Spooky Arrives in March: Duluth filmmaker Keith Hopkins spent 2019 in a lot of spooky northern Minnesota places, mostly found in his home city, but all the way up to Ely, Minnesota. His paranormal journey will become part of a documentary, “Gravedigger Dave’s Halfway House,” to be released in March. Produced through Duluth-based Hexagon Motion Pictures, the movie features our own Haunted Lakes series author Fred Stonehouse. According to Keith, the movie “blends documentary with narrative storytelling and challenges the audience to determine which stories are true and which have been made up.” Keith told us “Fred’s interview is actually crucial to the film. He best articulates the thesis of the film: That it doesn’t matter if a ghost story is ‘true.’ What’s important is that it is a part of our culture." Keith did a movie trailer featuring Fred just for us (all done in that spooky low light). There’s also an official trailer. Now we did find some funky stuff on the Hexagon site, like the "Texas Chainsaw Bear Massacre" (spoiler alert: a carved wooden bear is the killer of other carved wooden bears), but there’s also a lovely public service announcement about the importance of outdoor play for children (with nary a chainsaw bear in sight). Anyway, "Gravedigger Dave’s Halfway House," funded by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, premieres March 1 at the Zeitgeist Zinema theater in downtown Duluth. We dare you to join us there.
In the Dark: Freezing rain and ice on Monday delivered a one-two punch to the electricity for thousands in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. By Wednesday, fewer than 5,000 in Chippewa County remained without power, but the outages did continue, reported Gary Bigger for 9&10 News. An updated story by Courtney Hunter for the channel quoted David Terrell in Brimley: "About Monday our power went out. It wasn’t restored until yesterday. It was quite a long outage. The house got extremely cold.” Cloverland Electric Cooperative posted this morning that it had 3,500 customers remaining to repower across Chippewa, Mackinac and Luce counties. Twenty crews from other electric companies came to help.
Making History: The Sault Ste. Marie & 49th Field Regiment R.C.A. Historical Society Museum (aka the Sault Ste. Marie Museum) had a lot to announce in the last week. As of Jan. 1, William Hollingshead officially became the new executive directory and head curator of the organization, according to a news release posted by SooToday. William has a long history curating history. He has been a museum program instructor, manager and curator, archivist and heritage programmer at notable museums in Ontario, such as at Black Creek Pioneer Village, Scarborough Museum, Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site (Parks Canada), Bruce Mines Museum and Ermatinger-Clergue National Historic Site. “I am extremely grateful to be able to continue my work with the Sault Ste. Marie Museum within a new capacity,” he said in the release. “I welcome everyone in the community to come down and explore your museum.” The museum also announced retired Lt. Col. Lance Knox as the recipient of the 2019 Sault Ste. Marie Medal of Merit “in recognition of his leadership, dedication, commitment, sacrifice and courage living a life of service,” as reported by SooOnline. Lance joined the 49th Field Artillery Regiment as a reservist when he was 16, and his military career spanned 42 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. His duties included a tour in Afghanistan as a captain and second-in-command of the Civil-Military Co-Operation team. “Lt. Col. Lance Knox has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to our community and our country through his longstanding involvement with the armed forces, both at home and abroad,” Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano said in the announcement. “For more than four decades he dedicated himself to the 49th (Sault Ste. Marie) Field Artillery Regiment, encouraging many of its members to become active citizens who have made and continue to make a positive difference in our community. The Medal of Merit is a fitting recognition of his service and contributions.” Finally, the museum posted nifty little note in November about its iconic clock tower (seen here): “Did you know? The clock in the clock tower gets turned off in the winter because snow and ice build up can cause the arms and mechanism to get stuck. We shut down the clock so it does not harm the original motor inside! Hopefully nobody relies on the clock tower for the correct time this time of year!"
High Waters: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its review of December’s water levels today. According to the release, Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron remain near record highs for this time of year and are expected to continue their seasonal declines in January, potentially exceeding records if wet conditions continue in 2020. In December, when Lake Superior’s water levels generally decline by 3 inches, the water declined only about half that or 1.6 inches. Because of the continued high waters, the International Lake Superior Board of Control “advises all those that may be affected to prepare for potentially severe coastal impacts, especially during periods of strong winds and high waves.” The Lake is currently 0.8 inches below the record high set in 1986 for the beginning of January and is 13 inches above its long-term average and 4 inches above its level at this time last year.
We've Got Winter Rec Down: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week released its “Wisconsin winter bucket list: 12 things you have to do,” and not surprisingly, 7 of the 12 items involved recreation in our Big Lake neighborhood. Among the winter must-dos: Candlelight events with Book Across the Bay fest (Feb. 14-16) listed as the granddaddy of all such candlelight events, followed by Bike Across the Bay (Feb. 16), enjoying the Apostle Islands Sled Dog Race (Feb. 1-2; in photo) or driving on the ice road between Bayfield and Madeline Island (as season permits), plus visiting the sea caves. Also nearby were the Drummond Bar Stool Races (Feb. 15) and Eagle River's ice castle on Silver Lake (watch for it on the Eagle River Chamber's Facebook page).
Open Water Caves?: The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore posted a conditions update yesterday (Jan. 2) along with these two images for folks wanting to visit the mainland trail and perhaps the caves along it: "Gale winds and rain was the name of the game last weekend. We’re getting back into some winter temps now. As you can see from today’s sea caves photo and a recent MODIS satellite image, there is all open water around the Apostle Islands currently, with no sea ice visible. We had a number of visitors on the Mainland Trail today. It is getting pretty packed, but rangers recommend traction and hiking poles for the most secure walking. Off the main trail, there is still a fair amount of snow, so snowshoes are never a bad idea. The Bayfield Peninsula did receive a little snow after the rain, and area trails are being groomed for skiing, biking, and snowmobiling, so winter recreation is still a go!"
Super Cool Surfing: Surfer Magazine summed up its last 10 years by choosing its 10 Best Stories of the Decade and Lake Superior surfers made that list. “The Other North Shore” by Justin Housman was published in August 2016. In reintroducing the piece, the editors said this: "Duluth, Minnesota, ain’t exactly Surf City, USA, and that’s what makes it such a compelling setting for Justin Houseman’s piece, 'The Other North Shore.' Along the northern shores of Lake Superior, possibly the most hardcore group of surfers in the world come together, sometimes driving for days from various corners of the midwest to ride the natural wonder that is a freshwater barrel. Housman embeds himself with this unique crew on snow-covered shores and in Minnesota breweries to get the unique story of a very special coastline and the band of misfits who regularly emerge from sessions with beards made of icicles." For Grant Ellis' photo of Lake Superior surfers (seen here), they noted: "Not a mirage. Not a bit of photo trickery. Not a novelty section. Just perfect, freshwater barrels spinning all day. Alex Gray, not quite believing he’s in Minnesota."
Photo & graphic credits: Hexagon Motion Pictures; Cloverland Electric Cooperative; Sault Ste. Marie Museum; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Apostle Islands Sled Dog Race; Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; Grant Ellis/Surfer Magazine