The Ojibway mine was home to two shafts. The northern shaft was known as the No.1, and was sunk at the northern end of the mine’s property. The southern shaft, started several years later, was sunk into an exposed section of barren rock at the mine’s southern end. It was this shaft that we were looking for next along the old Ojibway grounds.

Unfortunately all we could find of the old shaft was its sprawling rock pile. The pile spread out across the marshy lowlands along the Gratiot River tributary and had succeeded in re-routing the river further to the east. Unlike the northern shaft’s waste pile, this one had not been hauled off for road construction. It was rather over-grown, with more then a few small trees and shrubs sprinkled out across its surface.

From our vantage point atop the No.2 pile we could look back northward over the densely packed surface plant running along the main road into the property. Today that view is blocked by the forest, but back in the day it would have looked something like we see above. (this photo looks to be taken from atop the same pile, you can see what looks like tramway tracks in the foreground) For a mine of such small stature (not to mention production levels) it sure had a rather robust surface plant. Nearly a dozen buildings in all, including a few boarding houses and mine manager dwellings. While impressive here in this photo, its even more impressive when laid out on a map…

This map is derived from the 1909 Sanborn map, which dates it at the beginning of the mine’s lift. At this time the No.2 shaft had not yet been sunk, so it doesn’t appear. I did however add where it would have been located. I’m unsure whether a second hoist building was ever built to serve that second shaft, but we didn’t find any ruins of one on the surface so I doubt it. The centralized layout of the boiler/compressor/hoist complex makes me think it served both simultaneously.

Before leaving the Ojibway Mine for good, we had to take a short jaunt across the highway to see what we could find at the old mining location of Ojibway, a town built a half mile west to serve the mine’s more family oriented workforce…