In the morning it was still lightly raining, and we thought this would be a good time to try the Seaman museum on more time. Not knowing what time they opened, I decided on a little detour. Just up the beach from McLain State Park is Calumet Waterworks Park. The rain had changed to occasional showers and we were able to get in some agate hunting. This time I think I may have actually found one. Not very colorful , and looking like it's in the wrong kind of rock, the fortification banding is hard to miss.

If the tumbling action of the waves hadn't exposed the banding I never would have considered it to be an agate. We saw a sheet of rain coming our way and left the beach for the van. The rain caught up with us just as we got back to our little camper on wheels, and we quickly got our hip boots off and drove to Houghton for supplies and our second try at the Seaman museum. The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum is only accessible by elevator, and at this point, the only way I knew if the museum was open was if the fifth floor button lights up. This time we got it right, the light stayed on and we were on our way. As we stepped out of the elevator we made our donation to help keep this great museum in operation. It turned out that besides the student workers, we had the museum to ourselves. As we walked around I tried to take pictures of some of the great specimens. Here's one of Litha next to a large piece of native Copper.

I kept my eye open for and found the Heulandite specimen from the Rat's Nest Claim of John Cornish. Here's the best pic I could get of it.

We spent more than an hour in the museum and stopped in the gift shop to see what I couldn't go home without. I picked up several mineral stands and this tumbled Mohawkite specimen for my collection.

When it was time to pay for my items I was pleasantly surprised to find that our cashier was none other than museum director Dr. George Robinson. I introduced myself and told him about our rockhounding trip to the Keweenaw. I told him we had been hunting for agates and the tailings piles for Copper. He asked if I had been to the Wolverine #2 pile. He said that there you can find agates with calcite replaced by Copper. He gave us good directions to get there and this would become our next destination. I told him it was great to talk to him and we said goodbye. We had lunch in the college parking lot and left to find Kearsarge, and the Wolverine #2 tailings pile.

The directions were easy to follow and we found the Wolverine #2 with no problems. I climbed around the steep tailing pile, digging and metal detecting as I went.

  

Once again, Litha found the easy way up and met me at the top. The weather that had cleared earlier was now followed by a cloudy, windy front that made it cold enough to see your breath. We found some nice but small pieces of Copper at the Wolverine #2 and then returned to camp. After a walk on the beach at sunset, we turned in for another cold night.

Wednesday May 2nd

This was the morning we set aside for some more serious digging at the Eagle River mine. I started on the northeast side of the tall rock pile and dug in about 1 foot deep to the point where the rock above was about ready to collapse on my cleared spot, then I ran the metal detector over it.

It's a very scenic location with the tall cliffs behind and the Central Creek valley in front. I dug and made my way towards the top, and with Litha's help the metal detecting went quickly. We ate lunch and went back to our digging for another hour and a half, by then we were getting tired from bracing ourselves on the steep, wind exposed slope, and we needed a change of venue. We found some nice pieces of Copper including this possible Copper crystal with a tenacious Tenorite coating that just doesn't want to come off with ketchup.

I also found one that looks quite a bit like a cartoon character from my childhood.

After packing away our finds, we drove down the road a short way to the tailing piles of the Cliff Mine. We crossed the creek/ditch on a log bridge without getting a soaker, and made our way to the rock pile. Litha explored the area while I metal detected. I wasn't having much luck finding Copper, and when Litha returned saying she could hear the sound of a water fall, I gave up and followed her. We found a narrow stream coming down from the cliffs surrounded by soft green moss. I took Litha's picture there, and we decided to move on. We returned to Kearsarge and this time stopped at the first Wolverine rock piles. I didn't want to spend too much time there since this was our last full day in the Keweenaw, but I did find one nice little delicate piece of Copper at the Wolverine #1.

One of our planned destinations for this trip was Copper Harbor since neither of us had been there before, and if we were going to do it, this was the afternoon, so we hopped in the van and turned north. We passed through the Delaware intersection and on into the winding, hilly section of US41. It's definitely a different country up there. For a road that's supposed to be a highway, the forest is very close to the edge (something they would never allow in our mid-Michigan farming region). I think I like the UP way better. The high speed UP traffic was another issue. I pulled over a couple of times to let faster drivers go around. We made it to the sleepy town of Copper Harbor, and continued on to the start/end of US41 where I got this photo. From the tip of the Keweenaw, US41 extends 1,990 miles south to Miami, Florida.

After seeing all we wanted to in the Copper Harbor area, we turned back south. We still had a few hours of daylight left, so this time I located the Delaware mine tailing pile.

This mine is well known for its quality Datolite specimens, and since that's what most people go there looking for, I thought I might have a good chance of finding some decent Copper pieces. We walked the surface with the metal detector, all the time keeping an eye open for the cauliflower shape of Datolite nodules. I found what looks like a small low grade nodule that is a conglomerate of little Datolite pieces instead of solid. It was sitting on top of a rock as if someone left it there after finding something better.

  

Most of the Copper I found was hiding in chunks of Basalt, but I did manage to find two neat little 3 dimensional pieces.

  

After five o'clock we got ready to head back to camp. As I rounded the van to get in I noticed something green in the road, and it turned out to be this nice little piece of sheet Copper with an intricate pierced pattern.

We drove to Houghton for our last dinner in the Keweenaw, and then returned to camp. On the other end of McLain State Park from the camping area, is a pier with a lighthouse. We walked out on the pier before going to our site. The wind was cold off the lake. On the way back to our site we noticed a few more campers in the park. RVs that were hooked up to the outlets, telling me that the power was finally on in the park. I had my first shave of the trip. After that we settled in for the night.