I attended Da Tech (Forestry) from 1972 to graduation (MS) 1978. In five of those years I saw snow flurries on 21 Sept. This was not necessarily the first snow of each season, but very close. In my first year, there were 100 days in a row that snow fell out of the sky. I remember wondering if I had made a mistake by coming to Tech. Even though winter is my favorite time of year, I do like a little sun now and then.
George Teachman ’76 & ’80 Forestry
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Sept 19, 1959 (might not have been that date) I arrived by bus from Green Bay at about 6:00AM my 1st time to campus, and walked in falling snow from bus drop-off to Wadsworth Hall
Bob Paddock, forester class 1961
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Oh yes! It was during the freshmen orientation week pajama parade in September 1956.
Joe Jenney ’60
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Actually the first snow of the season was often not as memorable sometimes as was the last. I can recall one year where we had enough snow in June to cover the ground, and this was after we had already had some very warm days in May.
John R. Baker, P.E. BSME ‘71
Irvine, CA
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When I was at Tech back in ’74 (or ’75) we woke up to about a half to one inch of snow on October 1st. I have a picture somewhere if I could ever find it.
Len Engler ’76
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I arrived in Houghton in June 1945, and heard numerous stories about Keweenaw snow. There was some precip in October and early November, but it melted/evaporated. I began to think that the stories were bogus…until Thanksgiving eve. Only a few of us stayed on campus through the holiday, and I remember vividly that it snowed non-stop for two days, and 50 inches accumulated. We didn’t see the ground until April or May, and I became a believer.
G J Sloan ‘48
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I remember the winter of 1978 when we set the record for snowfall in the area. It wasn’t the first sighting but the accumulation of many sightings, Ha… The campus was so clean and the maintenance crews worked so hard that year that you never really realized how much snow we truly got, but when you took a ride outside of campus you could actually walk up the snowbanks and onto the roofs of 2-story homes. There were literally walls of snow cut out to get into their garages. One of the elder locals by Calumet actually had a tunnel made to get into his home that had the usual wooden “walkway” built like a dock from his front porch to the road. The snow got so high that neighbors put wood over the top and strung lights inside, and the old man had his picture taken inside of the tunnel, and it was in the local paper. (The Keweenawen??) The best thing was that Tech only shut the school down for 1/2 a day as I remember. What a winter!!!! Fortunately I live in Farmington Hills now and am the proud recipient of another snow record this past year in 2014. You gotta love it!!! A proud MTU grad. Thanks for the memories!!
Joel Toupin
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My 1st Tech snowfall, was also my 1st ever snowfall. Not many people can remember their 1st snowfall, but I can. Since I grew up in the tropical Panama Canal Zone, it wasn’t until I was a 17-year old Tech freshman that I first witnessed a snowfall. Until that time, my only impression of snowfall was that of watching the movie Holiday Inn in an air-conditioned theater listening to Bing Crosby sing White Christmas.
It was probably the 1st week of November 1958, while in my Wadsworth Hall dorm room studying away about 8 p.m., when I heard a commotion in the hallway as my dorm-mates knocked on my door. C’mon Townsend, it’s snowing” Hurriedly in my jeans and T-shirt we raced outside. They were most curious as to how the kid from Panama would react to snow.
Not what I expected. Where are the big fluffy snowflakes? Where’s the background music? Instead, it was cold ice/snow pellets that stung your face. Attempting to form a snowball, my hands were soon freezing.
Several months later, after my dorm-mates had taught me about goulashes, mittens, and I had purchased a parka, and the snow now encased all of the Copper Country, I realized what a beautiful creation God makes. The full moon reflecting off the snow-drifts or the northern lights dancing above Mt. Ripley made me realize why my dorm comrades were so excited at the harbinger of the beauty to come. We had over 240 inches and about 40 days straight of snow that year. It was an unforgettable introduction for me.
Frank Townsend ‘62
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I remember my first Keweenaw snow sighting my freshman year at Tech in 1988. It was memorable because it was about September 20—right around the last official day of summer or the first day of fall. There were only a few flakes in the air for a few minutes, but I remember thinking, “really, snow in September?? What have I gotten myself into?” That year ended up being an above average year for snow-over 300 inches. Good thing that I love snow and cross-country skiing!
Mark Lathrop ‘92
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Not sure it was actually the first snow, but it is the one I remember. We were out behind the ROTC building rappelling and I looked west along the Portage and said, “look at the fog bank rolling in.” One of the upper classmen said “that’s not fog, that’s snow!” 10 minutes later we were rappelling in snow.
Lou Bartalot ‘71
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The first time I witnessed snowfall in the Keweenaw of any kind came in early September of 1956 when I, as a freshman, was sitting in the Union Building, I think, in the process of taking some kind of exam or filling out paperwork. I guess it had something to do with formalizing my student status. There is, of course, the possibility that I have, at my advanced age, forged two separate incidents together, but I prefer not to think so. Having been born and raised in Saginaw, I was no stranger to snow, but in the LP we normally didn’t see it until winter arrived. Although the snow was much more interesting than what I was doing, I guess I must have come up with enough correct answers to get admitted. The novelty soon wore off, of course, and by November we were struggling to get home for Thanksgiving through the blizzard that customarily strikes about that time every year. I believe that the Keweenaw has, historically, seen snow in every month of the year. My wife grew up in Hurontown and tells me that they experienced a snowfall on July 4th one year.
As a side note, we were up in your area at the end of September. The trees were absolutely gorgeous, particularly along US 41 in the proximity of the Keweenaw Lodge. Unfortunately my camera pooped out on me so I got very few pictures. I suppose I have enough “leaf” pictures already, but it’s hard to resist the call of the trees.
David Elack ‘ 60, Overgaard, AZ