Discovering the U.P. broadcasted their 80th episode on TV 6 last night. The episode shared the 5-year partnership between the Chassell Heritage Center, the Michigan Technological University Social Sciences, the Keweenaw Time Traveler, Chassell High School and a dedicated group of volunteers that brought about the creation of the Chassell Heritage Trail.  The trail shares the, often overlooked, story of the lumber milling operations in Chassell.  The Keweenaw Time Traveler not only helps guests visualize the former mill landscape through historic maps, but also works ..read more

Students in the Department of Social Sciences study away program in Detroit collaborated with community partners in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood of the city.  Students produced 4 storymaps that highlight the history, sustainability, and resilience of the neighborhood as it has grappled with racial segregation, urban renewal, and climate change induced flooding. Click on the link below to explore these storymaps, watch live presentations on the area's history, and learn more about the neighborhood: Explore the History of the Jefferson Chalmers Neighborhood The Detroit S ..read more

This Saturday the Keweenaw Time Traveler team attending MakerFest 2024: Making in Progress. This fun and family friendly event was hosted by Superior Fab Lab in the Houghton High School complex. The Keweenaw Time Traveler was one of the 21 featured makers from across the Copper Country that shared their crafts at the event. Guests could learn everything from how to make guitar FX pedals, knit and crochet, how to operate a letter press and even how to grow their own mushrooms at home through interactive exhibits.  Over seventy people stopped by the Keweenaw Time Traveler booth and explor ..read more

The Keweenaw Time Traveler attended this year's regional History Competition held at Michigan Technology University. The Michigan History Day Competition encourages students across the state to explore history from both local and global scales and prepare a variety of exhibits that share what they learned. Students from across the Western Upper Peninsula can create documentaries, historical performances, exhibits and websites and enter the regional competition sponsored by the Michigan Technological University Social Sciences Department and the Michigan Tech Archives. This year all of the ..read more

Members of the Historical Environments Spatial Analytics Lab presented recent scholarly work at the Social Science History Association meeting in Washington DC this week.  Senior Research Associate and Community Outreach Coordinator James Juip presented his most recent work on meaningfully engaging public stakeholders in deep mapping projects. James discussed the value of engaging the public Historic Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) projects for researchers and community members alike. He presented his newly created methodological framework for both measuring and creating ..read more

This past Saturday, Michigan Tech Industrial Archaeologist and Time Traveler Team member Dr. Dan Trepal staffed a table at his year’s annual Archaeology Day event, hosted by the Michigan History Center in Lansing. Dr. Dan Trepal showcased the Keweenaw Time Traveler and Michigan Technological University Social Sciences department’s graduate and undergraduate degree programs, and a brand-new project based in Hamtramck.  After a great day interacting with visitors in Lansing, Dr. Dan Trepal traveled to Hamtramck the following day to join colleagues from the Hamtramck Historical Museum and ..read more

Over the past year the Hamtramck Historical Museum, Wayne State University, and the Keweenaw Time Traveler team in Michigan Technological University's Geospatial Research Facility, with generous financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, have been working hard to bring Time Travel to Hamtramck. The Hamtramck Historic Spatial Archeology Project (HHSAP) brings together a catalog of historic artifacts, photos, and records contextualizing them with historical maps. HHSAP uses digital data infrastructure methods, originally developed and implemented by the Keweenaw T ..read more

The Keweenaw Time Traveler was honored as a State History Award winner in the website category for the year 2023. These awards are presented annually by the Historical Society of Michigan (HSM) to organizations and people that have made 'outstanding contributions to the appreciation, collection, preservation and/or promotion of state and local history' (HSM Announcement). The award will be formally presented at the Michigan History Conference which will take place in the Roscommon-Grayling area on September 22-24, 2023.  The Keweenaw Time Traveler would like to take this oppo ..read more

Yesterday TV 6 Reporter Colin Jackson met Dr. Don Lafreniere, Ph.D. Candidate James Juip and Chassell Historical Organization President Keith Meyers to discuss the grand opening of the Chassell Historic Trail. Work on the trail was extensive. It involved historical research and site archeology done by members of the Michigan Technological University Social Sciences Department. Chassell Township School students helped design the interpretive signs based on this research. A generous grant from the John and Melissa Besse Foundation made this work possible.  The Keweenaw Time Trav ..read more

Thank you so much to the Chassell Lions for putting on an amazing Copper Country Strawberry Festival! It was so much fun to meet so many people passionate about our Copper County heritage. Over 500 people stopped by to say hi to the Time Traveler Team over the weekend. We had dozens of people share new stories with us, which you can explore at keweenawhistory.com! We were also excited to see so many people explore the brand-new trail created by the Chassell Heritage Center! The grand opening for this new trail debuted during the festival and so did our new digital story book. Anyone c ..read more