Notes from the host
Keweenaw Acres Vacation Home Close to cross-country skiing
Guests love all the special qualities of the house interior, the great views, the abundant wildlife, and the private location. Located in the center of the Keweenaw Peninsula, but only a half mile from US-41 and 12 easy miles to Houghton. This is the most scenic and snowy area of Michigan! The house is very private and you have access to 40 acres of rolling fields and woods, including a bass pond with a canoe and picnic area. Over a mile of walking/biking/skiing/snowshoeing trails. Go to bottom of description to see the trail guide highlights numbered on the photo. (No direct access to snowmobile or ORV trails from the house).
Open all four seasons, fall colors are amazing. Hunting is allowed on the property with my permission. There are 200 blueberry plants fruiting throughout August, wild strawberries in abundance, pears, raspberries, blackberries, and apples. Strawberry and blueberry U-pick farms are a short distance down the quiet county road.
The house interior is charming and retains the character of the old farm house although thoroughly modernized. Classic old cabinet and room doors were retained as were some hardwood floors. Custom wood paneling is throughout the house including a cedar bathroom, a knotty pine front porch, and a master bedroom with rich black ash paneling. View stars or northern lights out the skylight over the bed. There is a fine sound system with upstairs and downstairs speakers that can be used with the TV or your phone. Fast fiber wireless.
There are three bedrooms with queen beds, two family rooms, a sunroom with an jetted spa tub, an insulated porch with a single bed, and two full baths, one with a shower and the other with a claw foot tub. There is a washer dryer in the basement. Outdoors there is a large walkout deck. Indoor amenities include a fireplace, premium streaming TV, stereo, DVD, dishwasher, games, puzzles, and quite a library for all ages.
The large windows upstairs and down offer ten-mile sunset vistas of the Keweenaw Ridge with almost no human development in sight. Walk in privacy through the fields or on the marked trail loop through the woods. Great wildlife watching out the big windows with lots of deer, turkeys and large sandhill cranes walking through the fields. Raptors, herons, geese and ducks cruise over and visit the pond. Listen for owls at night. Winter is a special time since we average 20 feet of snow annually. Nearby are snowmobile trails and Alpine and Nordic skiing. Snowshoes, sleds, and sledding hills are provided.
A large spring-fed pond wraps around a small peninsula, canoe and lifejackets are provided. Catch and release smallmouth bass fishing. A fine place for kids to catch their first fish. Near the pond is a shaded picnic area. Have a campfire there and maybe you'll get lucky with the northern lights (hint, stay up late).
The historic twin cities of Houghton-Hancock are 12 miles away with two colleges, shops, museums, galleries, restaurants, microbreweries and a waterfront Chutes and Ladders park. The Ojibway Casino is 15 minutes south. The South Portage Entry Lighthouse at Lake Superior is within a mile.
Firewood is not provided. The Jacuzzi spa is perfect for couples but not private for larger groups. The sauna burned down in spring 2023 and will not be rebuilt.
Mosquitoes and ticks roam the grounds in spring and summer. A flea and tick collar for the dog is a good idea. Cluster flies and Asian lady beetles can invade the house outside and inside at times. An included lightweight vacuum is the best control inside. Ask me if you have questions.
Keweenaw Acres Trail Map Legend
Highlights and History
Safety – The path around the blueberries and dam have been mowed for years and are largely free of trip hazards, suitable for all uses including bicycle. The field paths may have some recently mowed small saplings. The woods trail is marked with orange flagging throughout and will have some logs across the trail.
1. The original house was built in the 1930’s of recycled lumber from the Klingville boarding house for peat workers at the end of the road. The Piggotts had dairy cows, chickens, and mowed the fields for hay. Only two of five apple trees remain from their time, I planted four others in 2024. We also enjoyed two cherry trees for many years, gone now. The attic and front porch were unfinished. The kitchen sink looked out over a small back porch and the field beyond. I bought the house in 1982, and built the large west end addition. I also removed the arch between the small living room and dining room, remodeled the attic into the master bedroom, and insulated and paneled the front porch. One of my first additions was the sun room.
2. Look north out the office window or the deck and you will see a large American chestnut; there are about 6 more that have grown from blight-free saplings I planted in the 1980’s. Look at this one and see if you can spot the others, marked on the map. This region is blight-free so these spectacular trees will survive. The house was built this far back from the road because of the year-round spring in the bottom of the gully near the chestnut. I used the wonderful spring until my well was dug about 10 years ago.
3. The site of the old chicken coop became my garden for many years. Can you see the old wagon wheels at the edge of the woods?
4. Medium sized chestnut tree
5. This slightly raised area is the site of the old barn. For many years I patched the roof but the foundation splayed with winter freezes. In the late 1980’s the barn and the old garage were demolished and burned in a spectacular winter fire. I kept chickens, turkeys, and a couple of geese (Avery and Helen) in the buildings. The new garage is on the same site as the old garage and was built in the early 1990’s.
6. Four smaller chestnuts line the driveway, can you spot them? I planted the row of red pines next to the drive in the early 1980’s as a windbreak to keep blowing snow from filling in the drive. Filbert-hazelnut hybrids were planted between the pines, some still survive.
7. I planted a butternut tree in the 1980’s on the left. Every year it froze at the snow level and re-sprouted in the spring. During the last decade, these deep freezes no longer happened and the tree grew taller. Unfortunately, a handyman mistakenly cut it down but the sprouts keep coming.
8. On the right of the trail is a hybrid chestnut, this tree was also cut down but is re-sprouting well.
9. My MS degree research focused on developing a blue and white spruce hybrid for the Christmas tree industry with the fast growth and soft needles of white spruce combined with the rich color of blue spruce. These fence line trees were surplus from the project and planted in 1980. For the 1976 bicentennial, my professor, James Hanover, developed a red, white, and blue hybrid spruce that still grows on the US Capitol lawn. (Yes, it is green).
10. Also planted in the 1980’s were 200 blueberry bushes. They produce an amazing abundance of blueberries every August. Depending on the season, look for wild strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries in the field.
11. My goal was to turn this farm organic and raise fruits and vegetables. I grew two acres of organic broccoli in this field but I received no premium for the vegetables. I later built a 100’ X 30’ greenhouse behind the house and grew 250,000 broccoli and cauliflower plug transplants annually for a few years until a full time job and children happened.
12. The small pond behind the peninsula was used mainly for keeping suckers for lake trout bait by the Piggotts. I hired a bulldozer artist to build this expansion in the early 1990’s. For years I planted trout, which we treated like a chicken coop for dinner. To be more self-sustaining I stocked 40 bass around 2012. At that time, guests had earlier released bait suckers and the pond was full of them. We used the large plastic pipes under the garage shed and siphoned all the water out of the pond to start fresh. The bass have done well reproducing and I hope no one else will release any living thing into the pond! When the pond was dug, a handful of trees were left standing in the center of the pond on a sunken island. The first winter I cut them off to create the foundation for a triangular sauna with a diving deck reachable on foot in winter, or by swimming or canoeing. It lengthened the swimming season and was great fun. It tipped into the water in 2010 and was lifted out with a marine crane and placed on a foundation near the picnic area where it lasted until a fire in 2023. In early winter with no snow the pond makes a wonderful ice rink. Sledding is possible off the dam when snow becomes deep.
13. On the left a short distance after entering the woods, there is a large American chestnut. The woods trail is not suitable for skiing or biking.
14. The picnic area is a great shady spot during the day and can host an awesome campfire at night under the stars.