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Here's some more Houghton photos... fall and winter:
Some of the legendary North Woods fall colors.
Anyone who wants access to the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the northernmost point in Michigan, must pass through Houghton. Houghton, a town of about 20,000 inhabitants, is home to Michigan Tech University (enrollment = 6,000).
Redridge was a favorite late season snowshoeing destination because of the great ice formations... gigantic icicles, a nice ice shelf to walk on, and usually some form of floating ice/slush, reminiscent of formations seen near Antarctica.
The icicles at Redridge are colored by minerals leaching out of the soil that makes up the coastal cliffs along Lake Superior.
A view "out to sea" at Redridge. Most years, Lake Superior doesn't freeze completely over... and its a good thing too. At just above 32 degrees, it actually warms the Keweenaw, insulating it from the -20 degree weather often experienced across the way in Wisconsin.
MTU hosts an annual Winter Carnival every year in early February. One of the events associated with Carney is the statues competition. Student organizations participate in overnight, week-long, or month-long snow statue building competitions. Here, a fraternity is putting some of the finishing touches on its 2002 month-long (2nd place) statue entry.
The first place statue entry for 2002 was this frozen version of Cinderella's castle, complete with suspended mono-rail.
The Michigan Tech campus as seen from across the Keweenaw water way, or "Portage" This photo was taken at night from the top of the Mont Ripley ski hill.
The Daily Mining Gazette is one of the Keweenaw's longest running news publications. This is their historic building as seen from behind on a back street in downtown Houghton.
Snow removal... Houghton style. Crews of front-end-loaders gather downtown each night around midnight to begin clearing the day's snow from the streets (daily snowfall can easily exceed 12 inches on a regular basis). But, in order to do this, they have to pile it all in the middle of the road first for big gravel trucks to come and take it to the "snow dump" just out of town.
back to the first page of MTU photos
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