Laying Up: The Lake Carriers' Association (LCA) based in Cleveland released a summary of the investment the fleets of the Great Lakes are contributing to maintenance and repairs during the two months of winter layups. "This year, companies will invest nearly $83 million in their vessels moored in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania," LCA reports. "That translates into jobs for hundreds of workers in these Great Lakes states: Wisconsin shipyards will get $41 million in work, Ohio $37 million, Pennsylvania $4 million and New York $1 million." Fraser Shipyards in Superior is among the Wisconsin facilities. This photo by David Schauer shows the Lee A. Tregurtha berthed at Fraser. Maintenance work also is going on in individual company lay-ups, not specified in the press release. Notes LCA: "Work on the vessels will range from engine and navigation system upgrades to steel replacement on the hulls and decks of the vessels. The same iron ore these vessels hauled from Lake Superior ports during the summer which was turned into steel in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania will now go back into the large self-unloading ships." Jim Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers’ Association, said in the release, “The Great Lakes Navigation System is truly interdependent. From the mines that produce the bulk materials, to the ports which deliver and receive products, to the U.S.-flag ships that move the material to production facilities, to the end products being used to make our lives better and more efficient. The jobs sustained by this system are vital to the economy." Meanwhile, in Thunder Bay, the interestingly painted CSL St. Laurent is wintering in Keefer Terminal, as seen in this photo by Michael Hull taken in January. The mural depicting a Canada goose in flight was unveiled in 2017 to commemorate Canada's 150th anniversary and Montreal's 375th anniversary, CSL noted back then.
Do a Lighthouse a Favor: Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society is looking for a few good women and men to volunteer this coming season. The group is accepting applications through Feb. 25 for boat drivers and restoration crew leaders. If restoration crew member positions remain to be filled in March, applications also will be taken for those. Volunteers must commit to at least 1 week of work and provide their own travel to Windigo Ranger Station on Isle Royale. Rock of Ages Lighthouse volunteer Deborah J. Mann did the story "Rescuing the Rock" for us in 2018 about the work on the remote Isle Royale lighthouse.
A Different Kind of Cruisin': The Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area in Ontario posted a few great underwater images of a vehicle the group was trying to identify. "Help us solve a mystery! While exploring the Nipigon Lagoon this summer with our ‘Underwater Museum’ program, we loved visiting this spooky sunken station wagon. All markings have fallen off, but it has fins, and it’s red!" Very quickly a '57 Chevy became the most popular pick. We got an insider tip to connect with Angelo Van Bogart, the editor of Old Cars. Angelo confirmed those guesses. "It's a 1957 Chevrolet Two-Ten four-door station wagon. If it has a third-row seat, it's a 1957 Chevrolet Two-Ten Beauville station wagon; if it doesn't have a third-row seat, it's a 1957 Chevrolet Two-Ten Townsman station wagon." Not sure how it came to be cruisin' at about 7 metres (23 feet) beneath the surface, but that's what we know for now.
One Heck of a Lava Lamp: It's Volcano Week – yes it is – and the folks at Isle Royale National Park posted this nifty graphic with a brief geological history of the Lake basin: "It’s the beginning of #VolcanoWeek and while Isle Royale is not a volcano, its story begins as so many others do with fire and ice. "To understand a natural system, we often need to go back to the beginning. For Isle Royale National Park that means going back 1.1 billion years to a geological event which would create the bones of the entire Lake Superior region. A mid continental rift began to open, nearly tearing the entire North American continent apart, and from this rift a series of basaltic lava flows poured forth. These flows cooled and the middle sank under their own weight creating the Lake Superior basin. Millions of years of glaciers would grind the ridges that didn’t sink smooth, leaving Isle Royale isolated and surrounded by water by the time glaciers receded 10,000 years ago. "While there isn’t a traditional “volcano” on Isle Royale, volcanic activity formed the backbone needed to sustain terrestrial life here on the island, and ice sculpted it into the form it is today." The park also added an image description: "An illustrated cross section depicting the basaltic lava flows and syncline in the center which create the Lake Superior basin. The edges of the rift fault lines did not sink, creating Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula, which includes Keweenaw National Historical Park." Still craving more? You can read the full report online from which the graphic came; it's "The Geological Story of Isle Royale" (aka Geological Survey Bulletin 1309) by N. King Huber.
