Not just anywhere

I’ve been in the Copper Country for more than a week now.  I’ve been spending time with family and friends as well as attending meetings.  I have a pretty good sense that this project will continue for years to come.  That excites me to no end.  While I am here, I am re-familiarizing myself with all of the other historic sites in the area.  Have I mentioned that this park operates in an interesting collaborative way.  There are 22 different sites to visit.  The park offers help with accessibility and interpretation to them all although they are under various types of management.  I look forward to working with them all!

It's interesting to be a tourist in the area where you grew up.  I’ve talked to so many people that have never visited some of these places.  I typically exclaim “But they are right out your back door!”  It’s funny how when you know it’s there and have a general sense of what it’s all about you might think there is nothing left to learn. You may not even think that anyone else out there would appreciate it.  Here, where there was almost a 50-year window of loss and decay at mining sites, many people whose lives once depended on them don’t care very much about the renewal of the mine sites as tourist attractions and places of learning.

My friend Wendy, superintendent of the Keweenaw National Historical Park uses this as a signature footer in her email:  "If you bulldoze your heritage, you become just anywhere." (--Sarah Delano, New Bedford).  It is so true!  What do you have to show for the work of the bygone generations if we just re-develop everything.  I’m a lover of historic buildings and it has been a pleasure and a pain to restore the old house that my husband and I have owned for 14 years.  It is a labor of love that will allow the house to stand for at least another 50 years (It’s 119 years old, as of now). 

I believe that we need to care more about land.  This land that has provided for us.  The places where our ancestors farmed to feed themselves and their community.  Where fish are caught not just for sport but for sustenance.  Respect what has come before and acknowledge the hard work of more difficult times.  In our age of instant gratification, respect the bread rising, the seed germination and the fruit ripening.

In year 2 of this project, I am analyzing how to make our process easier, how to time things better and simplify.  We will get the 5 silhouettes stood up in this coming week if it kills me…  Nah, it won’t kill me, but if this rain keeps up any longer, we might be pushing our schedule. 

Many thanks and soggy hugs to any one still reading!