LUGE  -  Part 1:  Creating a Natural Luge Track opportunity in the U.P. 

8-23-2022

It is hard to imagine how I can encapsulate thirty years of my involvement with our Olympic luge program in only a few website entries.  But I’m going to try.  I will respond to questions submitted in the Contact Form within the “GET IN TOUCH” option on the introductory page, either individually or on this website.
 
The story how I became involved in an avocation that involved twenty hours of work per week year-round for many, many years is always the first question asked at my presentations.  And the explanation deserves its telling, I think.
 
There was an “artificial/Kunstbahn* ” luge track for seven years in Marquette that was built and maintained by volunteers.  However, it was on private land at the base of Mount Marquette.  When the owner decided to have homes built on that land a new track was built in Negaunee.  The U.S. Luge Association covered the cost of a Swedish luge coach who was a civil engineer to design the new track.  He inspected several locations in the Negaunee/Ishpeming area at the request of a committee led by a local clergy person.  
 
This luge track was to be a “natural/Naturbahn* ” track unlike an “Olympic-style” (artificial/Kunstbahn*) track.  The differences are many.  Natural tracks do not have banked curves and do not have refrigerated ice surfaces.  The curves are much tighter with radii as short as 21 feet.  The equipment used by athletes is dramatically different from that used at artificial tracks.  Natural luge sleds have reins which require that competitive athletes install spikes within gloves on the outside of knuckles rather than inside the fingers as is done in Olympic competition.  The reins were abandoned on artificial luge sleds as they evolved over the years.  Natural track athletes use shoes with cleats in order to “brake” on approaching a curve so as to not crash into the vertical walls along the sides of the track that has (remember?) unbanked curves.
 
The track siting committee’s leader approached Dominic Jacobetti, head of the Michigan House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee.  He served in Michigan’s House longer than anyone, forty years. Just as important for the purposes of this accounting, he was born, raised, and lived in Negaunee. Those living outside Michigan’s Upper Peninsula might not know that Jacobetti’s nickname was “The Godfather”.  In response to this request, he asked how much money was needed.  For some reason this question had not been anticipated!  After consulting with the track designer, a number was picked essentially “out of a hat”.  Jacobetti was informed that $150,000 was needed.  That estimate proved to be too high by about 10% so the balance was used by the city to hire a track manager for the track’s first two years of operation. Jacobetti included the estimated track construction costs in a State appropriation bill.  There was no application, no grant review process because this was an appropriation not a grant, no competition, no publicity. 
 
The money for the track was appropriated to the City of Negaunee which had negotiated a $100/year lease from the mining company that owned the land, only one mile from the center of the city.  A local company drew up the final precise engineering specs that accounted for locations of various rock outcroppings, the exact position of which the Swedish engineer was unable to ascertain without technical measuring equipment.  Mr. Mark Lessard, Electrical Engineer for Sundberg, Carlson and   Associates became the winner of the 1991 Edwin F. Guth Memorial Award of Merit granted by the Illuminating Engineering Society.  His lighting design included 36,000 watts of illumination for the 800 meter track (one-half mile) and was complicated by the fact that ice almost perfectly reflects artificial lighting.  Thirty lights on ten poles, a two inch water main with heating cables and two pumps were installed.  In the winter of 1994 the frost in the ground in Negaunee reached 9.5 feet deep.  Residential water mains were buried at 9 feet deep but the track’s water flowed all winter that year, unlike the experience of those living in some nearby residences!
 
The Ground breaking for the Lucy Hill Natural Luge Track was held May 5, 1989 and it was certified for international luge competition on March 29, 1992.  In actuality, international training clinics and North American Championships were conducted prior to its certification.  An International World Cup Competition took place at the track in 1995. 
 
The track opened to the public in January 1990.  That weekend I drove my wife to a quilt shop in Ishpeming and immediately took off for the track.  I watched in amazement all the activities taking place there.  However, I was too intimidated by the action and the excitement to try luging myself that day.  When I found myself on a couch watching basketball on TV that night, it occurred to me that it would be a whole lot healthier to be out there at the track working as a volunteer in the fresh, cold air.  So the next day, a Sunday, I returned to the track, paid $10, was outfitted with helmet and cleated shoes, and began my 30+ year career as a luge coach, official, and volunteer administrator.  At the bottom of the track was a neighbor of mine who was experienced in coaching and officiating luge.  His job was to instruct sliders how to get their sleds back to their starting point on the track.  I was so excited that I proclaimed to him after only a few slides down the track that “I just might get involved in this sport!”
 
Upcoming installments include:  becoming a certified coach and official;  recruiting potential luge athletes;  maintaining a luge track;  creating and managing the “Luge Olympic Development Program” at the U.S. Olympic Education Center within Northern Michigan University;  serving on the U.S. Luge Association’s National Luge Committee, its National Team Committee, and its National Legislative Committee;  and representing the U.S. on the International Luge Federation’s Natural Track Sports Commission that held meetings each spring in the Alps that were conducted in German.
 
