At the beginning the Franklin Jr. concentrated the majority of its efforts along a northern extension of the Pewabic Lode, which happened to run across the old Albany and Boston property. But what at first seemed promising quickly turned out to be anything but. In response the Franklin Jr. turned its attention several hundred feet to the east – back to the Albany and Boston’s original workings atop the Allouez conglomerate. It turned out to be a smart move.

Due to the move, the majority of the Franklin Jr.’s surface plant would be aligned along the conglomerate lode, its two shafts straddling the old village of Boston between them. Those original shafts are marked today by a pair of towering concrete smoke stacks which rise high above the tree tops. These two stacks can be seen clearly from both Boston Road and US41, and have been beckoning me for several years. Unfortunately I could never seem to track them down on the ground… until today.

Making our way north from the No.2 shaft we could make out the top of the phantom stack protruding up through the trees. Unfortunately we couldn’t get too close from the old rail grade, so a detour was necessary. After crossing a few old steam trenches and pushing our way through some really serious underbrush were were finally looking straight up at its bulk, its base sitting just a few feet ahead of us.

Looking up at the concrete tower’s old flue opening we found ourselves face to face with a stack that appeared a tad more modern then would be expected. Taking a look through old Sanborn maps I later discovered that this stack was in fact a later addition. The original was a 60 foot iron variety set on a stone base. This concrete version had to have been built sometime after 1923.

Sitting directly under that flue opening was this large piece of concrete, which looked to have simply fallen down into its current position. This might have been part of the original flue structure which connected this stack tot he boiler house.

Next door to that concrete piece of flue was this sandstone oddity – a long and narrow foundation that was covered in a great deal of brush. This would have to be part of the old boiler house’s foundation, but it was far too overgrown to get a good view of it.

With nothing much else to see here it was time to move on, this time in search of the other phantom stack of the old Franklin Jr. Mine. But to do that we had to take a walk to the other side of town….