SO YOU’VE GOT some spare change on your kitchen counter and you’re looking for a little getaway, a half hour away from the hustle-and-bustle of Marquette.
Have we got a deal for you.
The Saux Head Lodge. A cozy, little log home located on a 163 acre spread north of town. A main lodge along with an overlook house, together totaling 6800 square feet, six bedrooms, five and a half baths.
It’s going up for auction on August 27th. It’s been previously offered for $7.3 million. We’ll see what the auction brings.
What else can we tell about this little charmer?
The lodge, with an extra house, is more than a century old, although, of course, it’s been updated.
Well, it’s more than a century old, features multiple fireplaces, birdseye maple floors, and natural stone countertops. It’s located on Saux Head Lake and gives you ownership of half the lake. Includes a boathouse.
Hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, kayaking, snowshoeing. If you and the kids love the outdoors, you’re gonna love this rustic, little camp.
And if you get a hankering for the lights of the big city, Marquette is just 30 minutes down the road. Perfect.
So who wants to start the bidding?
SPEAKING OF BIG money, there was excitement galore this week when the super yacht, Hampshire, docked at the Lower Harbor.
Built by Feadship, which designs nothing but high end stuff, this 217 foot long baby cost an estimated $125 million. Ownership of these mega yachts is usually kept secret, but word has it that the owner is Ineos Andrew Currie, an English chemical company magnate with a net worth just under $4 billion. So this little trinket of a boat barely dented his wallet.
Interestingly, we haven’t had any cruise ships docking in Marquette this summer.
Mayor Fred Stonehouse, who’s also known as a Great Lakes expert and historian, thinks he knows why. “Lake Superior is less developed than the other Great Lakes, and it also has a reputation of being more dangerous than the other lakes,” he explains. “That might scare some passengers away.”
Their loss.
More than 6000 passengers on four cruise lines are cruising the other, more developed lakes this summer.
Next year, though, the Champlain is scheduled for a stop at either Marquette or Munising. Stonehouse will be on board as a Smithsonian lecturer.
A BIG DEAL for Harlow Farms this week.
The 105 acre housing development–which is huge for Marquette–began its final phase, Windstone at Mill Creek for senior independent living.
When developer Lynn Swadley broke ground on Harlow Farms back in 2006, he was taking a huge risk.
“We knew it would take time,” he says. “Marquette was growing but housing demand here has never been really big. And then the financial and housing crisis hit in 2008. That didn’t help.”
Still, thirteen years later, he and his company are now finishing the project which includes single family homes, condos, townhouses, and senior living units. More than 300 residents. An economic impact of more than $65 million so far. Thirty homesites still available.
One of Swadley’s proudest accomplishments? A 25 acre conservation zone within Harlow Farms–woods, ponds, creeks, trails right there in the neighborhood. It seems absolutely appropriate here in the Upper Peninsula.
GOOD NEWS FOR Anna Dravland, the young woman who suffered a stroke on the streets of Marquette 21 months ago.
She’d been told by some experts that a year after the stroke, she should not expect any more progress in her condition. She’s not buying it.
She’s now been accepted into a three month rehabilitation program at the University of Michigan. Occupational, speech, and physical rehab. She heads to Ann Arbor in September.
“I want to learn more, I want to do more,” she says. “I’m aggressive. When they tell you after a year of recovery, that you’re done and you can’t get any better, it’s not true! I’ve heard from people all over the world who say you can get better! I’m going to get better!”
Dravland still has cognitive, speech, balance, and strength problems, and her right side still just doesn’t feel right. She’s working on it.
One more thing: Points of Light, a national organization promoting volunteerism, is giving Dravland an award for starting “Spread Goodness Day,” an annual volunteerism project she undertook even while dealing with the debilitating effects of her stroke. And it’s written a lengthy story chronicling her struggle and her triumph.
Yeah, the girl’s got a compelling story and she’s got guts.