Today was a rare day in our road trip traditions. Jeff did not have to drive at all! Our campground was surrounded by a beautiful trail and Fort Wilkins, one of the most un-strategic forts that the American military ever built in this country.
We walked to the trail from our campsite and followed it around to the beach very near the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula. We zoomed in our cameras to take pictures of the Copper Harbor Lighthouse (you have to take a boat cruise to get up close to it). The beach was all rocks and pebbles so we all had fun trying out the Rock Identifier App to find out the kids of cool rocks we were finding. A lot of it was basalt, but we also found different kinds of jaspers, sandstone, rhyolite, and a few agates.
The trail led to Fort Wilkins, built in 1844 as way to keep law and order during the Copper Rush and as a result of the treaty where the Ojibwe lost their land to the United States. The Ojibwe survived by assimilating and moving inland to more remote areas rather than violence, and the fort was so remote, not many white settlers actually settled there. Meanwhile, all the soldiers left in 1846 to go fight in the war against Mexico and then the Civil War. It was used for a few years after the Civil War and then was abandoned by the military. In the 1920’s it became a Michigan State Park and a lot of reconstruction was done during the Great Depression by the Works Project Administration (WPA).
It was not crowded at all and had lots of informative signs to look at as you walked in and out of the buildings. After we were done with our wanderings, we went to the Campground store to get ice cream, then walked back to our campsite to relax. A nice relaxing day!
Kline Road Trips 