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Fayette Historical State Park
 

Motorcycling across Michigan's Upper Peninsula offers up some great opportunities to experience some of its unique mining history.  Most of the attention is paid to the mining of copper on the Keweenaw Peninsula, but their is this little town called Fayette that had a lot to do with the production of iron.   Situated on the coastline of Upper Michigan's Garden Peninsula, its a town that I recommend for a road trip.

It's off the beaten path, but then most cool things to see in Upper Michigan are.  Fayette, a town of about 500 people, was once a very active industrial community that manufactured charcoal pig iron. The iron was then shipped by boat to steel companies around the Great Lakes.

You'll find Fayette located approximately 17 miles south of Garden Corners on Highway 183.  It's a ghost town now, but during Fayette's twenty-four years of operation, it's furnaces produced 230 thousand tons of iron.

So why ride to Fayette?  Well Fayette is an old mining town that undergone a major restoration project.  It's blast furnaces have been restore as well as many of its town buildings and while seeing these old blast furnaces and restored buildings is interesting,  it's really whole place that makes this ride worth doing.

Fayette sits on the edge of Lake Michigan and has a fantastic little harbor called Snail Shell Harbor.  As you gaze out over the blue waters of the harbor at Lake Michigan, there are these magnificent stark white limestone cliffs to your right.  Their tops cover with thick green foliage.  The harbor is a pleasure boat hangout with all kinds of sail and powerboats coming and going.  Every time I visit Fayette, I just want to bring a blanket and lay on the grass and just take it all in.

If you're camping, the park has a campground with about about 60 semi-modern campsites.  The last time I was there, the campground looked fairly full so if you're riding in during any major holidays you might want to call ahead.  As for motels, I'm not aware of anything close to Fayette so you might have to back track to Cooks and Garden Corners for rooms

There is one town farther south than Fayette called Fairport.  I haven't been there in years, so I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's taken the ride all the way down. 

It's all about the journey,

Dave Johnson
U.P. Cruising
grayrider@upcruising.com

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