About the Waterfall Project
This waterfall project started on my 23rd birthday as a simple trip. When Katie first started dating, we would occasionally go on adventures to different waterfalls in the area, including Lower Silver Falls and Hungarian Falls. I decided to be a bit adventurous on my birthday and visit Lower Montreal Falls as well as a few smaller falls along the way. After the trip, I decided that it would be a fun summer project to visit every waterfall in Keweenaw County in the summer of 2008. This turned into all the waterfalls north of the Portage, then the everything in Houghton & Keweenaw County, then everything within a fifty mile radius. It wasn't until a few months after this idea that I realized that one summer wouldn't be enough for this goal.
There were literally hundreds of different waterfalls in my final project, though most of them can be grouped into sets or are within walking distance of each other. Some named drops are mere inches in height while unnamed and relatively unknown falls are dozens of feet high. There were times when I wandered hours through thick woods and swamps to find that I was in the wrong quadrangle all together, which made for a rough afternoons but awesome stories. Using only what information I could find on the internet, especially topo maps, I created a long list of adventures to check off and add to as my radius increased.
There was something that I found revitalizing about wandering through the woods alone (or with my dog, Logan) for hours without trails, compass or GPS and finding a waterfall that I never found photographic evidence of online. We spent most of our time on forestry and state land, but occasionally found ourselves on private property. Taking only photos and leaving behind footprints and paw prints was standard on all of our trips, though we usually took any litter that we saw back out of the woods.
From the Keweenaw Peninsula in the north, Porkies in the west, and Yellow Dog Plains in the east, each new trip brought new sights and stories to my summer. Even after being lost on Mulligan Plains, spending a cold night in the Tama Siding swamp, and sliding down thirty feet on a hard slate cliff, I can't imagine a better way to spend a summer. I created this site so that others might also enjoy the beautiful country in the Keweenaw Area, and hope that future adventurers will enjoy and respect the land as much as I have.
Some helpful links...
Steve's Waterfall Page upwaterfalls.com
Powerful Google maps mashup mapper.acme.com