Hike to Queen Anne's and Scales Creek Falls
Last Thursday morning started out with a brilliant sunrise that was truly fire in the sky!
After taking it in over coffee, we headed up to the Apothecary pharmacy at the hospital in Hancock to get our fourth Covid vaccinations. I needed to have the 4-wheel drive looked at on the truck so we dropped it off at JB’s on the way back and walked home on the rail-trail.
With the nice weather hanging on, it turned out to be a good day to cut the grass one last time for the season around preparing for the Chassell Planning Commission meeting that I would chair in Brian’s absence.
A big part of the planning commission meeting was spent nailing down our recommendation to the township board on the priority projects to be put forward to the Houghton County Road Commission to take advantage of their ARPA funding match to the roughly $183,000 of ARPA funding being received by the township. I also briefed the commission on what I had learned about the DNR’s SPARK grant opportunity and we discussed the two grant proposals involving Centennial Park that we plan on submitting in advance of the December 19th deadline. I also briefed the commission on the RFP for redevelopment proposals on the adjoining properties on Hancock Street as well as the progress on the historic interpretive trail project on the mill site. DP Construction will begin work on the trail’s boardwalk the week of November 14th.
Friday turned out to be a rainy day so I turned my attention to my genealogical research. My family has deep ties to the Keweenaw. My great-grandfather Johann Heinrich Meyer, who came to the U.S. from Hannover, Germany in 1890, initially settled in New Jersey. After moving on to central Illinois for a time, he was drawn to Chassell by the promise of fertile cutover timberland in the Cloverland promotion of the 1910s. On my mother’s side of the family, my gg-grandfather Holappa came to Atlantic Mine from Muhos, Finland in the 1880s. My great-grandfather Sillanpaa came to Calumet from Teuva, Finland. His wife Selma was a Polkki who came to Calumet from Karstula, Finland. My great-grandfather Nurmi came to Bruce Crossing from Huittinen, Finland. My Finnish immigrant ancestors worked in the copper mines and the woods, but more about them another time.
I have recently made significant breakthroughs with my Meyer family research as a result of Ancestry.com’s new feature that allows you to search matches based upon looking at the DNA you inherited from either parent. Being able to look at matches to the DNA my Dad inherited from his father resulted in a couple of key matches that allowed me to finally get past my gg-grandfather Herman Friedrich Meyer who was a master tailor born in Martfeld, Germany in 1825. One match included a descendent of his great-grandfather Johann Hinrich Masemann who is a direct male descendent of Johann Masemann who is located in Nebraska. The other is a descendant of my gg-grandfather’s sister who is located in Wisconsin. One thing led to another and I was able to connect to other research that took this line back to Dietrich Meyer in 1702 in Schwarme, Germany. Other family names that tied into this new research included Geidemann, Scholte, Dunker, Bohlmann, Rahlmann, Osterkamp, Reimers, Laue, and Bartels. My research spilled into Saturday as I got onto the Archion website in Germany which allowed me to download Martfeld Lutheran Church records specific to a number of these newly found ancestors. I have to give a shout out to my friend Bill Binroth here in Chassell who has helped me with translation of 19th century German script which ultimately got me back to my gg-grandfather Herman Friedrich Meyer. I could not have gotten to where I am now without his help.
Sunday morning the weather improved and I got out for a 5-mile run on the rail-trail.
Sunday afternoon we headed up to Copper City to go on an adventure with our hiking group to Queen Anne’s and Scales Creek Falls as well as a nearby mine site.
You can see the GoPro video of the hike at this link to the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel:
Do you embrace winter and have the ability to work remotely? Would you value living in a place with ubiquitous natural beauty that has NO congestion and lower crime? Consider locating in the Keweenaw where you will be surrounded by amazing places! Learn more by visiting Remote Workforce Keweenaw at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com and learn about those who have made the decision to locate here by following the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw.