The Keweenaw peninsula is a stunningly gorgeous place. It also has a fascinating history.

I’ve been visiting this area since I was little. For a few months, when I was in kindergarten, my father was stationed at a now-defunct Air Force Base there.

All through my grammar school years, we often spent a couple weeks camping near Copper Harbor, Michigan, which is almost at the tip of the peninsula.

Besides the natural beauty, there’s a long history of copper mining up here, beginning with the early Indian tribes. The copper was so pure here that before European colonization, it was mined by hand without processing. Historically, that copper was traded as far as the east coast and the south of the current United States.

I visited in autumn, and especially the last week I was there, the color was quite spectacular. This is also a big area for nature tourism and snowmobiling.

This region receives an enormous amount of snow. The town I was visiting, Calumet/Laurium, is the snow capital of Michigan. Often almost 20 feet over the course of a winter.

I was up here for a family visit and there’s so many nice places to paint. There is a surprising amount of historical buildings in this area, especially in Calumet.

Centered in Calumet is the Keweenaw National Historical Park. It is a series of sites throughout the peninsula mostly dedicated to the mining history.

They have a small headquarters in Calumet with some nice exhibits. Right around the corner is the Coppertown Mining Museum.

The copper discovery that happened up here in the mid-1800’s was the largest one ever. A significant amount of money was generated from the mines.

The mining companies created a paternalistic system for their workers. They built houses for the miners. The companies sold groceries to them and organized their lives and that of their families.

This overarching control bred resentment, and there was a particularly long and violent labor strike here.

The Copper country strike of 1913–14 which included the Italian Hall disaster, where over 70 people, mostly children, died. You can read more about it on it’s Wikipedia page here.

It’s a wonderful area. Close to my heart because I’ve spent a lot of time there. Nature, history, a beautiful lake, and more snow than you could hope for. What’s not to like! For tourism info: https://www.visitkeweenaw.com/.

Published on stephangiannini.com/