I actually recognize this name, but I don’t think I realized it was in the middle of a peninsula sticking out into Lake Superior. It used to be a copper mining town and now I think it is mostly service and tourist related with a college – Michigan Technological University. It is right across a canal from Hancock, Michigan, which is also a retired copper town with a college – Finlandia, I think. I believe a read a comment that college students make up a sizable part of the population.

As I understand it, a lot of immigrants were brought into this area when copper mining was in its heyday, with problems arising between those of English descent and those from other countries. There was a strike in 1913 and – here is another fact I am not well-versed in – apparently one of the union leaders refused to allow people to aid fire victims and so he was shot and put on a train out of town. There is more to it than this, of course, and I am going back to look through some records.

I like doing this – studying the history of an area. Once in Pacific Beach, I spent a perfectly good beaching day at the library looking at old photos of PB and reading old accounts. Originally, a lot of the homes built there were more Queen Anne style than southwestern. Ack! I just realized that the old frame house that I always went by didn’t seem to be there last time I was there. I wonder if older people lived there and when they died their descendants sold the land to developers. First goal: tear down the house.

In Houghton and Hancock, the businesses were built of logs and then frame construction with gabled roofs to handle the snow. There have been several fires and now you can see a lot of brick. I’m just starting this look see, so I’m off to explore.

Aha, forget the logs, forget the frame houses, forget the bricks – no, not really – but the local high school (Calumet?) is building a yurt in its construction class. Here, where I live, the kids built a geothermal home. A yurt, as in Mongolian nomadic portable housing, has possibilities. Now that we don’t have a place in Pacific Beach anymore, could I just go out there and store my yurt by day in a public locker or a rental space in someone’s garage. I could beach by day and do the yurt thing at night. Of course, a yurt is a pretty much a tent and I think the cops would call it camping. Okay, I need a stealth yurt.

Here’s an interesting photo from a Ontonagon, a little town on Lake Superior.

I hope they have a common room with a big old fireplace.