Evergreen Drive-In Theatre

Info Updates:

5/16/2020 - Andrew Johnson

Arnie Keskitalo was married to my great aunt Dagmar. She married my uncle George Wuolle. After George passed she married Arnold. He passed away in 1977. Later in life in the late 1970s the drive in only showed adult films. Im not sure what my aunt thought of this but im sure she didnt approve.

10/14/2012 - Dave Rollins

The Evergreen is now just a log yard. The ticket booth was taken down to make room for a wider road into the yard. The concession stand/projection is just a shell.

2/17/2012 - Dino

I grew up north of the Evergreen. I remember riding my bike there through the old landing field to see Night of the Living Dead when that came out (late '60s?) what a terrifying ride home! Many years later driving up behind there to see the adult entertainment - we called it Arnold's Culture Emporium. Jack Matchett and Raynor Johnson each ran it for a time. The snack bar had the world's strongest Coca-Cola - apparently they never got the dilution right. During the X-rated years an attempt was made to offer family-friendly movies for a time but the attendance wasn't good, so back to what paid the bills. The movies started late due to the late twilight that far North and thank God for Pic mosquito coils (how much time was taken off our lives breathing that smoke?). With no internet, video games and only one TV channel, this was the big entertainment!.

1/8/2008 - kink

I remember going to the Evergreen in the 70''s when it was the XXX rated films. What a Hoot!!! Mostly just carloads of single guys with lots of beer, or flyboys with their dates. If the film broke, the drive-in voice would say to the honkling horns "STOP HONKING! iT ISN''T GOING TO BE FIXED UNTIL THE HONKING STOPS!" which would cause 10 times as much honking as there was before.

We would go to softball tournaments in Champion and drive in the exit on the way back to Marquette in our uniforms. My buddy lost his wallet one night, called them the next day, and they went out to where we parked and found it. So that night, on our way back from the games, we drove back through the exit again to get the wallet. What a great place!!!

4/2/2005 - Chuck

The Evergreen Drive-In was about 5 miles West of Ishpeming about 1 mile West of De Rochas Club 41 Steakhouse. All that is left there is a fence and remnants of a mobile home. The owners name was Keskatalo (kes ca talo) and toward the end of his ownership he showed only x-rated films as the back of the screen was toward the highway and nobody lived where they could see the screen. The Evergreen was the first drive-in in Marquette Co and was still open after the Airport Drive in closed. If you attended the drive in during the X rated movie days it was all pickup trucks, one person in each truck and a few beer cans on the ground around the trucks as a lot of construction was going on in Marquette co at the time. The only X rated film shown at the Hiawatha Drive-In was Alan Funts "What do you say to a naked lady?" This movie today would be PG-13.

10/2/2003 - WaterWinterWonderland

A recent site inspection reveals that much of the Evergreen is still standing, including the ticket booth and snack bar. The screen still lays on the ground.

1/6/2003 - MichiganDriveIns.com

I do recall a drive-in just West of Ishpeming on US 41 that, I believe, was called the Pines Drive In. (note:this was actually the Evergreen Drive-In) Im not certain on the name. But it was pretty run down at that time and showed only adult films efore it went belly up. I also remember it because there used to a sign pointing out the Barnes Hecker Memorial. I didnt realize the significance of that until the U-P Iron Industry Museum opened. Barnes Hecker was an underground iron mine that closed after the mine flooded when work crews were blasting and accidentally blew a hole in the bottom of a small lake or pond. Of the men who were working there, only one escaped by climbing a small ladder barely ahead of the rushing water. The mine was sealed with the dead mens bodies inside. A large memorial headstone with all the miners names on it was erected at the site, near the drive in. In the late 1980s the memorial was moved to the Iron Museum. So that drive-in site has a rather tragic historical past. (Terry Kovarik 6-20-02)

1/6/2003 - Drive-Ins.com

My Dad worked at the Evergreen when he was a kid, and when he returned to Ishpeming years later he and Mom took a few photos of the drive-in, which was abandoned years ago. Appropriately, there are now evergreen trees growing wild among the ramps. Its amazing that they had drive-ins at all as far north as this; the summers are short and it gets dark very late during drive-in season. These photos were taken around 1995 or 96; the folks report that a year or two later they returned and found that the Evergreen had finally been demolished. Darren Snow

HomeDrive-In TheatersEvergreen Drive-In Theatre - Ishpeming, MI

Evergreen Drive-In Theatre