Mine Street was the center of the universe for over a century in the Copper Country, for along its length sat one of the greatest copper mines in the world. At its height over 17 shaft houses rose up along this road, along with a collection of billowing smokestacks, miles of cables stands, enormous warehouses, and Superior sized steam engines chugging away day and night. It’s not quite as impressive now, especially here on the south end of the once vibrant road. Unlike the large buildings left standing on the north end – as in the photo above – the south end is more about detail.

Probably the most repetitive and abundant ruin along this stretch of Mine Street; these cable stands area everywhere. For the most part they sit in a line stretching between one ruin to the next. Most look similar to this, a pair of concrete footings sitting side by side and with a square hole in their centers. While all mines needed cable stands, at Hecla all the shafts shared the same hoist requiring long lines of stands to connect them all together.

We also found a few of these shallow stone lined trenches. Most likely these served as conduits for steam or compressed air pipes running between buildings. We find these trenches at a lot of mine sites and they all probably shared similar functions.

We also found one of these. We seem to usually find these near railroads, and since a spur of the Calumet & Hecla RR ran along this road as well this is probably where this is from. But what these are and what they did is unknown to me. Normally they’re taller, so these must have been cut off at their base. Perhaps some railroad fan out there has a clue. Or they have nothing to do with the railroad.

Almost directly across from Hecla No. 6 sits this house half buried in the woods. It appears abandoned, but looks quite old. Near this spot sat the house of one time General Manager of C&H James MacNaughton. The houst is long gone, but perhaps this was the carriage house or guest house? Just a thought…

Further along the road we come across a rather large building half buried in the trees. While its roof seems to be collapsing in on itself, the rest of the building looks in great shape. The artistically place sandstone blocks which make up its walls look vibrant and almost brand new. This building was once the boiler house that feed steam to the nearby Hancock & Pewabic hoist engines.

Along the side of the building facing us were a long line of large window openings – all of which were blocked up with concrete blocks. Once these windows would allow generous amounts of light to bath down on the workers tending the roaring fires of the boilers.

Another shot of the boiler house, this one from its southern face. Notice the details over the large loading door, matching the smaller details over the windows. The attention to detail and aesthetic sensitivity afforded a building of such utilitarian purpose would be out of place today.

Peeking out of us in the woods was another sandstone beauty. This building was set back from the road, behind the line of shaft house ruins that lined Mine Street.

Getting closer we could see that it was a long and narrow building, sporting a pair of doors on its south face. It looked a lot like a dry house with its symmetric design and over indulgence with doors. it’s also in very good shape, and appears to have power. This one should last a while longer. (unlike the boiler house…)

Here’s an interesting find. It looks like a manhole of some type, a metal “cap” with a door on its face. This area was rather overgrown and a little swampy during our visit so we didn’t get any closer then this. It looks like it could be connected to a base of some type, but we couldn’t be sure. I think it might must be a piece of junk, but it could be an old well or maintenance shaft of some type. It was found on the opposite side of the road from the No. 7 ruins.

As you can see here, this section of Mine Street is rather overgrown and in poor shape. All the things above are only piece of a larger puzzle. Some of the most interesting finds along this old street we had yet to find…

to be continued..