Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JAN TUCKER
Ontonagon — A St. Patrick’s Day storm may have hit the area Wednesday and Thursday, but in Ontonagon it’s spring.
A double spring hit when ice left the Ontonagon River and the frost tubes on three highways thawed from the winter cold.
The flow of the ice from the Ontonagon River has been celebrated annually since April 1, 1963, when ice heading down the Ontonagon River was caught at the M-64 bridge. Heavy ice at the mouth of the river to Lake Superior also prevented the spring run-off from reaching the lake and the community was flooded.
The largest hit was to the main business district, appropriately called River Street. Several homes near the downtown area were also damaged.
On Tuesday, the ice left the Ontonagon River at 10:07 a.m., according to the Ontonagon County Road Commission.
The Ontonagon-White Pine Rotary conducts a 50-50 contest to guess the date and time of the river’s ice exodus into Lake Superior. This year, Ann Colgin, of Ontonagon, was the winner, guessing March 15 at 10:10 a.m., just three minutes off. She collected $501, half of the money collected.
The other half is donated by the Rotary to the Great Start Coalition of the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District to fund food packages for small children of low income families. The breakfast packages will provide food when there is no school in session.
On Wednesday, the road commission tested frost tubes on U.S. 45 at Woodspur, U.S. 45 near Bruce Crossing and M-64, between White Pine and Bergland, and found they were all thawed.
In 2015, it took until April 22 until all the tubes were thawed.
In the cold winter of 2014, on April 24, all three tubes were frozen, with Woodspur to 72 inches, Bruce Crossing to 66 inches and M-64 to 76 inches.
