to gather them up for slingshot ammo.
I am going to fall short of my goal of reading 18 books this year, I have three that I am currently reading but this one is the furthest along at 26% complete and I don’t expect to finish it by the end of tomorrow.
We think the fall colors were at or near peak in the parts of the southern Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan were we traveled, though these pictures don’t do it all justice.
This first picture is from the top of Pine Mountain, Iron Mountain, Michigan
We drove through the Tunnel of Trees on M119 in northern Lower Michigan. The trees in this picture haven’t really turned much yet.
This next picture shows the colors better along M119 with Lake Michigan in the back ground.
Last week we went on our annual fall trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I took this picture of the Mackinac Bridge.
Remember the trope, you can’t shout fire in a crowded movie theatre? The trope is intended to convey the limits of free speech, but it also conveys the extent of free speech. Perhaps one of the reasons why I remember this trope is because of it’s roots in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, my home land.
Buzzfeed has a really nice article about my home land, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He wrote about his seven day trip aroud the U.P. The article pairs well with 906 Day in case you were wondering what that was all about.
Last lunch in the U.P. requires a pasty.
Second night in the U.P., this is the Jewel In The Crown IPA by Rail House Brewery in Marinette, WI.
If you are watching the NCAA men’s or women’s basketball tournament and think to yourself, “that’s a nice basketball court,” know that what you are seeing was manufactured in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is my homeland!