Copper Country Scrapbook

By the 1960’s it had become painfully apparent to the powers-that-be across the Keweenaw that the end was near. The copper industry had been slowly dying for decades, and as the decade opened only a handful of operating mines still remained. The writing was on the wall and a plan B had to be formulated to sustain the area. Instead of attracting new industry to the area, a decision was made to concentrate instead on the service sector. Thus Copper Country was reborn as a tourist destination.

Last week I brought you one side of a two-sided brochure done in the mid ’60’s to bring tourists to the Keweenaw. Today I bring you the second side, mostly consisting of a map of the county. A few interesting things to note however. It had been said many times that while the rest of the world moves on, the Copper Country seems trapped in a bygone era. While in a lot of ways this is true, the passage of time still takes its toll on the places along the Keweenaw – just at a much slower rate.

Probably the best thing that has come out of my experience with Explorer has been the contact with other people who share the same passion and curiosity about the Copper Country as I do. I am not the first to explore this haunted landscape and will not be the last. What draws me into the woods and back-alleys of the Keweenaw draws many other people from all around this country as well. Because of this, I have decided share this website with my fellow explorers and dedicated readers through a series I call Copper Country Scrapbook.

One of the things that has constantly fascinate me about the copper country was its ability to not only exists in multiple time periods simultaneously, but also to exist in multiple worlds at the same time as well. This is most noticeable in the grand architecture of this area’s churches. A friend of mine who had spent many years in Germany remarked during his first visit to the area that the churches here reminded him of old Europe and the centuries-old churches seen there. Here is the twin spires of the St. Paul the Apostle church of Calumet, as captured by Charles Odalaigh.

While my daily posting have ceased for the time being, I still am trying to add new material at least once a week to keep the site limping along. Towards that end I bring you today’s post. First a little background. Yesterday I had received an email from someone I had went to college with who – like most of us Tech grads – was bitten by the Copper Country bug. While out of the area now, she still returns from time to time to document the ruins and history of this fascinating place. Her B&W photographs of many places I have featured here on Explorer – and others I have yet to feature – offer an interesting counterpoint to the images I present here on a daily basis. (well, use to present on a daily basics) I think you will find them as interesting as I did.

In my submission box yesterday was this little gem from reader Bill Kasmauski. Its an old Northland Studios pic of a mine apparently along the Cliff Range. (based on the cliff in the background). The photo was in such bad shape he had to take it to a restorer, who was able to fix it up a great deal. Bill thinks this might be the Cliff Mine but wasn’t sure, so he sent it to me to post on the site for everyone to take a look. He thought someone else might be able to pinpoint where and when the photo was taken. While the location seemed right for the Cliff, the buildings seemed wrong. So I thought I’d do a little digging on my own.

Our journey along the Mineral Range from Pt. Mills Junction ends not at the Arcadian Mine itself, but at Arcadia Junction a mile or so beyond. Here is where this Arcadian line joins back up with the Mineral Range mainline, at a large Wye half submerged by the waters of Boston Pond. We have been here before, but today we take a fresh new look thanks to the contribution of one of our readers (Thanks Gordy!). We start with the building above, which I thought was a station building of some type. Turns out to be a potato warehouse which, rumor has it, was built from the wood salvaged from the Electric Park pavilion.

Yet another installment of our Copper Country Scrapbook series, featuring a collection of photos submitted by my readers. Including:

B. Groeneveld sends another great pic – this time of the old Allouez-Douglass (Allouez #3) which I featured last spring. (check the post out HERE). He was lucky enough to be able to find these ruins in much better shape then I do (curse my age!). In fact, this shot was taken atop a poor rock pile that no longer exists! I love this photo because of not so much the mine, but what you can see in the background. I think the shaft-house in the distance is the Kingston, but the rock pile looks wrong. Perhaps someone else has a better idea.

Check out more by clicking on “read more”!

Today for Copper Country Scrapbook I present the Centennial No. 3 – as seen by fellow explorer Jay Balliet. He’s taken a great deal of photos of this baby, which is a good thing since we haven’t gotten out to it yet. Although I’ve featured its big brother on this site – Centennial No. 6 [...]

After yesterday’s feature on the Centennial No. 3 (as photographed by Jay Balliet), I got a few more photos of the site in my inbox. This has got to be the most popular mine site to photography – which makes sense because it’s so close to the road. People love to photograph it.