Houghton, Michigan - Downtown

Houghton is home to Michigan Technical University ( one of the top engineering schools in the US) and is listed as of the best small towns to live in.  The population of Houghton is about 10,000 but with college students it averages around 17,000.  Sounds small...but here is their downtown

The town is situated on hills bordering the beautiful Portage Waterway.  They have a beautiful walkway trail along the waterway to while away the hours if you are retired or a college student.

This shot is overlooking Houghton;  across the waterway you can see the town of Hancock ( a separate blog).

There are a lot of hills in Houghton, so when you park you had better use that emergency brake!

The town is bustling; hardly saw any vacant buildings and all were in excellent shape.  We will post some close ups of the building in a separate entry.

The Portage Lift Bridge connects the towns of Houghton and Hancock.  It is the world's heaviest and widest double-decked vertical lift bridge. Its center span "lifts" to provide 100 feet of clearance for ships. Notice the lower deck of the bridge???  It is  used to accommodate snowmobile traffic in the winter.  They get about 200 inches of snow during the winter, but it is very nice during the summer with average temps in the  mid 70"s during the day and low 60's at night.

Keweenaw Brewery. Amazing. Will do a separate Blog