2026-07-02 – Oops! Its Big Bay
Before leaving Grand Marais we spent some time actually exploring the downtown area. The thing that was the most fun was the Pickle Barrel House. It is a cabin built in the shape of two barrels joined together. The house design is based on the artwork of William Donahey, an author-illustrator who created the Teenie Weenies cartoon characters in the early 1900s. It was constructed in 1926 and used as a summer cabin on a nearby lake. It was moved to Grand Marais as an attraction in 1937.
Then there’s the Old Post Office Museum, exactly what you’d expect it to be.
The “mall” graces the downtown with its most important shopping venues, a hardware store, a grocery store and an outfitter of sorts.
On our way west we drove through Pictured Rocks National Seashore again to try to pick up some things we missed. While two of them were back long gravel roads that we didn’t want to drive, Sand Point was more easily accessible. The Point had a nice beach but what most interested us was the Sand Point Marsh Trail. The trail was a boardwalk that looped around a small pond through a mix of marsh, poor fen, bog and conifer swamp. There was an amazing diversity of plants and great signage that explained what we were seeing.
While picking places to stay, we’d placed the city of Marquette as next on our list. We were fortunate to find a site in Perkins Park and Campground. Driving there, though, we discovered that the address we’d gotten for the campground was incorrect and the campground was actually in Big Bay, 25 miles to the north. Oops!
Well, not so bad, really. Big Bay is a tiny town with only about 250 residents, two restaurants and a general store. But the park is a county facility that has the resources to operate a nice facility. The park is on the shores of Lake Independence, a nice sized lake just off Lake Superior. The area is a popular recreational area and people have vacation homes around the lake. And, considering we’d be here for the 4th of July, Lake Independence seems an appropriately named place for us to be.
For a tiny town, however, Big Bay, held a few surprises. First among them was the Lumberjack Tavern, a well worn place with a big sign from a movie poster on the front of the building and a sign inside saying “No Murders Since 1952”. Turns out it is the actual tavern where a murder took place and where the movie, based on a book about the murder, was filmed. The movie, Anatomy of A Murder, starring Jimmie Stewart, Lee Remick, George C Scott, and Cathy Lee Crosby was nominated for seven academy awards in 1959.
Second, there’s a tall smokestack across the lake. It was part of a lumber mill that, from 1908 to 1932, Brunswick manufactured ninety percent of all bowling pins in the US. Then, in 1943, Henry Ford bought it, built a new boiler, engine room and the 190-foot smokestack. The company used it until 1949 to produce panels used for the bodies of “woody” station wagons.
The factory area was converted to a private residence. Meanwhile, the rest of the property is now Bay Cliff Health Camp, a therapeutic camp serving people with disabilities.
We heated up frozen chicken tenders for dinner and accompanied them with very tasty corn on the cob and a caprice salad.
2026-07-03 – Marquette for Fireworks?
Our plan for the day was to take in the local sights working our way south from Big Bay to Marquette. We started right around the corner at Burns Landing Historical Park. Burns Cabin, a log cabin thought to be one of the first buildings in the area, is undergoing restoration work so it wasn’t open. But the property includes a boardwalk loop through woodlands and a nice sandy beach on Lake Superior and a gazebo for shade.
Thomas Rock Scenic Overlook is accessed by a one mile loop trail to a rocky overlook with a grand view of Lake Superior. The trail is ADA compliant and there are good interpretative signs along the way.
We started up the next trail to Sugarloaf Mountain Observation Decks but turned around about two thirds of the way because Bill was making excuses about his knee. We did manage to get a nice view, however, at a rocky overlook along the way.
Presque Isle Park is just on the north end of Marquette. (Yeah, it turns out there are several Presque Isles on the lakes.) It’s a beautiful arm of land jutting out into the lake. There’s a bike path leading to it from town and lots of hiking trails to explore its interior. We drove the one-way loop road around it stopping at several spots to enjoy its rocky shoreline. Coming off the loop road we stopped for ice cream at the park’s tiny concession stand.
Just after we arrived at the park we saw a bulk carrier approaching the massive Marquette Ore Dock that we’d passed on our way in. And, as we departed we had a great vantage point to see the process of unloading and loading such a ship. The ship had transported limestone to be unloaded at the terminal. It was using its self unloading machinery to transfer its load to the docks facility. The limestone would be used in the process of converting finely ground, enriched iron ore into a pellet form that is both easy to transport and to use in a blast furnace.
Meanwhile, a railroad train of hopper cars full of pelletized ore was being pushed out the tracks at the top of the huge dock. The cars would dump their loads into bins that are the main part of the dock. The bins, in turn, would dump their contents into the ship during the loading phase of the operation. It was fascinating to watch and we were lucky to be there at the right time.
Ellwood A Mattson Lower Harbor Park in Marquette was a happening place. Marquette schedules it fireworks display on the third and the park is the place to be to see them. The park had a playground and amusement rides for kids, lots of vendors and organizations selling all kinds of food and drink and live music on stage. The US Army was giving free rides on a small troop transport boat but we arrived just as the last ride had filled.
There was a guy out on the water riding what we learned is called an eFoil board. It’s like a small, stand-up paddleboard equipped with a powered hydrofoil. It was fast, of course, and very maneuverable. Bill looked them up and they are priced anywhere between $3,000 to $15,000. Quite a range!
We’re now at the western edge of the eastern time zone so it doesn’t get dark until a bit after 10 PM. Accordingly, the fireworks were scheduled to start at 10:40. We’re normally in bed by that time and had a 45 minute drive back to our campground. So fireworks were off our agenda.
As it turned out, we learned that, due to a technical difficulty, the fireworks had to be rescheduled for the next day!
Returning to WAWA we cooked some salmon and had broccoli and potato salad to go with it.
2026-07-04 – Tiny Town Fourth of July
So, it’s the Fourth of July! What to do? A parade, of course!
Big Bay puts its best foot forward for this celebration. And it’s a bigger foot than we imagined. People lined their chairs up on Bensinger Street, aka SR-550, and shot the breeze while awaiting the event. And, almost on schedule, it began. The color guard was a little thin with only two marchers but then the rest of the participants began to pass by.
Of course there was a Grand Marshall, local fire department equipment and a few antique cars.
It turns out that the parade is a big event for the folks at Bay Cliff Health Camp. They stay in a number of large cabins and each cabin chose a theme for the parade and put together costumes and signs accordingly. They formed the core of the parade.
Because there are a lot of back country roads in the area they even have a couple of off road vehicles (OHVs) set up for emergency response.
One of the last events of the day was a rubber duck race. The venue was pretty tight but they made the most of it.
We spent the rest of the day wandering some of the local businesses and getting double scoops of ice cream at Huron Mountain Ice Cream. Bill got his in a waffle cone. Messy but delicious! Sandy wandered the beach at Burns Landing while Bill read under the gazebo.
And it wouldn’t be the 4th without hot dogs. We had ours with baked beans, potato salad and caprice salad. All-in-all it was a fun, neighborly Fourth of July.