The Franklin’s early mining efforts along the Albany and Boston property were a convoluted mess of failed starts and resets. In an almost desperate attempt to find suitable copper deposits to keep the company afloat, Franklin jumped back and forth between the two main lodes along the Boston property, as well as a few other smaller lodes and deposits scattered about. In the end the company managed to settle on the utilization of three main shafts, two along the old Albany and Boston Workings and a third at the north end of the Pewabic Lode. It was this third shaft – the No.3 – that we ended up stumbling across first as we ventured north of town.

From Boston’s main street we turned north along the old Mineral Range spur line which once fed the Franklin Jr.’s Pewabic Lode shafts. After a short jaunt we found ourselves looking down the maw of another massive concrete rockhouse foundation straddling the old right-of-way.

This beauty was almost an exact duplicate of the No.2 version we had discovered down south, but with far less foliage obscuring its bulk. The concrete here is tinted red, due to the use of Conglomerate rock in the aggregate mix – a color also evident in the Allouz Lode’s poor rock and stamp sands.

Walking between the foundations – as the rock cars would have once ran as well – we notice a great deal of bolts peppering the concrete’s surface. I believe these belong to a collection of stay bolts which have been driven through the structure. Though I don’t recall finding these bolts on other rockhouse foundations, it might be possible that the use of Conglomerate aggregate in the concrete mix affected its strength and therefore required these extra precautions to keep the foundation from blowing outward.

Here’s a closer look at one of those stay bolts, which run clear through the foundation from other wall to inner wall.

In addition to the stay bolts we also have a few of these interesting pieces of hardware scattered along the walls as well. They might just be another stay bolt of a varying design, or they have a completely different purpose.

Here’s a closer look at a spot where one of those alternate stay bolts were once attached, but have fallen off. These particular bolts utilize four holes instead of the single hole used by the other bolts.

The outside walls of the rockhouse foundations are rather plain, but also utilize the lines of stay bolts seen on the inside.

On the shaft side of the foundations we find this oddly placed concrete slab. Its position is far to close to the rockhouse remains to be a cap for the shaft, but I’m not sure what else it could be. I suppose its possible that a small building was placed under the skip road, but it could also just be the remains of the skip road support system.

Continuing north from the rockhouse remains we found ourselves looking out over the desolate terrain of what once was a rather large pile of poor rock. Most of the poor rock had since been trucked away – probably for road construction – but a few piles still lingered on the periphery. But what caught our attention the most was the site of the second smokestack rising up out of the tree line beyond. That would be our next stop…