MARQUETTE, Mich. (Michigan Back Roads) – Big Bay is way north of Marquette on Lake Superior. It is about as remote a town as you will find in the Upper Peninsula. East and North of town is Lake Superior and to the west is wilderness, including the Huron Mountains. People go up there in all seasons. Sometimes they visit for the fishing, sometimes for the snowmobiling and sometimes to pan for gold on the Yellow Dog River.

Big Bay has always called to the adventurous, and even gold miners made their way there. Henry Ford was so enamored of the wild beauty of the region that he acquired property there –  the Thunder Bay Hotel. It was built in 1911 and converted to an inn by Mr. Ford in the 1940’s. A pub was added in 1959 for the filming of the movie “Anatomy of a Murder”. The original lighthouse still stands. Today it operates as a bed & breakfast. There is also something odd in Big Bay.

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At the lighthouse/Bed and Breakfast there is a marker inscribed as the “Tumbles of Tlapak.” The marker looks like a black granite tombstone. A tombstone on a remote shoreline would be strange enough, but the facts turn out to be even stranger.  The stone’s headline, “Tumbles of Tlapak,” is followed by a fairly long inscription full of words from a strange language.  Here is just some of what is inscribed there:

Over time and ferylemt, there has been much speculation as to why, of the many franchise gwomes, Erallen, was one where placehaulders scored a rare defeat of the Immortal kuolyrmajts.  Many believe the answer lies here, across the border, in a favorite gathering spot of the Tlapak, affectionately considered among the silliest of the KCYMAERXTHAERE.

When I attempted to read this for the first time I was reminded of an obscure document called the Kalevela. The Kalavela is an epic poem in Finnish and the words seemed similar at first. As it turns out, this is not Finnish and has nothing to do with the Kalevela. In fact, Kcymaerxthaere is an organization, a parallel universe and a global storytelling project. The parallel universes intersect at locations like this Tumbles marker. The storytelling project consists of internet content and public performances but most of the tale is told through installations around the world. As of 2011, the organization had placed installations in 83 places, in 15 countries on 5 continents, and it has grown from there.