John Dee was right

[Willh]

So I've been following John Dee since ~2002 maybe, maybe earlier. I'm not sure. However, until 2016 I lived in Maine, around Fort Kent in the far north before moving to Bangor, etc.

Anyways, I'm one of those weird people who chooses where they live based on the winters. It's not just about snow, it's about cold, about duration, on and on. I love the aesthetic of winter and the weather related to it is one of my favorite interests - bar none, followed with that is an aversion to big cities. I grew up in Atlanta for a while - hated it. I love rural, boreal forested areas. So anyways, after following John Dee for years and years my wife and I took a leap of faith and moved to Calumet without ever having been to the area. We'd seen tons of pictures, I studied every bit of climatic info I could find - on and on - but we had never been here.

Now, two years later we're sold on the area. I've been living here, exploring and loving essentially every season that passes by - though I still VASTLY prefer the winter (however, to live in an area with no summer essentially puts you in an arctic desert...so you have to compromise, lol.)

So yeah. My wife and I just bought our first house (outright - no mortgage). The closing is on thursday. We're staying in the Calumet/Laurium area - we love this town - and I am so thankful I found this place.

Thanks again for the inspiration, John Dee and everyone here - I've been reading the forums for years.

 

[jd]

That's awesome Will!

Congrats on the home purchase!

-John

 

[gary_in_neenah]

Will, glad to hear things worked out well for you. I recall your postings at the time of the move and thought that's a "substantial Leap of Faith". Then we didn't hear from you for awhile. Some thought you might be snowed in, lost in the woods, or eaten by a wild animal...

Living in the upper midwest gives us a nice mix of the seasons; some like it hot, some like it cold. Personally, I like the variety of all four seasons. I especially look forward to those first frosty mornings in the early fall, signaling that things are about to change. All the best Willh, keep us current on things.

 

[mezz]

Congrats to you & your wife Will. I wish you many years of Keweenaw - Copper Country happiness. It takes a hearty soul to endure our seasons no matter which one & by all appearances, you seem to have that in you.-Mezz

 

[Skylar]

Congrats!

 

[Willh]

Thanks everyone xD

I'm so excited. This will be the first time I've not had to deal with a landlord in so long - and it will feel great to know I literally own a place up here. My wife and I love the Keweenaw.

As a person who spent roughly 15 years living in Maine - there is nothing over there that beats this area. Not even the fall foliage. I've been up and down and through the Adirondacks, VT, NH and Maine...even Quebec, NB, and Nova Scotia. The drive from Calumet to Copper Harbor is the best fall foliage trip there is.

I am currently going back to school (I already had a degree but it doesn't work very well up here) to become a nurse - and I'm set on this area. The way I describe it is that it's basically like downeast Maine, dense forests, small mountains, waterfalls and craggy coastlines - the best difference is that you don't have to peek around billionaire mansions to see the water. And I stand by that.

Plus you get 200-300 inches of snow a year.

Thanks again John Dee and everyone here. I never would have discovered this place without this website.

~ Will

 

[mrsrunningbear]

Congratulations to you and your wife! ENJOY!

 

[frnash]

Yeay! Hurrah! Congrats, Will (and Mrs. Will)!

I’m glad you’ve been living in Calumet instead of somewhere like Agate Street in Houghton, or somewhere along Cole’s Creek Road, or after last week you might already have high-tailed it back to Fort Kent!

… As a person who spent roughly 15 years living in Maine - there is nothing over there that beats this area. Not even the fall foliage. I've been up and down and through the Adirondacks, VT, NH and Maine...even Quebec, NB, and Nova Scotia. The drive from Calumet to Copper Harbor is the best fall foliage trip there is. …

Exactly! (It’s nice to have that confirmed by someone who is so familiar with the New England foliage.)

Fortunately that’s a pretty well kept secret too, as it is largely ignored along with the local snowfall records by the national media.
And that’s not bad. Let the vast hordes of “leaf peepers” descend upon VT, NH, etc. instead. That works.

 

[chunk06]

Congrats! Moving someplace you have never been takes some balls. We hope to at least have a place up there when we get close to retirement. IF we still enjoy the snow. Pretty cool that JD can have a big impact on someone's life like that.

 

[maddogg]

Awesome! Kind of jealous actually. Good for you guys!

 

[packerlandrider]

John deserves a similar shout out from me as well. The combination of this website and Michigan Tech are what got me initially interested in the Copper Country ten years ago. Now over a year removed from college, still up here living the dream with a full time job. I've enjoyed visiting other areas across the country over the past five years, but it always feels so refreshing to return back to the Keweenaw.

Thanks John!

 

[buddah2]

Interesting....I just ran across this thread....our story's are somewhat similar.....I was always a city boy (smallest town I ever lived in before here was like 700k people).....started coming up here in mid 90's and came here full-time 16 yrs ago.....never regretted it a bit....

Just out of idle curiosity what area of Atlanta did you live in? (I'm assuming Georgia and not Michigan) I lived there too for a bit (4 yrs), but more yrs ago than I care to admit......

 

[GTL]

Willh- if you don't mind, the bride and I are thinking about a trip to the northeast this fall and would like any info you have for all the "must-sees" of that area. Probably fly into Boston and rent a car.