* Internationally, luge tracks are referred to by their German spellings.  Both luge disciplines, Naturbahn (i.e. “natural tracks”) and Kunstbahn (i.e. “artificial tracks”), have regular World Championships and World Cup series. 

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Part 1 – LUGE……photo captions
 
Photo #1:  How luge began in Marquette.  An artificial (Kunstbahn) track with banked curves.  It was destined for only limited use due to residential construction on the land.  photographer: unknown
 
Photo #1:  Poster for the Marquette County Historical Society’s fantastic luge tribute exhibition in 2013.  To see a six minute virtual tour of the exhibit, go to:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-RJgosscIk .
 
Photo #2&3:  Construction of the Lucy Hill Natural Luge Track began with installation of the water system.  On the left, burying the water main.  On the right, next to the midpoint of the track a “manhole” contained a pump to propel water to the start house.  The pickup truck is stopped on the actual location of the luge track.  photographer:  unknown
 
Photo #4:  The original track schematics were modified due to the relocation of the Chicago Curve so it would be in shade rather than in sunlight.  Each spring the ice surface did not melt first.  Rather, the direct sunlight traveling through ice warmed the ground underneath (which was dark red from iron deposits in it) and therefore melted the ice from underneath, melted the ice closest to the ground first.  Each of the curves was given the name of a local iron mine, e.g. Chicago Curve.  Note that the schematic indicates that Turns 8&9 (a 40 degree turn following a 30 degree turn) together are only 71 feet long.  An athlete will negotiate this as only one turn!  This configuration occurs several times in the schematics. 
 
Photo #5:  A typical modified gym shoe used in natural track sliding.  Assisted by instructors at NMU’s Jacobetti Center, this cleat design was preferred for several years.  The object was to scrape the ice surface with varying degrees of force short of “sticking” in the ice.  Use of golf shoes would have resulted in a slider’s shoe being implanted in the ice while the sled and slider’s body continued down the track…assuring ankle and knee injuries as a result. 
 
Photo #6:  Promotional poster on the left.  On the right, a rural electric co-op’s November/December 2016 magazine cover.  See upluge.org.  

MICHIGAN NATURE ASSOCIATION - A MINI-CAREER AS A VOLUNTEER

 7-27-2022
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While chairperson of the Alpena County Planning Commission in about 1982 I asked Bertha Daubendiek of the Michigan Nature Association to visit Cow Island within the Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary.  This island is less than 600 yards from the public “Island Park” across from the Alpena General Hospital.  Both islands are located in the Thunder Bay River.  A group of citizens had expressed concerns that Cow Island’s owner was planning to subdivide the island for real estate development. 
 
During discussions about his plans, the owner expressed a willingness to discard those plans if the MNA were to purchase the entire island.  He gave Bertha and me authority to walk the island and tour his home on it.  Bertha inspected the flora on the island and the remarkable A-frame home which we envisioned as a stylish nature center.  Her comment was immediate after this visit to the island and tour through the residence:  “Why, all you have here is a ‘vegetated sand dune’ and there’s nothing unique about it.  We have hundreds or thousands of them in Michigan!”  Gone was the idea of a nature center on a really nice (but not unique) island within Alpena’s Wildlife Sanctuary.  Today an intense and expansive fundraising effort is underway with hopes of making possible an extension of our idea, a “Thunder Bay River Center”, which will be located near the entrance to Island Park.  (thunderbayrivercenter.org)
 
Fast forward fifteen years when I moved from Marquette to Traverse City in 1997.  Having my introduction to Bertha and our visit to Cow Island in mind, I made a commitment to volunteer with the MNA.  Eventually my participation in several aspects of MNA’s operations would lead to my receiving its annual “Mason and Melvin Schafer Distinguished Service Award” in 2014.  This is an award given to an individual whom has a minimum ten year history of volunteering with the MNA.
 
My first commitment was to become the steward for MNA’s Cedar River Nature Sanctuary which is located between Mancelona and Torch Lake in Antrim County.  Thus began a lifelong interest and fascination with Antrim County’s geography and its many other features. 
 
I took care of this sanctuary for several years.  I am not sure if it had other stewards before me but there were hunting blinds to disassemble and discard.  There was a hiking path along the river to mark with blue plastic diamond-shaped signs.  There was a new bulky sign attached to 4”X4”s to build, transport from my home in Traverse City and install, and there were visiting days scheduled to introduce the sanctuary to MNA members.  In addition, a vial of Bertha’s ashes had to be scattered in the sanctuary after her passing, a ritual re-enacted at each of the 140 or so sanctuaries that were created thanks to her leadership and guidance as the head of the MNA organization and its spiritual leader. 
 
