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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula March 29, 2005  Updated March 30, 2005 Text and photos © 2005 Jim Junttila. Reprinted with permission.

Keweenaw snow photos: March 2005

A Photo Essay by Jim Junttila

LAURIUM -- Jim Junttila of Laurium, outdoor writer and active board member of the Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club, recently took a post-Vernal Equinox, late March, not-quite-spring photo tour from Calumet to Copper Harbor. He offers these photos to assure Keweenaw Now readers that, while the winter carnival statues in Houghton may be melting fast, Keweenaw's north end still has plenty of snow for late March. 

On Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005, a giant snowbank stands resiliently between the Calumet Theatre and Shute's 1890 Bar across historic Sixth Street from the Calumet Fire Hall.

Shoveling sidewalks and driveways is not yet over this winter for Calumet residents.

A mountainous Easter snowbank buries a birch and the front door at the home of Jim and Karen Johnson, Calumet.

While the State of Michigan and the Keweenaw and Houghton County road commissions keep the roads nice and clear for visitors and residents driving north, the snowbanks along highways are still quite deep.

It's hard to tell the mileage when you can't see it for the snow. This sign is along U.S. 41 near Phoenix, where snow banks just last week were about six feet deep.

Daytime temperatures have been pleasant for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and other outdoor activities up north. Conditions are a bit better in the mornings before the sun comes out and softens the surface snow, but the base is still quite good in the woods, especially at Swedetown Trails in Calumet. In fact, even in the Houghton "Banana Belt," ski club members claim the MTU Trails still have "a base of at least 16 inches."* 

With snow still on its trees, the white of the Phoenix Church blends into the March landscape, waiting for spring. The church, on U.S. 41, is now a museum maintained by the Keweenaw County Historical Society.

An invisible trout stream runs deep beneath the snow near the historic Phoenix Church.

Heading north of Phoenix on U.S. 41, you have to look twice to see the old mining houses on the right, near Delaware. They're nearly hidden behind the tall snowbanks.

Along U.S. 41 near Delaware, snowbanks nearly hide old mining houses from view. Is somebody in there watching T.V.?

*Editor's Note: These comments on the skiing are from the editor. Also, Jo Samuelson of Marquette reported great skiing to the top of Brockway Mountain near Copper Harbor on Saturday, March 26.

"It was a great day to ski Brockway and a great ski to just enjoy," she writes. "There were no bare areas on the road. The snowmobiles have traveled all the way to the west end intermittently so it was hard packed, no sinking skis or poles in the first mile. A few birds were flirting with the thermals but none are flying over yet. It was well worth the drive from Marquette and I figure with this warm weather it will break up (especially in the high use by snowmobile area) in the next two weeks. So get out and enjoy it."

Continued on Page 2: More of Jim Junttila's Calumet to Copper Harbor photos