Lake Linden and the Michigan Tech Agassiz

The Michigan Tech Research Vessel, the RV Agassiz

"Survival of the Finnish!" Summer said.  During FinnFest we had the opportunity to ride on the Michigan Tech Research Vessel.

"We were getting mud for the samples.  It opened and shut and grabbed mud." -Evan

"We were filtering mud through the machine." -Kaylin

Summer is wearing the very stylish "work life vest." 

All members of the crew on the boat are required to wear them when they are working the equipment. 

"Bugs!" -Evan

We spent some time sifting through the mud to find life.

We compared and contrasted healthy mud and polluted mud due to mining. 

"In the healthy mud we found more bugs (phantom midges)." -Summer

"Sometimes the mud kind of looked like it was purple."  -Jacinda said about the polluted mud.

"We were graphing the depth, longitude and latitude of Torch Lake.  I liked that part."  -Evan

"After doing all of the graphing, I really liked seeing the results." -Jacinda

Ahmeek Stamp Mill and the stamp sands of Torch Lake 

"That's the Ahmeek stamp mill.  I liked how you could walk all the way through it.  It was cool seeing how it was before and how it is now." -Evan

"I liked how you could go through each of the doors, like a house." -Jacinda

"There are bird houses for bats all around this area." -Evan

"The ants were bringing the stamp sand dirt up.  That is bad." -Summer

This area is full of stamp sands underneath the clean earth.  The EPA came in and covered up the stamp sands in a site clean up effort.  This site is located across from the Ahmeek stamp mill and this type of site can be found all over torch lake.

"Watch your step! It is one of the only stamp mills in the area with a machine still attached." -Kailyn

Be sure to check it out!