A mine itself is only a collection of tunnels underground, connected in a honeycomb maze of drifts and shafts. (see “Anatomy of the Underground”) From the surface the true size and scope of this labyrinth is hidden from view. If it wasn’t for the sprawling surface plant that sits atop of it, you wouldn’t even know the mine existed. Its this surface plant, and not the mine itself, that is the center of our attention here at Explorer.

The surface plant was primarily a collection of three buildings – which we like to call “The Big 3″. These are the buildings directly related to the hauling and sorting of the rock coming up from mine. These are also the main buildings we look for and the ones we most often find: the shaft house, rockhouse, and hoist building. (see “A Mine’s Remains” for details) But these are only the tip of the iceberg. As we have found out recently at North Kearsarge, there are many other buildings that contribute to the operation of the mine. We call these support buildings.

The first of these support buildings is the boiler house – which we have just recently featured (see “The Boiler House”). But for all intents and purposes this building is part of “The Big 3″ because without it the hoist could not operate. The steam produced by the boiler house is used not only for the hoist but sent to some other support buildings as well (See “Peripheral Uses”).

First is the compressor building. Here was housed the steam engine used to create compressed air. This compressed air was sent through pipes from this building, to the shaft house, and down the shaft to the underground. There it was used to power the mine drills and other equipment used underground. (See “Left Behind” for such a machine – a mucker) These engines were much smaller then a hoist, and the building footprint is much harder to come across. So far we have only found one compressor building, attached to the hoist building for Centennial #2.

A second building using steam provided by the boiler is the pump house. This building contained a steam water pump, used to de-water the mines. Not all mines had a pump house, it depended on the extent of flooding problems they had underground. Most Copper Country mines were relatively dry and these pumps weren’t needed. (UPDATE: Thanks to reader Joe Dase it appears that these pumps were most likely used to distribute water on the surface and not to de-water the mine. Check out the comments to learn more)

The last building fed steam from the boiler used that steam not to power an engine, but to heat water. This was the dry house, a building where underground workers prepared for work and cleaned up afterwards. Working underground was a dirty job, and workers were often covered head to toe in dirt and grime after their shift was done. These buildings provided showers and wash tubs for cleaning and lockers for storing work clothes and boots. We have found examples of these at various sites, the most notable being the dry at Iroquois (See “Stories of Men”)

Besides those buildings directly connected to the boiler house, there was still a few more found on a mines surface. These buildings supported the operation of the mines by working to keep it running smoothly and efficiently. These included the drill/blacksmith shop, machine shop, and carpentry shop.

The drill/blacksmith shop was one of the more important buildings because of its responsibility for sharpening the drill bits used in the mine. At Quincy, used drill bits were brought up in a hoist and dropped into waiting rail cars. Those cars would then be sent to the blacksmith shop where they were sharpened and sent back to the mine. These buildings also served to fabricate replacement parts and tools for the mine.

Machine shops were responsible for repairs to machines and equipment at the mine. Machines such as grinders, lathes, planers, drill presses and shapers were powered by overhead belt drives. Also overhead were traveling cranes used to move heavy machinery about the building.

Carpentry shops were similar to machine shops, but were focused not on machine repairs but on building repairs. Machines such as table saws, lathes, miter saws and more were also powered by overhead belt drives. Workers here fixed windows, hung doors, built additions, and other wood related activities.

Finally there are those auxiliary buildings used for offices or storage. While not directly related to supporting the mine, they were used on a daily basis during its operation. These buildings include powder houses (used to store explosives) , captain offices (for administrative tasks), oil houses (to store lamp oil), pipe houses (for pipe storage, I think), warehouses, and lumber sheds. All in all more then a dozen support buildings spread out from the hoist and shaft buildings, creating a ruin-scape with more foundations then we can count.

This was the case at North Kearsarge, as we made our way up the hill and past the coal trestle. Stretching across the hillside was a very long and massive building we knew was a support building of some sort. Its just a matter of which one.

next: buildings and more buildings

archive photos courtesy Historic American Engineering Record, American Memory Collection, Library of Congress as well as the Keweenaw Digital Archive