Eventually Chad Pastotnik (see blog entry of 7/21/22) and I co-stewarded this sanctuary.  As I transitioned to stewarding a different sanctuary in Antrim County, the nearby Green River Nature Sanctuary (only five miles from the Cedar River Nature Sanctuary as the crow flies), Chad took care of the Cedar River sanctuary by himself. 

After moving from Traverse City to Presque Isle on my retirement in 2008, I became steward of the Morris Bay Nature Sanctuary at the end of Bloom Road in Alpena County.  During my volunteer career with MNA I also assisted at various times with the Mystery Valley Karst Preserve and Nature Sanctuary, the Julius C. and Marie Moran Peter Memorial Nature Sanctuary, the Frink’s Pond Plant Preserve, and the Spitler Shore Nature Sanctuary.

Photo #1:  "Field Trip", 3rd place in the 2015 MNA photo contest - category:  People in Nature.  Photo taken at the western end of Mystery Valley Karst Preserve and Nature Sanctuary in Presque Isle County
Photo #2:  View of the Cedar River Nature Sanctuary on the right, taken from "the Tubes" (culverts under Cedar River Road), Antrim County.  Across the river on the left is the home of Chad Pastotnik, sanctuary steward.
Photo #3:  MNA sanctuary sign on Cedar River Road at the Cedar River Nature Sanctuary
Photo #4:  MNA sanctuary sign on M-66 at the Green River Nature Sanctuary
Photo #5: "Animal Tracks", photo taken in the Green River Nature Sanctuary published in the 2008 issue of the Friends of the Jordan River Watershed, Inc. calendar
Photo #6:  Photo of the Green River taken within the Green River Nature Sanctuary published in the 2008 MNA calendar
Photo #7:  Photo of MNA Staff person Natalie Kent-Norkowski preparing to treat invasive species in the Green River Nature Sanctuary

SELF-EMPLOYMENT                                                                                                                             7-7-22

My first paid life experience was as a self-employed entrepreneur, a recycler (this is a word according to dictionary.com but not according to Weebly's word processing database).  Actually, I created a "reverse paper route".  I have no idea where this idea originated.  Could have been from the then popular "Boys Life" magazine.

In 1957 my family moved from a post-WWII suburban tract home in Riverview, MI to a converted carriage house that was behind a converted stable that was behind a mansion on the Detroit River, on the island of Grosse Ile.  This island is 11 miles south of Detroit, as the crow flies.  The residential and industrial areas here are referred to as "downriver Detroit".  A 12 year old in 1957, I immediately began a route that involved pulling a wagon from home to home near my family's home every week or two.  Some of the 8-10 families were more prolific readers than others and I called on them more frequently than the others.  We agreed on a schedule and where a collection box would be located in their garages for my access.

There was a shortage of newspapers used in recycling at that time.  The junk yard in Wyandotte, MI was paying top dollar for used newspapers when I began this service for my neighbors.  The price junkyards paid was $0.50/100 pounds.  I would collect about 350 pounds every 2-3-4 weeks and had my dad drive our Ford station wagon to the junk yard for my pay day.  This resulted in a monthly or sometimes bimonthly allowance of about $3.50.  This was a welcome income!  My parents referred to some residents of the island as "ten cent millionaires", meaning they put on airs of being wealthy but were struggling financially.  Years of a mysterious illness prompted my dad to visit Mayo Clinic in 1960 where he was diagnosed with MS.  He lost his business and his driving privileges.  I became his chauffeur without any allowance at all as we became "ten cent millionaires". 

A couple years later, maybe because church and school groups decided to get in on the action, the price paid for used newspapers plummeted to $0.10/100 pounds.  That barely covered the cost of the gas for the station wagon and the fares to use the privately-owned bridge to get on and off the island where we lived.  Done were the days of my self-employment. 

I was forced to revisit those laws of supply and demand while studying economics as a sophomore in college.  And again in the late-1970s moonlighting as an instructor of microeconomics at Alpena Community College.  Luckily I had that early real-life experience with the law of supply and demand since I received a call from the Dean of Instruction at ACC only 26 hours before my first "micro-" course was to convene.  It had been fifteen years since I had looked inside an economics textbook.  This was an interesting challenge as you can imagine.  One-third to one-half of the students taking my microeconomics courses were participating in a pre-engineering curriculum.  It required one semester of "micro-".  These students had little interest in economics and they let me know it.  They must have found the class somewhat beneficial since a couple of them sent me a friendly postcard from the Caribbean while on a graduation trip.  And shockingly, in 1984, another one of them as an advanced engineering student shouted a welcoming greeting to me across the parking lot at Michigan Technological University when I was entering the Administration Building on a work assignment having recently moved to Marquette to begin the last 24 years of my 40-year civil service career.