Marquette sitesSep 20, 2009
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iron pellet loader
Marquette Lightstation
second loader - active or older?
Marquette is a busy little town on the shores of Lake Superior. Here is where I first saw an iron pellet loader and wondered what it was. I still want a big barge or ship to come in so I can see the iron pellets dropped into the hold of the ship, and how the ship gets that close to shore!
The lighthouse is still active and owned by the Coast Guard. If I wanted to get up close to it, I needed to pay an admission price and be escorted to it on weekends now, since it's after Labor Day. I found a place to get a decent picture of it and noted that it has a big multi-story house attached to it, telling me that it was occupied by multiple families.
There are quite a few parks in the town, and bike paths too. Oh, there is a campus for Northern Michigan University, explaining the busy-ness of the town. Lots of people were congregated at the west end of town, by the active pellet loader and power plant, and it looked like there were organized games on the beach for college kids. Past that was Presque Isle park, but it isn't on an island! There is a Presque Isle in Maine that I visited last year! They have a narrow one-way road through the park with lots of places to pull over and picnic or walk or just enjoy the view. At the entrance, I parked and walked their bog trail but didn't recognize cranberry bushes, if there were any. I didn't see that until I was leaving at the end of the day!
Visiting the town parks and bike riding was a pleasant way to spend a beautiful Sunday that was a bit cooler than summer, but not so cool I needed a jacket. Perfect!
