While circumstances continue to keep us from exploring, I’ll take another trip to the archives for today’s post. I have had many requests to feature more sights from along the southern range of the Copper Country, more specifically the mines of the Copper Range company. Copper Range was a juggernaut, easily ranking second in terms of size and scope along the Keweenaw. While C&H had wrestled control of most mines north of Portage Lake, Copper Range had succeeded in taking control of most south of it. This included the Atlantic, Baltic, Trimountain, and Champion. Along with C&H, Copper Range had managed to eek a living out of these mines right up until the late 60′s when it ceased operations at Champion.

Last year we had managed to take a trip to one of those mines – the Trimountain – on a cold and frosty fall morning. We were surprised by the amount of ruins that still existed here, seemingly miles of ruins scattered through the forest. Building after building lay hidden in the trees, and every path we took lead us to more. Because of this we had only managed to scratch the surface during our first visit, and held out on sharing what we found until we could return for more. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I’m sharing what we found today.

The most prominent structure we found at Trimountain was the rock house. It shared a similar design to a lot of other rock houses of the same era, most notably the Gratiot and North Kearsarge. Two large concrete foundations, about ten feet in height sit on either side of the old railroad grade that served the building. Sitting close nearby was the second piece of the puzzle: the collar house.

What remained of the collar was was typical – a series of short concrete “walls” like what are shown here. These formed the buildings foundations, and within it would lie the shaft itself. In this case, however, “inside it” turned out to be a large concrete slab, what we believed to be cap for the shaft.

If it was the cap, it was one on the verge of collapse. The concrete slab was broken into two, a large crack running down its middle. As you can see in the photo above, these two pieces were now angled steeply towards the center of the shaft. Along the far edges of these pieces, you could see the broken edge rising up above the collar house exterior. It was enough to keep us back a good distance.

Along the longer sides of the collar house foundation were a series of large metal eye-bolts. We have seen these many times before, and most likely they were to help stabilize the skip road (or even the head-frame as well) Also lying nearby were large pieces of steel cable that might have once been attached to these bolts.

Another interesting find near the shaft were these footings. We had at first thought these were cable stand footings – since they always have been in the past. But these were heading in a completely wrong direction – straight up to the poor rock pile nearby. Here sat an elevated tramway, which transported poor rock from the upper floor of the shaft house out to the rock pile.

A reminder of the people that once toiled here. We found many shovel heads scattered all about the mine site, their wooden handles rotting away long ago.

to be continued…