Keweenaw Snow Gauge 30-ft thermometer (US-41)

Mohawk, Michigan, United States

Roadside giants

✓

Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

The Keweenaw Snow Thermometer is a roadside snow gauge more than 30 feet tall on US-41 just north of Mohawk, Michigan. It records Keweenaw County's record snowfall of 390.4 inches in the winter of 1978 to 1979.

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

We have not checked a recommended place to arrive or stop here yet.

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Keweenaw Snow Gauge 30-ft thermometer (US-41)

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Site-level location · 47.3595° N, 88.3032° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Keweenaw County measures its winters on a roadside stick more than 30 feet tall, and the record it points to is 390.4 inches of snow.

The gauge stands beside US-41 just north of Mohawk, on the Keweenaw Peninsula. A 2024 article from 99.1 WFMK put its height at over 30 feet and noted that, although it is a gauge, the official website calls it a thermometer. A 1997 account by a local web writer gave 32 feet.

The marker at the site, as quoted by 99.1 WFMK, says that in the winter of 1978 to 1979 Keweenaw County established a new snowfall record with a seasonal total of 390.4 inches, and adds that this "could be a new record set in the USA for the entire area east of the Rockies". It lists November at 49.2 inches, December at 116.4 and January at 111.4. According to 99.1 WFMK in 2024, the marker is removed seasonally.

The figures are the road commission's. In 1997 the local writer reported that the commission took its daily readings at a separate measuring station near Delaware, a box on a wooden stand and a graduated stick checked by the plow crew; a 2019 TV6 report put the commission's measuring stick, snow table and box just outside Mohawk. TV6 reported in 2019 that the commission updates the gauge each year with the winter's total. The Mining Gazette reported in January 2026 that the 2024 to 2025 winter total was 315.25 inches, the fourth snowiest on record, according to the commission.

Visit Keweenaw runs an annual contest in which people guess the season's snowfall, using the commission's figure as the official number; the Mining Gazette illustrated its January 2026 report on the contest with the gauge.

99.1 WFMK said in 2024 that visitors in winter will need to park on the side of the road, because the park is closed.

Add a photo

PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

A roadside gauge just north of Mohawk on US-41. According to 99.1 WFMK (2024), the roadside park is closed in winter, when visitors must park on the roadside, and the record marker is removed seasonally.

ACCESS

On US-41 just north of Mohawk, Keweenaw County, Michigan. Seen from the roadside; 99.1 WFMK reports the adjoining park is closed in winter and the marker is removed seasonally.

COMMUNITY