Living in the Light at Friends of Miners Memorial Heritage Park

Posted on by farlane

Miners Memorial Heritage Park (2)

Miners Memorial Heritage Park (2), photo by siskokid

I’ve always found snow & cold to be a lot more tolerable when accompanied by a healthy dose of sun & blue skies. About this photo Jim writes:

During the recent snowshoe weekend with my buddies Jim, Fred and Roger, we snowshoed the trails of this beautiful park located in my hometown. A recent snowfall had left a good blanket of powder that hadn’t been groomed as of yet for cross-country skiing. Lucky for us!

The City of Ironwood, Michigan passed an ordinance in 2011 that designated 167 acres of city-owned land in the center of Ironwood as the Miners Memorial Heritage Park. This area once contained five iron ore mines, the last of which closed in the 1960’s. The Friends of Miners Memorial Heritage Park has created a 2.6 mile looping trail through a portion of this area for hiking in the summer and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. The Park is “Dedicated to those who toiled underground to work these mines. Many died in the darkness so future generations could live in the light.”

More about the park including some old photos at fmmhp.com.

Check this photo out on black, see more from the park in Jim’s slideshow and also view more of his UP shots on Michigan in Pictures.

The U.P. 200 & Midnight Run Sled Dog Races

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

P1010050c

P1010050c, photo by Dan & Mary.

The web site for the annual UP 200 / Midnight Run and Jack Pine 30 sled dog races explains that 1988 a group of mushers and others began to discuss a dogsled race in the Upper Peninsula.

When the race finally began to take shape, the trail encompassed Marquette, Alger, and Delta counties, and ran from Marquette to Chatham, Rapid River, Escanaba, Gwinn, and back to Marquette…

…and on a snowy Friday evening in February of 1990, the dedication and perseverance finally paid off. To the cheers of 10,000 spectators, the mushers of the first UP 200 Sled Dog Championship ten dog race sped down Washington street in Marquette into the night. At midnight, in the community of Chatham the first Midnight Run racers departed on the long, cold journey towards Escanaba. These racers went on their way into history, with many “tails of the trails” for the years to come.

The UP200 and Midnight Run have remained successful events each year and they take place this weekend (Feb 15-17) and you can get all the details (including the trail map and Breakaway’s Blog at the link above!

Mary writes that this photo shows a team is approaching the crossing at Forest Highway 13, heading west to the next checkpoint at Munising/Wetmore, MI. It’s part of a set of UP 200 / Midnight Run dogsled races 2007 photos (slideshow)