0:04 [SPEAKER_01]: The day after leaving Copper County, I took the obligatory cruise of the pictured rocks national lake shore. 0:11 [SPEAKER_01]: It might be the one thing up here that people from outside the UP are likely to have heard of. 0:18 [SPEAKER_01]: In these open cliff faces, roughly 200 feet high are truly spectacular, but they are especially pictured in more ways than one. 0:27 [SPEAKER_01]: First, they have mineral stains covering their face, due to the huge amount of metal in the ground up here, there's red and orange from iron, blue and green from copper, brown and black from agonines, white from limonite and other colors. 0:42 [SPEAKER_01]: besides, the other way in which these rocks are especially pictured is by being some of the most photographed rocks in this part of the country with millions of gorgeous high-resolution images available online. 0:55 [SPEAKER_01]: So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, no I don't have any pictures of my own to share, that is the real genuine reason why I have no pictures from the boat. 1:06 [SPEAKER_01]: I promise it wasn't because I spent the entire cruise with my face, the collar of split piece soup, looking at the chipped paint on the steel deck beneath my chair, trying not to barfe. 1:17 [SPEAKER_01]: And I promised one of the deck hands didn't bring me a free pop out of pity and check on me like a dozen times, none of that ever happened. 1:26 [SPEAKER_01]: The photo thing was simply a curatorial decision. 1:30 [SPEAKER_01]: I made a judgment call based on the enormous photos you've seen already, as well as the billions of professional images of these rocks on Google. 1:38 [SPEAKER_01]: It had nothing whatsoever to do with my sudden unwavering commitment to filling little white baggies with more broiled fish and I could ever have possibly eaten. 1:50 [SPEAKER_01]: The one picture I did take after some deliberation was of the last lighthouse on the southern tip of the Grand Island. 1:58 [SPEAKER_01]: This is exactly the kind of dreaming northern coastscape you might come up here hoping to see. 2:03 [SPEAKER_01]: It's small and lonely and austere and the water this far north has a bright clear almost Caribbean blue. 2:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Random fact about this lighthouse, the last keeper ever stationed here, raised 12 children in this little brown building on the edge of the channel. 2:20 [SPEAKER_01]: I just can't even imagine. 2:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Along with 1,786,543 other images of these rocks you can find online. 2:31 [SPEAKER_01]: There are also videos of portions of the cliff face, calving like a melting glacier. 2:37 [SPEAKER_01]: It's rare, but in this day and age, it's inevitably been captured a number of times. 2:43 [SPEAKER_01]: In my favorite of these, you can hear a man in a pontoon having a full on panic attack when the wake starts to reach the boat. 2:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't worry, he's fine. 2:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Because of the two-hour crews in a brief light-out in the back of my truck, I missed the great like shipwreck using them that evening by 10 minutes. 3:05 [SPEAKER_01]: All I have with my visit is to rather uninspired photos of the outside that we'll just have to do. 3:11 [SPEAKER_01]: As far as the experience itself goes, I have it on good authority from John S on TripAdvisor, that the museum boasts, quote, very well-maintained grounds, very helpful staff, in quote, in from Steve K, quote, the museum is cool but small, in quote. 3:40 [SPEAKER_01]: There have been roughly 10,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, including the legendary Edmund Fitzgerald. 3:46 [SPEAKER_01]: You've probably heard the Gordon Lightfoot song. 3:49 [SPEAKER_01]: The bell from this frader, raised from the shipwreck in 1995 from a depth of 530 feet, is currently on display in this museum, I'll have to see it next time. 4:00 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm able to see at this time, I drove ahead to nearby Paradise, Michigan, where I was greeted by a scrolling sign on the front of my motel. 4:08 [SPEAKER_01]: which run, welcome to Paradise, no vacancy, which had occurred to me in that moment, was probably what Osama bin Laden heard shortly after a Navy seal installed a copper county ventilation shaft in the middle of his forehead. 4:25 [SPEAKER_01]: but also occurred to me in that moment was that I probably should have booked ahead. 4:29 [SPEAKER_01]: The cheapest rooms within 40 miles were $289, as far as I could tell, completely booked out. 4:37 [SPEAKER_01]: But after our day of rain, the temperature dropping 25 degrees I was not going to camp. 4:43 [SPEAKER_01]: So I checked one last place before leaving town for the nearest open room. 4:48 [SPEAKER_01]: I must have looked terrible because the kind woman of the desk, Jamie, 4:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Not only offered me the last open room and paradise, but also gave it to me for a one time deal of 39, 99. 5:02 [SPEAKER_01]: By that point, nothing else and town was open. 5:05 [SPEAKER_01]: And after learning this the hard way, I returned to the motel, and asked Jamie if she knew where I could find a hot drink. 5:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Even just a microwave for a cup of hot water. 5:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Nope. 5:17 [SPEAKER_01]: But after 10 minutes later, she knocked on my door with a styrofoam cup, and some tea bags. 5:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Suggesting the water might get hot enough in my bathroom sink. 5:27 [SPEAKER_01]: For tea, it didn't, but plus you Jamie, I made a cup anywhere. 