Day 14: Marquette, MI - Big town, Big history

Getting the stink eye for waking him up

What I was expecting of our travels on Lake Superior to be, and what they have turned out to be are the total opposite. I was expecting lots of days of rough water with temperatures freezing! I think I brought half my winter closet! I also was envisioning it to be void of people and things to see. Boy, was I wrong. I should have known better, Ben has not steered me wrong yet.
So, as I feel like I've begun most of my posts, I'll let you know that the weather was glorious (again) on our run to Marquette (I hope I don't jinx us).

Our dock for the night

The city marina was really nice, great bathrooms/showers, laundry, coffee. It was close to town and a great park for Sawyer.

We arrived in under four hours giving us time to enjoy town.
If we thought Munising was a big, busy town than Marquette is huge! It is the largest city of the Upper Peninsula making it full of good food and shopping. The old buildings are made of sandstone either brownish in color (Marquette quarry) or found in redish (Jacobsville quarry) hues. After a fire destroyed much of the UP towns of Marquette, Calumet and Houghton, sandstone was chosen to rebuild these towns because it can withstand temperatures up to 800 degrees before cracking and breaking, it absorbs heat in the winter, and it is beautiful to boot.

We did not do a lot of shopping, just a lot of looking this time around. But...we ate great!

Great pork taco!

Marquette is a major port known for shipping mostly iron ore. There are iron ranges all around Lake Superior and close to 93% of the usable iron ore comes from this region (Minnesota and Michigan). 7 of the 9 mines in operation are located in Minnesota while the remaining two are in Michigan. Iron ore is primarily turned to iron and then iron is used to make steel. There are thousands of items made of steel, such as buildings, furniture, cars, bikes...etc. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Iron ore dock no longer in operation