It was in 1860 that the small mining location of Boston was born along a swampy stretch of land several miles north of Hancock. The mine in question was the Albany and Boston, which had attempted to mine a stretch of the Allouez Conglomerate. The ill-fated endeavor managed to build itself a lake, stamp mill and town but very little else. A few years later a second mine – the Peninsula – gave it the old college try but it too managed very little. Finally in 1895 the property was sold yet again, this time to the struggling Franklin Mine which was in a choke hold by its omnipresent neighbor, the Quincy Mine. For a time it looked as if the Franklin would suffer the same fate as its predecessors, but it soon discovered what all the other mines had managed to miss – profitably. For the next twenty years the mine managed to eek out a living and keep the Franklin Mining Company clinging to life.

We’ve been here before, multiple times in fact. The first visit resulted in the discovery of the old Albany and Boston Stamp mill, as well as a more contemporary hoist ruin which we now know belonged to the Franklin Jr. No.2 shaft. The second visit was done not by me, but fellow copper country explorer Brian Wereley. His visit resulted in a good look at the rest of that Franklin Jr No. 2 surface plant whose hoist we found earlier. Today we take a second look at those No.2 remains – starting with the rock house itself.

Though Brian covered this structure rather well in the last post, there’s something about being physically next to this immense wall of concrete that really puts it in perspective. This is an enormous foundation, and easily the largest of its type I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a few). It stands a good 12 feet in height, rising almost as tall as the tangle of young trees which envelop it.

Nearby stands something not quite as tall, but equally as impressive. This would be the remains of the No.2 shaft house, now safely capped with a large concrete slab. This is probably the most interesting capping job I’ve seen, since it has left relatively intact the foundation to both the surrounding building and the shaft collar itself. In most cases the capping process has resulted in the complete destruction of everything else around it.

Here’s part of that shaft house foundation wall, which can be found surrounding the capped shaft.

Sitting on the front side of the shaft (the side facing the hoist) is this large piece of angled concrete, that looks similar to a batter brace. I believe this helped support the skip road, as it made its way through the collar and into the shaft itself.

A rather odd detail is this beam which sits just outside the cap and collar itself. I first thought this might have been a rail from the skip road, but its position outside the cap seems to diminish that possibility. I would suppose its part of the skip road supporting structure, but I’m not sure. Whatever it is it looks as if the capping crew haphazardly poured come concrete around it. Why I’m not sure.

Since this has been covered before here at CCE, we’ll move on. Next target: a missing smoke stack.