Comments on: The Boiler Along the Gratiot

By: ccexplorer

ccexplorer — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:58:37 +0000

Thanks Gordy! Thats great info and really fills in those blanks I was missing. (looks like thats not the only thing I was missing, since I failed to notice those pump foundations when I was there) Great stuff….

By: Gordy

Gordy — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:16:58 +0000

That pond at the Seneca #1 was for fire protection only but it did protect the homes and mine site.

By: Gordy

Gordy — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:15:30 +0000

Did some research at the Tech Archive on Wednesday.
Found some info on this boiler accidentally while looking for info on the pumping plant at Seneca Lake. I was looking at boiler inspections done by C&H for the boilers at Seneca Lake. The file before that was for Seneca Mine, so I looked in it and viola. .
The Gratiot River pumping plant was installed by the Seneca Copper Company for the new #1 shaft. In conjunction with the dam along Seneca Location Rd that Mike featured, if it was a dry time, this pumping plant would refill the pond. It was connected via a 6 inch pipe between the Gratiot River and Seneca Lake and a 4 inch pipe from there to the pond..
The pump house had this boiler and 2 pumps, each one slightly different, plus a coal bunker. The boiler ran at 100psi. The only boiler inspection listed was done in 1931 and the boiler passed all tests.
I wandered out there on Thursday with my uncle, one of the things he noticed was a creek that roughly followed the road to the boiler was not natural, sure enough, its man made, all along one side you can see the dirt dug out and piled up. Looks like this is the same one that crosses under Cliff Drive and probably drains the over flow from Seneca Lake.
I found the concrete foundations for both pumps next to the boiler along with the concrete intake in the Gratiot for the pumps, also the 6 inch pump is sticking up out of the ground for the water line still, although I think C&H had pulled this pipe out for use along US41 to bring Lake Superior water to the Seneca #2 when it was reopened.
The Archive also had a nice set of fire insurance maps, non Sanborn for the Seneca Mine locations, both the original #2 and 3 and the newer #1

By: Dave Freeze

Dave Freeze — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:36:52 +0000

The “Proceedings of the Lake Superior Mining Institute” are another good source of information on Michigan copper mining. One issue had an article on the inlet for the Champion stamp mill.

By: Gordy

Gordy — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:07:19 +0000

Well that bites the big one, the last file is missing when clicked on, thought I would snap them up before the demand gets to great and we bankrupt the State of Michigan.
Guess I’ll have to try and email them to let them know it doesn’t work.
You do have to download the file before you can save it.

By: Gordy

Gordy — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:00:32 +0000

If you want an almost complete copy of the USGS Professional Paper 144 , State of Michigan has it,
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/GIMDL-Catalog-2010-01-20_307979_7.pdf
Hopefully the link will get you there.
Page down through the catalog to page 34, 8 parts to download. According to the site, the maps are the only thing missing and openning them up it looks to be the whole thing, parts 1 and 2.
This has a lot of useful data, just found the catalog tonight and was looking through it all.

By: Joe Dase

Joe Dase — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:16:17 +0000

Mike, If you can get the OK to do it, I will loan you my copy to do it with. Its missing the mine sections, but its complete other than that.

By: ccexplorer

ccexplorer — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:59:07 +0000

Charles…. Thats a good question. I would be willing to at the very least digitize the maps and put them up here on CCE for everyone’s perusal. Being a government publication it would be in the public domain so all that stopping me from doing it is time (and a copy of my own). Maybe I’ll have to look into it.

By: Charles Dawley

Charles Dawley — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:50:07 +0000

when is someone going to digitize all of 144, come on people its 2010!

By: Dave Freeze

Dave Freeze — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:25:45 +0000

I checked the map from PP #144, it appears that the dam was not there in 1928.