Before the advent of air-powered drills, mining was a much more laborious and physically demanding job. (although even with the modern drills it was no walk in the park). Using heavy sledgehammers, two-person mining teams would take turns banging away at bits held by hand. By the end of a shift these workers would be dripping in sweat, and their clothes would be completely soaked. Before going home to a more “civilized” house, miners would strip themselves of these sweaty clothes and change into a dry set . They would then leave those wet clothes hanging over radiators to dry overnight, and to use again the next day. Thus a “dry house” was born, the building in which miners changed out of their wet clothes and left those wet clothes to dry overnight.

Our first impression of the Champion Dry was that it wasn’t a dry at all, but most likely a machine shop or blacksmith shop. Most dry houses we have encountered in the past have been merely concrete floors scattered with a few pipes or drain covers. This one was relatively intact, complete with most of its walls. It was also very large, easily one of the largest buildings we have seen still intact.

The building was roughly shaped like a “+”, with a long center section and two additions to the front and rear. At the front we find the main entrance – a large brick lined doorway with matching windows to either side. The building seemed very meticulous with its sandstone and brick accents. While the outside facade was stone, the inside was covered by a plaster like material that created very white and smooth walls.

This front part of the building once contained two rooms – an office and a storeroom. While the interior walls were destroyed, we could still make out the outlines to these walls against the outer wall as seen in this photo. We also could find evidence of a fire, no doubt the culprit behind the missing roof (and perhaps even the interior walls).

Sitting behind the front room is a rather long and narrow room which once served as the locker room. Inside this rooms’ 115 feet of length were a staggering 480 lockers, along with drying racks and benches. Now only the concrete floor remains. Along the sides of the room are a generous supply of windows – all set high up along the wall for privacy. Along the north end – as seen in this photo – is a large loading door. I’m pretty sure this isn’t original and was added by some post-mine owner.

Striking through the rear wall of the locker room was a large hallway which led us to the building’s rear room. This room was a little larger then the one up front, and was where the showers and baths were located. Once again nothing remained but the walls, the concrete floor, and a few piles of debris. This water pipe sat at the entrance.

This rear room was in much worse shape then the rest of the building, as a large section of its upper wall was hanging precariously over thin air as you can see in this picture. The rest of the room was much more overgrown then the locker room, and my guess was that the owner that put in the large doors didn’t use this part of the building and let it deteriorate.

I have no idea what’s going on here, but it sure doesn’t seem original. This rear building seems put together in a much more haphazard manner, as this doorway seems to suggest. Wheres the nice red brick accent that was present on the front door?

Scattered at various points along the building are these piles of metal. At first we thought they might be locker remnants like we had found at Iroquois, but on closer inspection we are pretty sure they are large roof vents. My guess is that when the fire destroyed the roof, these simply feel down into the building and came to rest where we found them.

A view of one of the smaller windows lining the locker room. At some point these had been boarded up, but the fire had destroyed that as well.

As we leave one last photo. Nothing real interesting here – except for the butterfly caught in mid flight. Didn’t even know I had captured it until I got back to my computer. Beauty in ruination. Go figure.

Thanks to Kevin Musser for his information about the Champion Dry at his Copper Country Historical web page.