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Subject: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
kilobytemangler
[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
Date Posted: 21:22:51 12/08/13 Sun

Years ago, it was determined that Spearfish Lake was somewhere in Wisconsin, Michigan, or maybe Minnesota.

Since then it seems to have been narrowed down to Michigan.

However, SK20 seems to make it fairly clear that Spearfish Lake is actually in the UP [unless a reread of Dawnwalker suggests otherwise].

Do we have Lat-Long coordinates yet [just kidding]?

At any rate, keep up the excellent work!

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Replies:
[> Subject: Re: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
Philip Roberts
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 22:03:05 12/08/13 Sun

>Years ago, it was determined that Spearfish Lake was
>somewhere in Wisconsin, Michigan, or maybe Minnesota.
>
>Since then it seems to have been narrowed down to
>Michigan.
>
>However, SK20 seems to make it fairly clear that
>Spearfish Lake is actually in the UP [unless a reread
>of Dawnwalker suggests otherwise].
>
>Do we have Lat-Long coordinates yet [just kidding]?
>
>At any rate, keep up the excellent work!
I think Wes has said in the past that it's floated around but it's been narrowed town so that I think "cannon" has Spearfish Lake in the UP but Camden in Northern WI. Probably connected by "US 43", "US47" or "US49".

Philip
[> [> Subject: Re: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
Dmitri
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 06:41:01 12/09/13 Mon


I think Wes has said in the past that it's floated
around but it's been narrowed down so that I think
"cannon" has Spearfish Lake in the UP but Camden in
Northern WI. Probably connected by "US 43", "US47" or
"US49".

Philip


Wes says in the site FAQ:
"If you absolutely have to imagine it on a map, put it around Iron Mountain or Crystal Falls, Michigan, with Green Bay being Camden. Now, Iron Mountain or Crystal Falls are not Spearfish Lake and never have been; it's just that if Spearfish Lake were real it might be located around there somewhere. Or it might not be."

To me, the above seems to fit some of the earlier stories better, except for Dawnwalker, because it puts Spearfish Lake too close to Marquette where Randy goes to college. It's not quite commuting distance, but certainly within an easy weekend visit drive home, which I don't think ever happens in four years of college.

Some later stories seem to put Spearfish Lake west of there, closer to the western tip of the upper peninsula, maybe nearer Ironwood, but that puts Spearfish Lake too close to Lake Superior (for easy surfing), and it's still not very much farther from Marquette. It could be south of Ironwood into Wisconsin, but he has characters say in later stories that it is in Michigan, in the You Pee.

Wes is slowly figuring out that his mobile geography matters to many (vocal) readers. Unfortunately, a massive rewrite of all the Spearfish Lake stories would now be required to even generally locate the town. Bradford and the towns around it are at least marginally localized.

Dmitri
[> [> [> Subject: Re: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
Leo Kerr
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 16:55:56 12/09/13 Mon


>
>To me, the above seems to fit some of the earlier
>stories better, except for Dawnwalker, because it puts
>Spearfish Lake too close to Marquette where Randy goes
>to college. It's not quite commuting distance, but
>certainly within an easy weekend visit drive home,
>which I don't think ever happens in four years of
>college.
>

Except in Dawnwalker, he does do a couple weekend visits -- over the summer break.

Randy might have, off-book, in first-year. After he met up with Crystal, he might have been... too busy.
[> Subject: Re: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
Boyd Percy
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 21:25:00 12/09/13 Mon

>Years ago, it was determined that Spearfish Lake was
>somewhere in Wisconsin, Michigan, or maybe Minnesota.
>
>Since then it seems to have been narrowed down to
>Michigan.
>
>However, SK20 seems to make it fairly clear that
>Spearfish Lake is actually in the UP [unless a reread
>of Dawnwalker suggests otherwise].
>
>Do we have Lat-Long coordinates yet [just kidding]?
>
>At any rate, keep up the excellent work!


It's as easy to find Spearfish Lake as it is to find Bradford, Wychbold, Hawthorne, Amhearst or Winchester Harbor. All are probably in Michigan, but where exactly is not so easy to determine. The great Spearfish Lake map drawn by Andy Haworth and Wes Boyd shows that the North Country Trail is just north of Spearfish Lake and runs through Mark Gravengood's property. He supposedly helps maintain part of it. Also, phone calls between Arizona and Spearfish Lake seems to argue for it being in the Eastern Time zone. The towns that Wes mentions are in the Central Time zone so maybe Wes is throwing in a "red herring" to have some fun with us. Whatever the case may be, I still enjoy reading all the great Spearfish Lake Tales.
[> [> Subject: Re: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
Leo Kerr
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 20:19:31 12/10/13 Tue


>Also, phone calls between Arizona and Spearfish Lake
>seems to argue for it being in the Eastern Time zone.
>The towns that Wes mentions are in the Central Time
>zone so maybe Wes is throwing in a "red herring" to
>have some fun with us.

Having driven through that area a couple of times (Iron Mountain, Marquette, Green Bay, Eagle River..) the line between Eastern and Central wanders around in a really odd fashion. I seem to recall Iron Mountain being in Eastern; Green Bay, Two Rivers, and the Point Beach Nuclear Power Station are in Central. Marquette is definitely Eastern.

[Huh. Sorry, Crystal Falls and Iron Mountain are both Central. Not an easy area to find out about, though.]
[> Subject: Re: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
Jon
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 00:49:12 12/12/13 Thu

From Wikipedia:
Michigan: All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four counties in the Upper Peninsula along the border with Wisconsin, which observe Central Time – Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, Menominee. Historically the entire state observed Central Time. When daylight saving time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all but the four counties noted changed to Eastern Time.

Basically all of the UP is in the Eastern Time Zone, except for the areas close to Wisconsin which is in the Central Time Zone. Reason for the "border" area to be in Central is to hopefully make it easier to conduct business in those areas.

After having lived in the Central Time Zone (Chicago/Milwaukee area) all my life, it'd be difficult to live in the UP in the winter and "use" Eastern time.

In the winter or near solstice - 21 December, that would mean sunrise around 0826 and sunset around 1711. In the summer, again near solstice, 21 June, sunrise around 0403 and sunset at 2031. Sun times are for Menominee, the times would vary by a few minutes dependent on how far east/west SL would lie relative to Menominee.

I guess it's just something you get used to over time or put in the words of Albert Einstein, time is relative.

What's nuts with living by the sun as the rafters do, is moving to the extremes of sun time or north to Churchill, Manitoba (on the western shore of Hudson Bay) or Iceland/Scandinavia. A friend spent a couple of shore tours in Iceland with the US Navy, all he did was bitch about was how his pre-school son did was keep him up in the "middle" of the night when the kid should have been sleeping. What you lost in sleep in the summer, you made up in the winter with 4 or 5 hours of "daylight".
[> Subject: Re: Pinning down Spearfish Lake location


Author:
Michael Slade
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 14:02:25 12/17/13 Tue

This is a great discussion that should be copied onto the Spearfish Lakes Discussion page on the Wiki!


>Years ago, it was determined that Spearfish Lake was
>somewhere in Wisconsin, Michigan, or maybe Minnesota.
>
>Since then it seems to have been narrowed down to
>Michigan.
>
>However, SK20 seems to make it fairly clear that
>Spearfish Lake is actually in the UP [unless a reread
>of Dawnwalker suggests otherwise].
>
>Do we have Lat-Long coordinates yet [just kidding]?
>
>At any rate, keep up the excellent work!


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