[legion]

I've been going up to Houghton, MI almost every summer for the past 12 years. In that time, I've seen just one freighter out on Superior.

I'm told that 30 years ago they were everywhere, hauling iron and copper ore.

Now you'll see more sailboats than freighters on Superior. The EPA and low copper prices have killed mining in the UP. (Yeah, prices are high now, but the regulations make it impossible to open or reopen a mine.) The railroad that ran up to Copper Harbor is gone. Half the houses have been for sale for more than a decade. It's just a sleepy vacation area populated by a few people who don't have the means to leave.

The Army Corps of engineers still dredges a channel in Portage Lake for the freighters to use for shelter in the storms, but I hear they may have 1 or 2 in a bad storm these days...not the hundreds of 30 years ago...