5:36 [SPEAKER_01]: I left her cash in the room, as I thank you for everything. 5:40 [SPEAKER_01]: In just two days ago, I received a handwritten note in the mail. 5:45 [SPEAKER_01]: The following morning I drove to Parkwamanon Falls State Park. 5:49 [SPEAKER_01]: This is a native word that might mean Lost River Island. 5:53 [SPEAKER_01]: or river with an island part way, and it looks literally and pronounceable. 5:58 [SPEAKER_01]: But, as I learned from a sign within the park, one easy way to get it right is to remember that it rhymes with phenomenon as in, Ta-Kwamanan. 6:08 [SPEAKER_01]: These falls are the most well known in the Upper Peninsula, and they're split around a large island in the middle of the river. 6:15 [SPEAKER_01]: I thought it'd be a great idea to record the falls for this episode. 6:19 [SPEAKER_01]: As it turns out, they sound like snow on your TV set, from back when you might flip to a channel that you didn't get on an antenna. 6:37 [SPEAKER_01]: But that was the upper tequamanon falls. 6:41 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the lower. 6:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry guys, they can't all be winners. 6:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Leaving the falls, I'd like to take a moment to say that you should never underrate the pleasure of meeting new people on a trip like this, especially in places like this, public parks, scenic lookouts. 7:09 [SPEAKER_01]: and any kind of preserve. 7:11 [SPEAKER_01]: These are families who spend their free time in money and energy to come out into nature for no other reason they into appreciated. 7:18 [SPEAKER_01]: These are often people who laugh easily, drink casually and happily, and spend minimal time on their hairdo's. 7:26 [SPEAKER_01]: They often have trucks or vehicles they treat like trucks. 7:29 [SPEAKER_01]: And by their mere appearance in these remote parts, at the end of obscure dusty under-provisioned roads, you know they're willing to suffer and post-pone gratification and exchange for something pretty and natural and pure. 7:43 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you have trouble making friends, or are reluctant to visit alone, I can guarantee a three-step method for connecting with strangers in places like this. 7:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Step 1. 7:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Find something that interests you. 7:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Step two, turn your face until you see another human face, a face which is not directed at a device and is roughly the same height as your own and ask them about this thing but interest you. 8:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Step three, just kidding, there is no step three, that was all of it. 8:19 [SPEAKER_01]: you would be amazed to discover how effective this is, so long as you're genuinely interested in willing to listen. 8:26 [SPEAKER_01]: You can ask about restaurants or wildlife or the burial place of the nearest Native American chieftain. 8:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Your question just needs to be sincere and you must be present, like really, truly present. 8:37 [SPEAKER_01]: I've made hundreds and hundreds of friends in this way, most of whom, after parting, that shared field of discovery I've never seen again, an on-witch trivial, entirely accidental count, I cherished them nonetheless. 8:51 [SPEAKER_01]: I made four more such blood brothers in the parking lot of the Tarkwomen on Falls, a day after first crossing paths on a lookout over top the miners castle, in the pictured rods. 9:03 [SPEAKER_01]: I'll never forget you Madison, the two darles. 9:06 [SPEAKER_01]: or you either, man who is a former government employee in the state of West Konson, gently polishing his Harley with a yellow cloth and skipping town because his friends all had the Delta variant. 9:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Good luck and Godspeed. 9:24 [SPEAKER_01]: At the beginning of the series, I said the upper peninsula was projected by science digest to be the best place to live in America in the year 2100. 9:34 [SPEAKER_01]: It's true. 9:35 [SPEAKER_01]: In the town they singled out above all others, and their analysis was the small border city of Salt State Marie. 9:42 [SPEAKER_01]: You can watch their official video on our social media. 9:45 [SPEAKER_01]: It's about a minute long, and I apologize for the music. 9:50 [SPEAKER_01]: When it comes to border towns, it doesn't get any more border than Salt say Marie, half of it, is in Canada. 9:58 [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of like Kansas City, but instead of being in two separate states, it's in two separate countries. 10:04 [SPEAKER_01]: So you need your passport to cross town. 10:07 [SPEAKER_01]: The city was founded in 1668, making it three years older, and said Ignis. 10:13 [SPEAKER_01]: The third oldest, continuous settlement in the United States. 10:17 [SPEAKER_01]: The current border is a result. 10:18 [SPEAKER_01]: of the limited but consequential war of 1812, which actually lasted three years until 1815. 10:25 [SPEAKER_01]: In 1814, the White House and the Capital Building in Washington were burned by the British. 10:33 [SPEAKER_01]: In naval battles, rage to do great lakes, and post war negotiations, a fixed border was established between the United States and Canada. 