0:02 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things I'd heard about my next stop, Phoenix, Michigan, was that it was home to a well-known bridge troll. 0:09 [SPEAKER_01]: But instead of a bridge, it was a 148-year-old General Store. 0:14 [SPEAKER_01]: And instead of a troll, it was an 87-year-old woman who owned the store. 0:20 [SPEAKER_01]: And more or less lived in the front window, scallowing a passerby, and customers alike, as her one and only hobby. 0:32 [SPEAKER_01]: She'd been featured in an article in the Detroit Free Press in 2018, which focused on the upper peninsula. 0:39 [SPEAKER_01]: The article says, Our Buddhist Peterson owns Phoenix Store, an old-fashioned general store built in 1873. 0:47 [SPEAKER_01]: It's one of the few signs of life for miles along this northern stretch of U.S. 41, and they're key to an open peninsula. 0:55 [SPEAKER_01]: And for 11 hours a day, every single day, she's in that easy chair by the window. 1:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Not even leaving to take a break for lunch. 1:05 [SPEAKER_01]: I eat my lunch right in this chair, Mr. She snapped. 1:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Honoury is her default demeanor. 1:13 [SPEAKER_01]: She's well known for her attitude. 1:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Laf Troy Westcott, 54, a regular customer who owns her restaurant in nearby La Clabel. 1:22 [SPEAKER_01]: Another former mining town that relies on tourism. 1:26 [SPEAKER_01]: She's been sitting here since 73 for 365 days a year. 1:31 [SPEAKER_01]: My favorite quote from this article was from a man named Tom Chobanian, who lives up here with his daughter and survives by fishing, cutting wood, and scavenging copper. 1:45 [SPEAKER_01]: I love it. 1:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I love it. 1:47 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't even know. 1:48 [SPEAKER_01]: He said. 1:49 [SPEAKER_01]: I just love the peace and quiet, the wind blowing. 1:52 [SPEAKER_01]: You can't open up the door in a big city and piss out the back door, but here, can. 1:58 [SPEAKER_01]: If I were in Duncan, I might have joined Sir Tom to hear the soft wind blow, and to urinate off his back porch, and privately, but I was in Phoenix. 2:10 [SPEAKER_01]: so I was in our beauty's store for a refill on pop and also to see if she was as mean as the free press said she was. 2:19 [SPEAKER_01]: She was exactly where they said she'd be, up against the window in her chair, but she wasn't mean at all. 2:27 [SPEAKER_01]: She was quiet and reserved, but pleasant and even a bit friendly. 2:32 [SPEAKER_01]: In the story itself was cool, a little slice of early modern America, with coolers and cabinets, more than a hundred years old. 2:41 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lesson in this, if you give people a chance and treat them right, and also, if you buy $35 hoodie with a picture of this store in the front of it, they will more than likely surprise you with kindness. 2:57 [SPEAKER_01]: In that article, I saw another thing that made me think of my wrong turn in the Garden Peninsula. 3:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Further down their road from Tom's house, there's a Vietnam vent with two guard dogs in a deep mistrust of strangers. 3:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't go down there. 3:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Chubby and warned. 3:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Its possible that this is all that I was sensing in the dark woods near Fayette, a few heavily armed Vietnam veterans, with doomsday bunkers and land mines encircling their properties. 3:39 [SPEAKER_01]: It felt more sinister than that, but who knows? 3:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, our beauties mentioned another place I should see. 3:47 [SPEAKER_01]: In her son directed me across the street to the former Phoenix church, which appeared to be closed. 3:54 [SPEAKER_01]: I tried to door anyway, and it opened. 4:00 [SPEAKER_01]: and when you go inside, you can't really go inside. 4:04 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like a life-sized deorama, blast in at the entrance, and outfitted for the next Eucharist, which will never actually occur. 4:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Three wax figures stand along the center aisle, a priest, an altar boy, and a young girl dressed in white for her first communion. 4:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Basically, it's a ghost church, and a pretty good one. 4:27 [SPEAKER_01]: But the rest of the ghost town of Phoenix appears to have gone the way of Gregoryville, and even the spookiest former house of worship does not a ghost town make. 4:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Also, the Phoenix General Store is obviously alive and kicking. 4:42 [SPEAKER_01]: and being dead in the first place is quite a key part of this whole ghost town equation. 4:47 [SPEAKER_01]: As I was standing there, trying to figure out this weird miniature wax communion with spooky, cool or neither, my body tapped me on the shoulder, and in a language we all know, said to me, it's time, which is when I walked outside for the nearest bathroom and discovered the second 5:11 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm referring to, of course, to what is commonly known as an earth closet, a mud hut, a thunder prevailing, or you may call it an outhouse. 5:24 [SPEAKER_01]: It was here, with through a blessed miracle, unrivaled by the wonders of the shrine of lords, that I set a remorseless goodbye to two days' worth of pastries, then paid for that relief in a little donation box, with a handful of change. 5:39 [SPEAKER_01]: I should have erected a little altar somewhere inside that little two-seated chapel, with an inlet copper inscription of the little traditional prayer to the god of the parish. 