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Home The U.P.
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Bike Week
It's one of those times you just kind of step back and throw a mental dart at the road map to see where it lands. Michigan's Upper Peninsula has many small towns that were once part of its historical mining and logging history. Many of them are located on the lakeshores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. So one day I'm looking at my map of the U.P. and I see this little town called Freda and think it might make for a nice ride on the bike. A little research on the Internet tells me it was a town created around one of many of Upper Michigan's copper stamping mills. The mills would take raw copper ore and turn it into high grade copper ingots which were then shipped to customers around the Great Lakes. This required grinding up the rock and required using a lot of water to separate the copper from other materials. The Copper Range Company built the Freda stamping mill below the big bluff in 1899. The company also built employee houses and most town facilities. In 1910 Freda had about 500 residents. I'm not sure how many are still left today, but the town has quite a few really nice little houses with well groomed front yards sitting on a hill above the plant ruins. The mill was finally closed in 1967 which surprised me. Somehow I had always thought these mining operations of closing down in the early 1900's. On our way to Freda took us through the City of Houghton. Not having been in Houghton for a few years, I decided to take a quick ride through the town. Houghton basically consists of two one way streets. Headed east you take the upper road which really doesn't offer much other than a look down the hill into town. Houghton is home to Michigan Tech University which is located on the east side of town. I was in Houghton during it's record snowfall year which topped 300" of snow. It was unbelievable how much snow fell that year. To get to Freda, I took Canal Road west out of Houghton. Riding along the Portage Canal my wife and I were impressed by how many different types of boats were out cruising its waters. It was long before we encountered Canal Road's own set of special bumps. I found myself constantly slowing down to cross over sections of the road have been cut out for some reason and replaced with 3-4' gravel crossways. About 4-5 miles up the road we finally came to a small sign saying Freda, so I turned left on what I believed was Liminga Road. At least that's what my map said it should be. A feeling of isolation is how my wife put it as we cruised past old farms, abandon buildings and then stretches woods. One just got the feeling if we broke down, we might be there for a while. Still every now and then we spotted indications that some people were managing to make a living in this remote section of the U.P. The road wasn't the greatest, but it was still a lot better then riding on gravel. About five miles up the road we road past the Town of Redridge or what is left of it. You know you're there because you pass by this old steel dam left over from the towns early mining days. Seeing a little turnout beside the damn site, I pulled the bike in near a cement marker which told of the dam's construction.
The turn around was soft sand so I had to muscle the bike over to some hard ground. Fortunately there were a few good rocks poking up through the sand and I was able to find something to put the kickstand on. I was going to walk down to the dam when I spotted all these little hand written signs saying keep out. Normally I would have ignored them, but a SUV pulled in behind us and not knowing if they were locals or not, I decided to skip it. Besides if I were to slip and fall, I don't suppose there was a doctor in town. Leaving Redridge behind us, the road became Freda Road and headed into the woods. Soon we were flying through some curves and small hills. I let myself get lulled into believing all the turns were the same and suddenly found myself in a 90 degree posted at 15 mph. There was a reason the curve had a guard rail. Had I been going any faster I'm sure my knee would have kissed the rail. It was deceptively sharp turn and I should have known better. Of course my wife made it know when we stopped that she didn't like it at all. One of the first things you see when you arrive in Freda is the tall smoke stack. As you ride the Keweenaw Peninsula,, you're going to see a number of them.
As we rode into town, I didn't really see a town sign or anything to tell you where to go. The town doesn't really have a main street that I could see. So we just started taking roads. After a couple of turns I wound up next to a little parking area where we could overlook the ruins of the old copper stamping mill. I parked the bike there and started taking pictures. After looking around, we discovered a little path down the side of a steep hill to the mill. Later my wife later found a paved road where we could have walked. Even though the entrance to the road was marked private. We had still not seen one person. Felt kind of creepy in a way. I really wish I could have met someone who'd lived and worked at the mill during its operation. I'd of paid for a little tour and explanation of some of the ruins we were looking at. As we walked around the ruins of the old mill, it seemed rather spooky for some reason. I had been to other old mining operations, but this one seemed different.
There were so many huge stone structures, many of which seemed like old ovens. Again, I thought to myself, how I wish someone would come check on us so I could ask a few questions. You could tell this was a place of fire and water just from the looks of things. I was sorry to find one area full of old appliances and garbage. The trash didn't look recent so that was good. I could see many of the concrete buildings were deteriorating fast now. With that thought I hollered to my wife to be careful. Near one large building I found a strange open hole to a 2-3' diameter tunnel heading down from one large concrete structure to another. As I stood there trying to imagine what it was, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe the ground under me wasn't so safe so I move on.
Walking around the place, it made me remember reading about old Mayan ruins. There was even his huge shaped bowl about 30' in diameter that caused my imagination to draw up some thoughts of human sacrifice. I couldn't help but wonder what its real purpose was. When I ride Upper Michigan's less traveled roads, I never know what to expect. Sometimes I get half way down the road and have to turn around. Other times, I find places like Freda waiting at the other end. It's part of what makes riding the U.P. fun for me. Freda is literally at the end of the road. The only way out is back is the way you came unless you have a dirt bike. Come to think of it, I'll bet dirt biking and ATV are pretty popular in this area. For those considering a ride to Freda, I didn't see a gas station after leaving Houghton, so make sure you're gas tank is topped off. Also the only restaurant in Freda looks like it's been closed for a while, so you might want to pack a few snacks in the saddle bags.
I never did see any kind of official town sign when we entered town so I took this picture on the way out of town. If you're all about riding the nice roads with lots of sweeping turns and flowing hills, then the road to Freda probably isn't for you, but if you're a bit of history buff or are just plain curious about what lies at the end of the road, then by all means take the ride to Freda. Oh, don't forget forget your camera.
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