Maple syrup
- Thread starter rp7x
- Start date
My folks, William O. "Onni" Nara, Jack & Bob Nara, used to have a sugar camp in Bootjack (Lake Linden, MI). Sadly it is no more, but their neighbors still do, if anyone's interested (I realize you, rp7x, probably won't be, as you have your own):
(Click →) Sarazin Enterprise Inc. (a.k.a. U.P. Foods),
See also: (Click →) Danielson’s Sugarbush,
I have no other specific information or reviews of either of those, FWIW.
(Click →) Sarazin Enterprise Inc. (a.k.a. U.P. Foods),
47715 Bootjack Road • Lake Linden, MI 49945
See also: (Click →) Danielson’s Sugarbush,
I have no other specific information or reviews of either of those, FWIW.
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FRNASH, I know the Sarazin family pretty well....I'm the 5th generation of my family in Lake Linden..........you have ties to the Lake Linden area.......that is cool..
m8man
Your dad was a cool guy and very much a local icon.
Isn't it strange how someone comes into your mind kind of randomly?
A few days ago my son and I were out messing with a new Jeep I bought and were just riding around. We ended up at the Tamarac Waterworks, its a private now and totally blocked off and it made me think that this is not the Yooper way and it made me think how the Nara family took care of land and donated it generously for all to use.
Ooopsie. "My folks, William O. 'Onni' Nara, Jack & Bob Nara …"?
I didn't intend to mislead y'all, but my dad wasn't one of them. In my haste, I was trying to avoid telling the 'whole' story'. (Never mind a whole bunch of folks would probably find it boooooring.)
However, for anyone who's interested, here's the whole story:
J.W. (William) Närä, (Onni's dad, and my mother's uncle, a.k.a. "Old Bill") owned what was probably the Copper Country's most prominent professional photo studio in the late 1800's and early 1900's in Calumet (and later in Hancock).
See this book (click →) Amazon THE BEST OF J. W. NARA; COPPER COUNTRY CHRONICLER.
"Old Bill" paid for his brother (my maternal grandfather, Frans Emil Närä) — to sail from Alatornio, Finland, on the Majestic out of Liverpool, England, arriving in the U.S. (at Ellis Island) in December 1904 at 19 years of age — with the princely sum of $10.00 (≈$290 in today's dollars) in hand — to work in "Old Bill's" photo studio. (I guess I wouldn't be here if it weren't for that, eh?)
Kind of chilling to contemplate spending nine days crossing the North Atlantic in December, 1904 — but fortunately not on the Titanic in April, 1912!
As it turned out, my grandfather (Frank Närä) was allergic to the photographic chemicals, and left the photo business to establish a farm in Bruce Crossing in the late 1920's (that farm is still in the family today).
"Old Bill" Närä's son William O. "Onni" Närä, (my second cousin once removed) was a long time resident of Bootjack, after a time with the Detroit Fire Department, was instrumental in establishing the Bootjack Volunteer Fire Department, many long years ago.
William O. "Onni" and Mae Närä's son, Dr. John "Jack" (my second cousin) had a veterinary practice for many years on U.S. 41 on the Pilgrim River.
Dr. John Nara & "Freckles" (his veterinary practice "receptionist")
As you can clearly see, minun toinen serkkuą¹ Jack Nara wasn't a small man.
Then there's Freckles!
The family later donated that veterinary practice property for a "Pilgrim River Walk". With further land donations from Bob and Ruth Nara, it's now the
Nara Nature Park in Houghton.
¹minun toinen serkku = my second cousin
There is actually another Finnish word for "second cousin": pikkuserkku
… which would be hilarious in reference to Jack Nara, 'cuz pikkuserkku literally means "little cousin". Jack was not exactly a "little" fella!
Onni's other son, Dr. Robert "Bob" Nara (also my second cousin) had a dental practice in Houghton for many years. Bob Nara (the best dentist on the planet!) did much of my dental work during my years at "Da Tech".
A bit of additional family/Copper Country history...
My maternal grandmother, Anna Karvola, arrived in the U.S. from Viipuri, Finland at age 5, in June, 1892, sailing on the Saale, from Liverpool England in the company of her father and mother, Mattias and Mathilde Karvola.
She later was employed on the kitchen staff at the Thomas H. Hoatson -- owner of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company -- Mansion for two years, shortly after it was completed in 1908, and before marrying my grandfather. Of course the Hoatson Mansion is now the ...
(click →) Laurium Manor Inn!
[I almost hesitate to mention the Laurium Manor in, as John reports that the present owners are not snowmobile friendly!
]You just gotta love it -- the way that absolutely every single thing in the Copper Country, and everyone that ever set foot therein is connected or related in such a wonderfully rich small-town-America way!
(Yes, the family mostly abandoned the diereses/umlauts in Närä for just "Nara" in later generations.)
And (with apologies to Paul Harvey) "Now you know The Rest of the Story"!
(Now y'all can wake up and get back to the rest of the forum!)
True that.
They certainly did, and thanks for recognizing that!
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