5:54 [SPEAKER_01]: About five miles north of Phoenix, back near Lake Superior, is a small monastery, tucked away in the woods, with a bakery in front of it, where four devout men with beards had given up their independence, as well as a possibility of marriage and the pleasures of sex, all for the purpose of making you breakfast. 6:16 [SPEAKER_01]: it's called the jam pot and the line stretches around the front of the building. 6:22 [SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea where all of these people came from. 6:26 [SPEAKER_01]: The religious order responsible for the jam pod, if the society of Saint John, and I asked one of the monks to explain to us just briefly the nature of this affiliation which he gracefully agreed to do. 6:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Not two miles away on the same road as the jam pod was another jam place called the jam lady that looked abandoned. 6:48 [SPEAKER_01]: But the door said, open. 6:50 [SPEAKER_01]: So I let myself in. 6:51 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a red rotary phone at the front, and hundreds of jams, whining the walls. 6:57 [SPEAKER_01]: The cash register was a large coffee can with a broken lid, stuffed with cash. 7:03 [SPEAKER_01]: You did your own math, making your own changes needed. 7:07 [SPEAKER_01]: And then you left, if you wanted, you could just take free jam, or just the can of cash, that is, if you preferred spending eternity, boiling, and thimble berry pectin, which would be only the beginning of what you deserve if you steal from the jam lady. 7:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Really, some of the best jam I've ever had, and no I'm not just saying that, a blueberry, rhubarb combo, with blue wild berries. 7:33 [SPEAKER_01]: It spreads beautifully, and I regret not getting more. 7:38 [SPEAKER_01]: 20 minutes north of Kiwano's unofficial jam district are the remains of central mine, which is, I am pleased to say, an honest to God ghost town, it has industrial ruins, a ghost church, and a quaint little neighborhood of ghost homes, some of which you're welcome to explore. 8:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Central was the first profitable mine in Kielano, and also one of the first major mines to close, running only from 1854 to 1898, according to Monet, because of the great prominence of Cornish people in this community. 8:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Central Mine was referred to as Kielano's Duchy of Cornwall. 8:22 [SPEAKER_01]: or Little Cornwall. 8:24 [SPEAKER_01]: The corners were known for singing and their skips. 8:27 [SPEAKER_01]: In different musical parts, on their way in and out of the minds, like the whole whistle while you work five, but in real life, and without a whiff of irony, it sounds awesome. 8:39 [SPEAKER_01]: When that says, next to talking, the cousin Jack, a traditional name for Kornishman, loved to sing. 8:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Few had formal training, the volume was considered compensative to lack of polish. 8:51 [SPEAKER_01]: To translate, if you couldn't sing well, you better sing loud. 8:56 [SPEAKER_01]: The Cornish sang on the way to work and blended their song into choirs as the main heart took them down the shaft. 9:03 [SPEAKER_01]: It must have been quite an experience to hear the strains of rock of ages. 9:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Gradually fade as the singers were lowered underground. 9:11 [SPEAKER_01]: The old timers that sang at a central mine funeral can move a man with a heart of a stone. 9:16 [SPEAKER_01]: The Paulbearers carried the coffin between them. 9:19 [SPEAKER_01]: slung on strips of cloth, and the people left the church, and as the people left the church, the men began the dollarist words of nearer my God to thee, and continued through the verses until they reached the grave site, at Eagle Harbor Cemetery, until you heard the cornered singers, their rich, natural baritones echoing from the bluff back of central mine, and seen them stand 9:47 [SPEAKER_01]: You can't know how truly beautiful and dignified the burial service can be. 9:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Company housing, and central mine consisted of rose and small neighborhoods of primitive cabins, the little company belt log, or wood frame homes, did not contain many comforts. 10:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Employee homes were built cheaply, a coal heating stove was almost unknown, all used wood. 10:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Men sawed and split their own wood, and frequently had to first go out into the woods to cut down trees. 10:21 [SPEAKER_01]: The houses were poorly built. 10:23 [SPEAKER_01]: and outer or storm windows were unknown. 10:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Alfred Nichols stated the window pains during very cold weather, were commonly frosted, so that it became necessary to apply some heated substance such as a finger or a hand to a thawed little spot to peep through. 10:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Inventage monet fashion, the author would also like us to know that a more neighborly mining town, than central mine never existed. 10:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Every neighbor was a friend and time of joy or sorrow. 10:57 [SPEAKER_01]: The people who lived in Central gave more or less the same assessment. 11:01 [SPEAKER_01]: One former resident turned author into Alfred Nichols. 11:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Set of Central, it was a little world of its own. 11:07 [SPEAKER_01]: There was an easy natural and uneventful, such a charming simplicity was observed and everything until my latest breath, fondest memories were linger. 11:19 [SPEAKER_01]: From its opening in 1854, Central continued to grow and expand its profitability and in many ways. 11:27 [SPEAKER_01]: In 1872 was another good year. 11:31 [SPEAKER_01]: In his annual report, the company President, a man named Crane, noted that net earnings had doubled due to the rising price of copper. 11:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Huge amounts of so-called tribute copper were discovered in the coming years, price to high return. 11:47 [SPEAKER_01]: The only downside had been a sudden labor strike and finding replacements to pull all this cop out of the ground was temporarily difficult. 11:56 [SPEAKER_01]: He reassured his investors that this would be resolved in good time. 12:01 [SPEAKER_01]: It was what Crane didn't mention to the stockholders that was most striking about his report. 12:07 [SPEAKER_01]: On April 22nd of that year, 10 men died in an accident, similar to the one in red jagged. 12:14 [SPEAKER_01]: The local paper, the portage lake mining Gazette, of course, stayed covered this tragedy. 12:20 [SPEAKER_01]: In the article with the title, Slotter at the central mine, the article read, last Monday night, about 10 o'clock. 12:27 [SPEAKER_01]: 13 men employed in the central mine were descending from the surface to their labor in their skip car in number two shaft. 12:35 [SPEAKER_01]: When the rope broke, just after starting, and the car went crashing through the shaft, and the 50-fathom level, killing and mutilating, in a shocking manner, Thomas Bohn, William Barrett, Thomas Barryman, John Barryman, John Ivy, Jacob Gary, Philip Roberts, Thomas Champion, Thomas Campion, and Edward Thomas. 12:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Joel Eve was terribly mingled, and at our last advises from the mind was not expected to live. 13:06 [SPEAKER_01]: John Row, J.D. 13:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Pearch, and Edmund devise were not thrown from the car in its descent. 13:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Immoraculously escaped with a few bruises. 13:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Five of the men killed Lee family at the mine or in England. 13:20 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the first accident of any magnitude that has occurred at the Central Mind since the mind has been worked, and the gloom it has cast over the community there, is described as intense. 13:34 [SPEAKER_01]: I asked Dylan if investors cared about tragedies like this, if they felt any sense of responsibility to the well-being of the miners, or the ethical operation of the mines. 13:49 [SPEAKER_00]: In terms of the investors, it'll pretty much give me my money. 13:54 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't care what goes on with the mine. 13:56 [SPEAKER_00]: The mine captains themselves, they really had to have the balance, the corporate interests with maintaining the mine. 14:07 [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy for people hundreds of miles away to say, we want this done, we want this done. 14:14 [SPEAKER_00]: and we wanted to cost this much. 14:17 [SPEAKER_00]: The presidents, though, the people at the board of points, board members, that they let hand the reins, they're all for the most part in it to line their own pockets. 14:28 [SPEAKER_00]: But the investors for the most part, they took a very, very hands-on, 14:42 [SPEAKER_00]: interested in is that it was in fact operating and getting the money. 14:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Similar to Fayette, a number of the buildings in Central are open for you to explore. 14:53 [SPEAKER_01]: I took a video in one that irritatingly cuts off at the two minute mark before I made it up the stairs, but you get the general idea. 15:02 [SPEAKER_01]: After a few hours of wandering Central alone, without having seen another person for most of the day, I approached the visitor center. 15:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Just looking for human interaction, there were no cars in front. 15:14 [SPEAKER_01]: But I heard a murmur of voices as I approached the front door, as I opened the door, the voices grew louder. 15:21 [SPEAKER_01]: But when I stepped inside, I was alone. 15:25 [SPEAKER_01]: A video was playing in the back room. 15:27 [SPEAKER_01]: I quickly skimmed the handful of exhibits and went back to my car. 15:31 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the tough things in the U.P. 15:33 [SPEAKER_01]: this time of year is accommodations. 15:36 [SPEAKER_01]: On that day, everything was expensive or booked or a hundred miles away. 15:41 [SPEAKER_01]: And you can't really just hop on your phone to search for places because your phone doesn't work. 15:48 [SPEAKER_01]: So leaving central, I figured I'd just drive to the nearest living town. 15:53 [SPEAKER_01]: He'd go harbor about 20 miles away, in the hopes that something would be open, and if it was, I would pay the going rate. 16:01 [SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to really express just how spaced out everything is up here. 16:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Remember, if this were its own state, which is pretty large enough to be, it would be the least populated state in the Union. 16:14 [SPEAKER_01]: and without service, you just have to guess and go, which is really quite fun when you do find something, which I did in Eagle Harbor. 16:23 [SPEAKER_01]: At the back of the Harbor of the Eagle, looking out through the two prongs that partially enclose it, his flutcher's otter belly lodge. 16:30 [SPEAKER_01]: And when I pulled in, it can't fire was already burning on the motel beach. 16:35 [SPEAKER_01]: There was one restaurant within 20 miles, it was blocks away. 16:39 [SPEAKER_01]: I ate, planked, white fish, probably drink too much, and had too much pie. 16:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Afterward, I settled in with another drink at the fire, and it was very simply and liveening. 16:54 [SPEAKER_01]: I figured this must be what Lawrence of Arabia felt about every co-key ever had, in the Ripling Sands of the Negive Desert, I fell asleep on the beach. 17:07 [SPEAKER_01]: In my next episode, I'll be leaving Eagle Harbor for Copper Harbor at the northernmost tip of the Kibunal Peninsula.
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