Testing, Testing: The organizers of Book Across the Bay, which opens its 25th "chapter" on Feb. 19, let us know they are testing the thickness of the Lake ice between Ashland and Washburn, Wis., in preparation for the night-time event. "Our highly experienced trail team is out inspecting ice conditions," they posted with this shot of a crack ice-tester in action. More on this event coming up next week ... but meanwhile you can read a short description by Bob Berg's "Meet You Across the Bay" from 2018.
It Really Was a Dark & Stormy Night: Split Rock Lighthouse and the rocks on which it stands have been featured in more than one movie. Perhaps the most dramatic was from a final scene in "The Good Son" with two boys hanging in the balance off the cliff (as seen in this image from a Fandago Movie Clip). But that wasn't the flick the Split Rock Lighthouse crew had in mind when they posted this stormy night scene earlier this week with a challenge: "Make sure that you catch our good side! Split Rock Lighthouse is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the country, so it comes as no surprise to us that we end up in all sorts of places. Does anyone have a guess as to what movie this stormy scene is from? Good luck, old sports!" Several people found "old sports" enough of a clue to identify "The Great Gatsby," – the 2013 version with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. Duluth columnist Jim Heffernan reminded us in his blog that year that F. Scott Fitzgerald indeed intersected the early life of the man who took the name Jay Gatsby with Duluth. "Once Fitzgerald gets around to telling Gatsby’s backstory, we learn he grew up poor in North Dakota, the son of 'shiftless and unsuccessful farm people,'” Jim writes. "His name was James Gatz, and at age 17 he fled the Dakota farm for Lake Superior where he 'loafed along the beach,' and where he met an eccentric yachtsman, whom he saved from dashing his vessel on the rocky shore. It was then that young Gatz imagined himself as the man who became Jay Gatsby. The yachtsman took him under his wing and also 'took him to Duluth and bought him a blue coat, six pairs of white duck trousers and a yachting cap,' before embarking for 'the West Indies and the Barbary Coast,' in Fitzgerald’s words." This storm shot is from an early scene in the movie.
This Just In ... The winners of the Michigan Tech Winter Carnival snow carving competition have been announced. The Hancock-based Phi Kappa Tau won the monthlong snow carving competition for the fourth year in a row. The theme of this 100th year of the Michigan Tech Winter Carnival is "Come One, Come All to Our 100th Carnival" and the members of Phi Kappa Tau morphed that into their sculpture theme of “100 Years They Come and Go, But Still We Say LET IT SNOW!” (Admirers are looking at the complex entry in this photo.) Second place overall went Tau Kappa Epsilon’s “Carnival Fun Galore, a Tech Tradition We Adore” with Alpha Sigma Tau’s “Come One, Come All!” placing third. There are two statue categories monthlong. and one-night (or all-nighter) which are subdivided into co-ed, women's and men's, plus overall. There were a total of 12 entries in the monthlong categories and a total of 24 in the all-nighters. See the full results and more photos online. This photo from 1936 shows a prize-winning statue from that year, which was the first time for the snow carving contest. The carnival began in 1922 with a one-night Ice Carnival that featured "circus-style acts, with students dressed up in animal costumes," the online history notes. You can also view a video with a wrap up of the 100 years.
Photo & graphic credits: David Schauer; Michael Hull; Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society; Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area; National Park Service; Book Across the Bay; Split Rock Lighthouse Historic Site/The Great Gatsby (2013); Fandago Movie Clip/The Good Son (1993); Evan Smith/Michigan Technological University; Michigan Tech archives