Day 30

Last night while we were eating dinner another storm broke. We held off leaving Culver’s until it eased up a bit. When we did get back to the camp site our tent was dry. There were enough trees around us that we were able to hang a tarp over the tent as a precaution. I do love the sound of the rain hitting the tent. It helps lull me to sleep — especially when I’m not concerned that I’ll get wet. When we woke up the sky was still dreadfully gray but the rain had stopped.

As I mentioned yesterday, Keweenaw Peninsula was a huge copper mining area in the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Today, we went rappelling in one of the mines. We took a three hour tour of a copper mine — a tour that touched on both geology of the area and some history. Our tour guide was fantastic. He is in college studying geology and Astrophysics so his knowledge of geology was spectacular — another win for homeschool science. The guide spoke about the continental rift that occurred around the time of the last ice age and how the basalt rock and the high mineral content in the water combined to form the copper in the mines.

Native Americans mined the copper thousands of years before Euro-Americans. They would heat the rock until it got really hot, then they would pour water on it which would crack the rock and expose the copper. Or they would pour water in holes and wait for it to freeze which would also crack the rock and expose the metal. They used the copper to make knives and arrowheads.

When the mines were operational, children as young as 8 were employed. Eight to twelve year olds were hired to sift through rock to ensure no pieces of copper were missed by the miners. Miners were paid a dollar an hour which was considered a rather decent salary. Most miners came from Northern Europe, specifically Finland. However, Italians did most of the masonry work on the company buildings because they were among the best in the world.

The rappelling part of the tour was the most fun. Kati and I had gone rappelling through waterfalls (Kati still has the scar to prove it) years ago in Costa Rica. But this was G3’s first time. He did very well and he really enjoyed it. Kati was not completely spastic — no blood this time around.

Last summer, as we were driving west through the Upper Peninsula we stopped at Jerzi’s 41 for lunch. We were the only ones in the entire restaurant and the waitress/owner was wearing a mask which is why — despite the pandemic — we felt okay about eating inside. It was the only time we ate indoors the entire time we were away. Because we were the only ones in the restaurant, we spoke at length with the owner. We ordered pizza and mac and cheese. I generally don’t like mac and cheese, but it was so good in that restaurant that we made many references to it throughout the year. When Kati declared that we had to return home via Michigan so that she could revisit Whitefish Point, G3 announced that he had to rerun to Jerzi’s 41 for mac and cheese. And so, after we left the mine tour we set the GPS for Jerzi’s. The Mac and cheese was as we remembered it. But we were shocked that the owner recognized us. She walked out of the kitchen, took a quick look at us and said, “You’re back.” I’ve never been memorable to anyone, so I was taken aback. Or maybe she just really remembered Kati or G3.