 

[tealracing16]

John deserves a similar shout out from me as well. The combination of this website and Michigan Tech are what got me initially interested in the Copper Country ten years ago. Now over a year removed from college, still up here living the dream with a full time job. I've enjoyed visiting other areas across the country over the past five years, but it always feels so refreshing to return back to the Keweenaw.

Thanks John!

How did you get to stay? I graduated in 07 and there wasn't a whole lot of jobs and the competition was fierce!! I could've stayed at Wal-mart they even wanted to promote me but something about having an engineering degree and being a cashier didn't seem right.

 

[sjb]

How did you get to stay? I graduated in 07 and there wasn't a whole lot of jobs and the competition was fierce!! I could've stayed at Wal-mart they even wanted to promote me but something about having an engineering degree and being a cashier didn't seem right.

I saw the same thing happen in Madison, WI. Kids who went to college there, wanted to stay. I did a lot of hiring back then, and we had the most over-qualified staff that you can imagine. My wife had the same thing. She was hiring account managers who had their masters making around $32K per year. Mich Tech was on the colleges I wanted to recruit from, but my company wanted to stick to the big 10 schools. I think we missed out on some fine engineers who "get it". Times have changed and I no longer recruit, but sure miss those days.

 

[gary_in_neenah]

any info you have for all the "must-sees" of that area. Probably fly into Boston and rent a car.

thought I'd mention that Boston itself is worth a day of sight seeing. A ton of history there; the USS Constitution, North Church, Fenway, etc.
We were there last summer and had a great time... or as the locals say, "a wicked pissah".

 

[frnash]

Hungry in Boston? Don't miss Durgin Park!

thought I'd mention that Boston itself is worth a day of sight seeing. A ton of history there; the USS Constitution, North Church, Fenway, etc.
We were there last summer and had a great time... or as the locals say, "a wicked pissah".

Boston: "Once upon a time" (1968?) while working at the (then) General Electric Computer Division in Phoenix, myself and an associate were dispatched to Boston on a business trip, which kept us far too busy for doing much sight seeing.

We did, however, catch dinner at (click →) Durgin Park, (est. 1827) — check out the video tour and the menus/pix. It hasn't changed much in 150 years!

"Established before you were born

As one of Boston’s most venerable landmarks and Fanueuil Hall’s oldest restaurant (est. 1827), Durgin-Park serves classic New England chowders, Indian puddings, Boston baked beans, aged prime rib, steaks, shanks, the freshest seafood dinners, pastas and sandwiches. For well over a century Durgin-Park has catered to the hearty appetites of straw-hatted, white-aproned market men, local characters, and visitors from around the world. Take part in Boston history as you step into one of the oldest restaurants in the country."

It's a ginormous building, with four huge dining rooms.

As we arrived we found a horde of hungry diners queued up at the front door and around the block (a typical scene).

Fortunately my cohort was a former New Englander (who was familiar with the place) led the way, bypassing the tourist crowd at the main entrance to a discrete, unmarked door a short distance away (Sorry, I don't recall how to find it, so I can't help you there.) which led upstairs to one of the bars (The Gaslight Pub?). The plan: buy a few drinks, then head directly into the dining room, no mob scene, no waiting!

If you'd like to give it a try, bring your large "hungry bag". Great service, good food, enormous portions; example: I remember a Porterhouse steak hanging off the large dinner plate, and much more. Couldn't leave without dessert either. I was seriously wishing I had a tummy sling as we staggered out and headed back to our hotel.

I have to mention their signature(?) wait staff: A bunch of wise-assed, sassy wenches, in the style of the raucous, red-headed Flo, at Mel's Diner in the 1970s TV series (click →) Alice, but very efficient!

---

One grim, sorry, sad sighting that evening: One very puffy-faced, extremely inebriated (click →) Judy Garland, with her "boy toy" at a table in the corner of the room, less than a year before she died. Sad.

 

[gary_in_neenah]

One of my take-a-ways from our visit. The land mass that is current day Boston was quite a bit smaller in colonial times. As was the custom most everywhere, if the locals had garbage or materials to discard....they just threw it in the ocean. Overtime the shoreline became cluttered so they hauled dirt in to cover the garbage. After years of this practice the land extended out in to the bay and they built their shops and factories on top of the garbage and refuse.

Fast forward to present day; They're building a new Boston Gardens in downtown. As they're digging down to bedrock for the footings they found all sorts of oddities, skeletons of horses, wagon wheels, etc. All the refuse from hundreds of years ago buried beneath the city. Probably not something the Chamber of Commerce would share but some of the locals were eager to describe. Here's a link if you'd like to learn more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawmut_Peninsula

 

[packerlandrider]

How did you get to stay? I graduated in 07 and there wasn't a whole lot of jobs and the competition was fierce!! I could've stayed at Wal-mart they even wanted to promote me but something about having an engineering degree and being a cashier didn't seem right.

Well, the first thing is that I'm one of the relative oddities at Tech without an engineering degree - instead having degrees from the School of Forestry and a bachelors in Statistics. Two months before graduation a company up here I had always been interested in posted a job. It turned out to be a great fit for both sides, so I started working there two weeks after graduation last May.

Although, what you mention isn't completely out of the ordinary. One of my current housemates spent nine months after leaving Tech working at Walmart & Applebees just because he loves the area so much. Was able to get a 3 month internship with one of the local engineering firms this past Spring, and since has been hired full-time.

 

[snobuilder]

tuition bills