10:43 [SPEAKER_01]: And since that time, this city has been 10:49 [SPEAKER_01]: According to science digest, in the year 2100, salt-samerie has it all, a more moderate climate, fresh water, geographical protection from things like hurricanes, disease-carrying mosquitoes, extreme heat, forest fires, tornadoes, and rising oceans. 11:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Places that do not have it all, of the end of the centuries punishing Earth's science Olympiad, 11:14 [SPEAKER_01]: The cultural and ecological thunderdomes of Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York City. 11:22 [SPEAKER_01]: But for now, Salt Samarie is a typical, rust belt municipality, the third largest city in the U.P. 11:30 [SPEAKER_01]: with the population of 13,000 people. 11:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Think the city of Pittsburgh, put the size of a really large neighborhood. 11:43 [SPEAKER_01]: In place of all the resting bridges, zippered across the three rivers, picture one massive water bridge with four lanes, connecting two of the largest fresh water lakes in the world. 11:55 [SPEAKER_01]: The water gateway of Salt Samarri is the industrial choke point for all travel across the northern Great Lakes, each year more than 10,000 ships and freighters pass through this bridge, 12:15 [SPEAKER_01]: This water bridge is called the so-locks, like Sultse Marie, but spelled S-O-O and locks, like the locks on your door. 12:26 [SPEAKER_01]: The problem with this connecting point in the Great Lakes water system was that Lake Superior on the left. 12:33 [SPEAKER_01]: is much higher than like you're on on the right, so the space between them used to be a sudden 21 foot drop that no ship could sail through, so they installed a kind of sealed waiting room between these lakes where water levels could be adjusted to fit either side because these locks are so unique and difficult to explain. 12:54 [SPEAKER_01]: I asked Audrey one of the guides 12:59 [SPEAKER_01]: I also filmed the Center's official video on the subject, which is only 45 seconds long, and apparently animated by the designers of the classical computer game, Oregon Trail. 13:11 [SPEAKER_00]: It has a boat to produce the logs from the upper end, but selling them out with a local lock door is open to end the chamber and is able to be disappearing above. 13:20 [SPEAKER_00]: When the gate's open, the boat enters the chamber. 13:24 [SPEAKER_00]: The gate closes behind the boat. 13:26 [SPEAKER_00]: The ceiling valve is closed and the empty valve at the lower end of the opens. 13:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Gravity alone causes the water to flow out, lowering the water in the chamber to the lake here on the level. 13:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Once the water level in the chamber and the lower river are the same, the gates open and the boat continues on its way. 13:47 [SPEAKER_01]: From an engineering perspective, the locks are really, really cool. 13:52 [SPEAKER_01]: From a spectator's perspective, they are really, really slow, like watching a giant bathtub fill and empty out again. 14:00 [SPEAKER_01]: And due to so much public interest in the operation of this engineering marvel, the corpse has constructed a two-tier glass viewing platform for visitors. 14:09 [SPEAKER_01]: For all that South said Marie may not have today, it has this one thing that literally no one else has. 14:16 [SPEAKER_01]: The so-locks are so important to the U.S. economy that they're operated maintained and guarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 14:26 [SPEAKER_01]: To visit, you enter a tiny military compound. 14:30 [SPEAKER_01]: On a side note, Ernest Hemingway once called St. Mary's River, this international border dividing Salt St. Marie, the best place in the world to fish for rainbow trout. 14:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, I was not able to stick around to find out. 14:45 [SPEAKER_01]: After the locks, I got back in my truck and drove south to revisit one of my favorite U-Protowns. 14:51 [SPEAKER_01]: 350 year old, St. Ignis. 14:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Before I crossed back over the bridge, I made one last stop at my new favorite food truck, the Gateway City Grudge. 15:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Just by looking at it, you would not think it was the best restaurant in the Upper Peninsula. 15:07 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that it is, but it's in the conversation. 15:11 [SPEAKER_01]: I've had the blueberry hate stack burger, bread pudding, real french fries, 15:16 [SPEAKER_01]: in an ice cold diet squirt, all of which I ate overlooking the streets one last time. 15:22 [SPEAKER_01]: 80 years from now, the things that make the upper peninsula, unlikely destination, may be the very things that make it an apocalyptic oasis. 15:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet all those potential advantages are still challenges today. 15:36 [SPEAKER_01]: It remains a love or hate a type of place. 15:39 [SPEAKER_01]: I'd encourage you, if you like lonely. 15:42 [SPEAKER_01]: out of the way places to go in person and see which it is for you, and all you early adopters out there. 15:49 [SPEAKER_01]: You venture capitalists, doomsday preppers, and NFT holders why not fast forward your lives to the year 2100s. 15:57 [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get this land rush started, according to the scientists it's going to happen anyway.
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