First I have a question. Where were the ruins you found in relation to Boston Pond? Also where are the in relation to the town?

The reason I ask is because there is a Franklin Junior Mine on the 1929 USGS paper. The shafts parallel a spur of the Mineral Range. At the end of the spur is Y that ends up at a shaft. Between the spur and the track of the Y it shows the Demmon Post Office. Let me know if you want me to e-mail you the map showing this area.

Unfortunately this was all done almost two years ago and my memory is a little hazy. (and at this time I hadn’t yet started taking notes). I really don’t remember exactly where these were. I tried to find it on the Terraserver aerials but with no luck. Go ahead and send me the Top in question and I’ll probably be able to narrow it down with the mines marked on it. Thanks again in advance!

According to other maps the Boston and Albany Mine sits to the east of the Franklin Jr. These ruins were the first we came across walking north-west from the pond so I was guessing this stuff belonged to the Boston and Albany.

But its very possible that the ruins from the Boston Albany were too overgrown (a very good possibility considering their age) and that we simply skipped over them and wound up at the Franklin Jr. The hoist ruins most defiantly makes more sense if it belonged to the Franklin Jr. – so I’m thinking your on to something here.

http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/showbib.aspx?bib_id=611193#
Heres a photo of the Franklin Jr from Tech’s archives.
I was back there a couple of years ago, followed the spur track back from the pond, they had just put a new cap on whatever mine it was. Kind of hard to follow after a bit, being so overgrown.
Just looked at the one and only photo I took, the collar was all concrete, so I would assume it had to be the Franklin Shaft.

Just a little more info. There was a St Marys mine southwest of the Franklin Junior. It was absorbed by the New Arcadian Copper Co.

Hey Dave, I also found there were two sets of mines at Boston Loc, one was the original Albany & Boston which was bought by the Franklin which were on the Allouez Conglomerate, the other the Franklin opened (1896-1899) on the Pewabic Amygdaloid this was about 475 west of the Allouez paralleling each other. Copper returns were low, so they closed it in 1902, because of the low content, they reopened the original Albany & Boston shaft in 1900. This may explain why the hoist is so far from the mine. I found this info in Google books, book called Mines Register for 1906. They have a couple of later book of the same type, but the quality of the scans aren’t so great, half the type is missed, page moved while scanning, so its harder to read. What I did see, is when the A&B shafts ran out, they went back to the shafts they opened on the Pewabic and started mining there again. Never realized what went on in little ole Boston

wow, that shot with all the metal studs sticking up from the forest floor is trippy…!

Totally unrelated question.

Have you done any exploration or research on the Crest View site? I found a couple pics on the MTU archive a couple years ago, but can find very little info on it.

Crestview was a day-use park served by the Keweenaw Central and featured a large spanish-mission styled building housing a dance hall and casino. Crestview was one of our first explorations, done some years ago now. It sat atop the Cliff Range overlooking Eagle River – to the west of M26. You can get to it by following the old Keweenaw Central spur that fed it, up along the side of the hill. There isn’t much left of note on the top except a large field. No building foundations, no train platform – nothing. There are some ruins to be found nearby that either belong to a mine or are related to the Phoenix Mill – not sure which.

Now even the RR ties from the spur are history due to loggers using the “grade” last summer and fall. I have never found anything on the old site. Clarence Monette has one of his history books on the Keweenaw Central RR and its Crestview Resort. His books are full of information, but (for me) are difficult to follow as his writing style is a bit scattered.

Knew I saw some photos by someone who wandered out there, not much to see except trees. I probably went through on my 4 wheeler once and didn’t even know I was there. PHOTOS

Mike, Thanks for the info – I somehow had the impression it was east of 26. This brings up another question: how do I view pre-7/31/06 CCE entries?

Gordy, Not sure how you found those, but thank you! I’ve googled crestview a few times and never turned up anything beyond the three pics at Copper Country Reflections.

Hoser

Oops… did I say west of M26? I meant East, so you were always right. You can’t find posts from before 7/31/06 because there are none. Thats when I started. Even though I went out to Crestview, there wasn’t enough to get excited about picture wise so I never posted anything about it.

“You can’t find posts from before 7/31/06 because there are none.”

Oh.

Well, I guess that explains that. Eh shoot, I guess I’m all caught up.

Several people who have posted are correct, there was not a “Boston Mine” Boston Location contains the remnants of the old Albany and Boston Mine, which was later purchased by the Franklin Mine and became Known as the Franklin Jr. Mine.

