Superiorland Yesterdays

Jun 24, 2023

Aug 4, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference desk staff at Peter White Public Library.

30 years ago

ISHPEMING – It’s official: The state will erect a traffic light on U.S. Highway 41 at Lakeshore Drive this summer. The Michigan Department of Transportation notified the city Monday that a recent study of traffic at the intersection shows it warrants a traffic signal instead of the existing flashing light, City Manager John Korhonen said. The City Council asked for a traffic light because the number of businesses in the area has increased over the last year. Previous MDOT studies did not show a need for a light. The city and state will split the $2,500 project cost of the light, he said.

60 years ago

ST. IGNACE – Division Plant Engineer Douglas Hartz of Marquette watched intently as an underwater telephone cable was hoisted out of the chilly depth of the Straits of Mackinac recently. Almost 35 years ago, in the fall of 1928, he had helped lay this cable between Michigan’s two peninsulas. Hartz was then a 19-year-old testman. Also keenly observing the operation was Splicer Ray McCloskey of Escanaba, who at that time was 18 and had assisted in splicing the cable into a span of nearly four miles. Earlier this year, after being battered by the ice of 35 harsh winters, only half of the original 54 cable pairs still could be used. Tests had pinpointed much of the trouble at the first splice 2,100 feet off the St. Ignace shore and Hartz had recommended that repairs be made. Before the work could be started, the cable had to be lifted from the lake bed and laid across a barge hired especially for the job. And since the cable would be out of service during repairs, a portable microwave system had to be set up temporarily to help keep the communications channels across the Straits at full capacity. Even after its many years beneath the water, the splice was still bone dry. But the strain of weather had so loosened wire ends that it was necessary to replace the splice. So that ice and storms wouldn’t be able to separate the wires a second time, a special submarine splice case was clamped to the armor on each side of the splice. Today the dependable old cable is once again the primary communications link across the Straits.

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

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