Snail Shell Harbor

by Kris Rasmusson

Title

Snail Shell Harbor

Artist

Kris Rasmusson

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at the end of the Garden Peninsula and just west of Manistique is the ‘ghost town’ of Fayette. The old ‘iron town’ is officially part of Fayette State Park and was once an important center for the smelting of pig iron. The combination of iron mines, limestone, abundant wood, and the nearby shipping town of Escanaba made for a vibrant nineteenth century industrial town. Fayette Michigan was built-up by Jackson Iron Company and blossomed into a flourishing town with blast furnaces, charcoal kilns, shops, homes, and piers that jutted out into Snail Shell Harbor. But by the late nineteenth century it had become unprofitable to produce ‘charcoal iron’ and the once enterprising little town became one of the many ghost towns that dot the landscape of northern Michigan. I traveled to Fayette in October of 2011 with trusty medium format view camera on Gitzo tripod to tour the grounds and venture through the restored buildings with the goal of capturing the mystique of this favorite Michigan tourist destination. In this photograph the wood pylons that poke out of the waters of Snail Shell Harbor are all that remain of the town’s dock that once bustled with commerce. Making final lens tilt adjustments I peered out onto the bay and delighted in the mirror still waters and late afternoon sun that highlighted the towering limestone cliffs on the distant shores.

Uploaded

December 6th, 2012

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