The Albany & Boston operated from 1857-1881 and had 4-5 shafts and a few winzes. It became the Peninsula Mine in 1882, and was then purchased by the Franklin in 1895. The mine worked both the Allouez conglomerate and the Pewabic Amygdaloid deposits.

The more northern rock pile that is visible from near the Boston Road-Boston Loc. Rd intersection are the newer workings that were opened by the Franklin Jr. Mine on the Pewabic lode.

In back of what I remember as a construction company are old railbeds-roads leading back to the Franklin Jr.’s Conglomerate #2 shaft. This more southern spot has a very large poor rock pile, and the shaft is nicely capped and the metal posts are nicely engraved with the shafts identity. There is also the remains of the Rockhouse, a cement structure that seems to be what is in a few of your pictures. It would be nice if this, as well as many other shafts had not been capped in this way and could be recapped to allow for bat habitat. Those creatures that we hate to love have a benefit….they love to diet on the areas infamous mosquitoes!!

I forgot to mention that the conglomerate #2 was one of the old Albany & Boston shafts that the Franklin re-opened and re-worked. Most of the Albany and Boston’s workings were on this side of the Boston Location Road.

Terry..

Thanks for the updates. Its funny that you decided to post about the Albany & Boston / Franklin Jr. mines today because as we speak I’m working on that sheet of my explorer maps. After today’s research I came to some of the same conclusions. The Franklin Jr worked both the Allouez conglomerate lode on which the Albany and Boston worked as well as the Pewabic Lode next door (along the road).

I was able to narrow down the conglomerate shafts but the Franklin Jr’s are a problem. Supposedly there were four shafts, numbered from north to south with the first shaft called simply “North shaft” followed by 1, 2, then 3. It appears that most work was done on the No. 1 and No. 3. From my Sanborn maps the No. 3 was that rock pile visible along the road going towards Rhode Island.

But thanks for bringing my attention to this post. I’ll have to change the subject to the actually mine name (Franklin Jr I’ll call it) instead of the incorrect “Boston Mine”.

Now if you could just sort out some confusion on the Demmon / Boston Location conundrum I’m also currently trying to unravel my day would be complete!

Funny how this come up, I had got a new book called the Duluth South Shore and Atlantic Railway, its a history of the DSS&A and its predecessor railroads. It lists the station names for the old Mineral Range, at Milepost 6.6 was Boston 1873-1931 which was also the Franklin Jr Mine Spur, then at MP 7.0 was Boston Jct, 1912 renamed Arcadian Jct, 1945 renamed Siding M7, it existed 1898-1960. Milepost 7.4 was St Mary’s Jct (1873-1933), MP 8.8 was Highway (1873-1919), MP 9.2 was Keno(1906-1917). Demmon was not listed. Remember that a station name didn’t always mean a train station existed, could be just a location for the train crews to know.

Old Topo maps show that a spur from Arcadian Junction (which is probably the “Boston Jct” your source sites) went up and around Boston to stop at what is marked on the maps as the Demmon PO. I have a feeling the Demmon PO was a leftover from the Albany and Boston days, and once Franklin moved in that spur was abandoned and the new Franklin Jr. Spur was used instead. (and the station was moved to that intersection)

My topo shows both spurs, the old Demmon and the newer Franklin Jr. It does not show the St. Mary, but newer Topo do show an abandoned rail line there.

I did a search for the Demmon Post Office, in Google Books a book called Michigan Place Names showed up.
Showed Boston as being a station on the Mineral Range Railroad.

Jemima White was the first Postmaster on Jan 26, 1900, on April 2, 1906, the office was renamed Demmon for Daniel L Demmon, Secretary and Treasurer of the Franklin Mining Company. Post office was closed on Nov 30, 1933, but Boston remains.
So it looks like to me, the Post Office was renamed and stayed right where it was, the town was still Boston, and was probably why the railroad never showed it as being Demmon.
Daniel L Demmons was 76 years old and passed away on Feb 19, 1908, he also showed being treasurer of the Tecumseh Mining Co formed in 1880.

Excellent Gordy… that helps out a lot. I was thinking it might of been a similar situation to the Calumet PO vs Red Jacket type of thing. I guess you can just name PO’s whatever you want and they don’t have to correspond to an actual town name.

I’ll have to look that book up….