Copper Harbor

This tiny community of about 20 square blocks once supported the copper mining industry in this town. Now it is supported by tourism. The town has two campgrounds, several motels and rental cabins. That makes the permanent resident population even smaller. It has one gas station and no stop light.  It is very picturesque harbor surrounded by low mountains. There is an island National  park called Royal Isle which is closer to Canada than Michigan, which I have never heard of. It is mostly wild and has the largest moose herd in America. It does have a resort hotel there. A big business here is a ferry to that island. Folks can take kayaks with them on the boat. We were at the dock one evening when it came in. A local told us that a few weeks back it had run aground and the whole town went into a panic as it is a major draw to bring tourists.

We did some exploring to the south, then went up on one of the mountains to an over look and could see our camper down below. This is Art in the Park weekend, with the park just two blocks from our camper. So we walked around and looked at the wares being sold. These were true artisans and many had jewelry featuring locally found metals and minerals. There were also a lot of soap makers there.  The park had lush grass, shade trees and nice restrooms. We then explored the town shops which I found mostly of little interest. There was a mineral shop that sold other things but had a lot of info about copper mining in the area. They had some huge and heavy pieces of copper that had been found in the area.

Copper harbor from atop mountain

We also hiked through the woods to Horseshoe Bay where there was a pebble beach. It was beautiful and secluded. The water is very cold so it is rare you see anyone swimming. A lot of those pebbles were agate and other metal or minerals.
We pulled out of Copper Harbor, headed south, on Monday. We had really good roads that were mostly deserted and made good time down to Mosinee, Wisconsin. The campground has a lot of permanent residents but they were mostly neat. There was another section across the entrance road that was on a lake. Those spots were more spacious. Both sides were wooded. We were down at one end, and would have been crammed in elbow to toenail, except there was no one else in a three block area. This made us quite happy.

Boulder showing mineral veins.

We had talked about stopping in Oshkosh so Gene could see the EAA museum, but he is out of the mood. He is smelling the hay and headed for the barn. He said if it was going to be hot, we might as well go home. It was in the mid  80's in Copper Harbor. So on Tuesday night we are just north of Bloomington, IL. Again the campground has a lot of permanent residents but we are on a grassy pull through with no nearby neighbors.
Today we have seen a lot of interesting old barns of a style not seen in the south. I might need to paint some of them. And grain silos galore. And corn, corn, corn, as far as the eye can see. Gosh, folks, there is a lot of corn grown in America. We saw a lot of it on the way up also. We saw some wind farms today also.
Tomorrow night it is Paducah, KY and on Thursday to Shelbyville to stay with Blake and then home.