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Then
Making dreams come true
by Deborah K. Frontiera
Lani and Tom Poynter have launched dreams before. Back in 1977, they began to restore the old Delaware Mine off US-41 in Keweenaw County and opened it to the public for tours. They added new things each year, working with limited resources, but always watching the dream grow into better and better reality.
But Tom has had another dream for even longer. While still in high school, he read a book called Lore of the Lakes by Dana Thomas Bowen, published in the 1940s, which now lies in a glass case in Tom’s new museum.
Tom was hooked immediately on the history of the Great Lakes, the shipwrecks, the importance of the lakes to early travel and trade, all of it. He knew then that someday he wanted to have a museum based on that theme. Many years later, with help and encouragement from several people and hundreds (perhaps thousands) of hours of sweat equity, that dream has become reality.
Lore of the Lakes Museum is located two blocks south of the intersection (blinking light) of M-26 and US-41 in Copper Harbor, and will open for visitors by the July 4 weekend.
How does a person accomplish a dream like that in today’s tough economy?
Tom had help and encouragement from friends. He went first to a group of people in Copper Harbor (which seemed like the ideal place to locate such a museum), among them Don Kauppi. They had begun a nonprofit group and tried to find some funding for the venture, but many sources of funding for nonprofits have dried up over the last few years. That group went nowhere. Tom didn’t give up; it’s obvious he’s got plenty of sisu. With the encouragement of the same group of people, and other friends in Florida where Tom and Lani spend their winters, he decided to make his dream a reality as a commercial tourist attraction.
An old, unused gas station stood two blocks south of the intersection of US-41 and M-26, and the Kauppi family, who owned the building, gave Tom free use of it.
“I tried to buy it at first, but Don insisted I use the building free until I got on my feet with the venture,” Tom said. “Eventually, I will pay for it.”
Tom’s first goal was to get the building looking good on the outside. That was followed by gutting and fixing up the inside. What used to be the gas station’s “retail” area is now the entryway for the museum—and eventually it will have a small gift shop. The old service bay holds the museum’s exhibits. Out front, on what was once the gas pump concrete pad, sits an 18,000 pound 1927 diesel engine from a tugboat that once hauled loads and guided ships through Portage Lake. It was built by the Kahlenberg (Wisconsin) company that built ship engines up until 1958, some for the Ranger III (the vessel that continues to take people from Houghton to Isle Royale National Park). One old Ranger engine is now in storage and eventually will have a home on display at Lore of the Lakes. Also out front is a large pool on which Tom floats his radio-controlled boats. Kids and adults will be welcome to operate these.
“It’s pretty cool,” Tom said. “I get to play with all my toys and share them with kids, and those who are kids at heart.”
Tom has a special talent for putting “junk” to new uses.
An enormous lighthouse makes the building hard to miss when one drives along M-26. It is a tribute to Tom’s ability to turn garage-sale and scrap-pile “junk” into treasures of a new kind. He took an old fuel tank and turned it upside down into a “cup” to form the main part of the lighthouse. The “inside” is accessible from the museum’s display floor. Right now, it is a storage closet, but eventually Tom will turn it into a display area with pictures of old lighthouses and perhaps a short video to introduce the idea behind the Lore of the Lakes Museum.
At the beginning of the summer of 2009, the inside of the building was nothing but a dirty garage. Vickie Tinder, a friend from Florida, came up for the summer. With her help, Tom was able to work on the interior full time, fixing the floor and walls, painting, etc. By July 4 the service bay display area was fixed, but empty. By August 26, Lani’s birthday, they held an open house showing off the first of the displays.
This year, it’s filled with displays, anything and everything relating to the lakes. The beacon light from a 1940s era lighthouse has been installed in one corner as if one is standing at the top of the lighthouse. Old bed frames—more of those garage-sale-finds used in new, creative ways—form the railing around the light house. Kids and adults can turn it on to watch the beacon turn and shine, experiencing just how dazzlingly intense such lights must be for ships to see them in the darkness of the night or a storm. Visitors also can blast a small foghorn.
Tom is working on a model of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which will present the history of that disastrous shipwreck. When complete, the model will be sixteen feet long.
Photos of ships and shipwrecks line the walls. The first thing a visitor sees upon entering is a real steamboat Tom found in Florida. Shortly before the turn of the nineteenth century, many of these small steam-powered boats took people and goods around small harbors and lakes. Then, after 1900, they were replaced with similar-sized boats with small gas-powered engines. Antique outboard gas motors are lined up along the wall next to the steamboat.
A semisubmersible craft sits in another corner. It was once used in Florida to watch manatees under water. Tom’s plan is to have it in a thirty-three-by-eighteen-foot water tank behind the building, which last year was a big mound of dirt and junk. There, an adult or a child will be able to enter through the hatch and use two levers to maneuver the craft as if it were a little submarine.
A shipwreck also will lie in that huge tank for the submariner to explore as if he or she were a researcher finding a real shipwreck. Tom hopes to have the tank built this summer and will allow visitors to watch the construction of this future exhibit, which he hopes to open for the 2011 season.
Other future attractions will include a circular train track with an engine large enough to ride. It will travel around the water tank and through a tunnel, which will one day contain mining displays. Other displays will appear under tent roofs behind the building. Eventually, a large roof will cover all of it, but dreams become reality one step at a time.
Tom is a dreamer who gives back to the community that has encouraged him. He hopes to develop the theme of boats and shipping throughout Copper Harbor. Presently, people tend to walk all around the area north of the blinking-light intersection of 41 and 26, but they rarely walk to the south.
Tom hopes to draw people from that center to the whole of Copper Harbor. To that end, he has built several large models of boats and ships (something he enjoys doing) and given them to other businesses. People can see his model ships decorating the Bela Vista Motel, King Copper Motel, Zick’s Bar and more. He calls it “Lakers on Parade” and hopes to place other models around town, with one up to twenty- to twenty-five-feet long. Self-guided signs will accompany these, but all that takes time.
Tom is glad to accept donations of old photos, motors, etc. and appreciates people’s generosity. The saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is very true for him. He’s a happy man whenever he is able to play with his toys, and make a few bucks while sharing those toys with others. His goal has been to provide affordable attractions where families can have fun together while they learn a little, and he has a long history of accomplishing his dreams on shoestring budgets.
What’s his next project? Besides continuing to develop the displays at Lore of the Lakes Museum, he and Lani are working on an ancient copper pit mine located on the Delaware Mine grounds. The site has been cleared and a trail leading to it developed. A rail fence has yet to be built. It was exciting, Tom related, when they found half of an ancient hammerstone while cleaning the area. He plans a display of artifacts and informational signs, but again, that takes time. Things always take longer than you think they will to get the job done right.
For details about the Lore of the Lakes Museum, the Delaware Mine and when the ancient mine pit will be open to visitors (hopefully late July), call the Delaware Mine at 289-4688.
—Deborah K. Frontiera
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