Copper Falls Mill

Taking the old two-track from Eagle Harbor southward brings you through a Christmas scented forest carpeted by ferns and tanned pine needles. Fall had arrived to the Copper Country by the time we traveled the trail, and the ferns had turned from green to a yellow- brown. The road narrowed as it winded its way deeper into the dark forest. It seemed to have no end, aimlessly wandering southward. But we knew it’s destination was near – the Copper Falls Mine.

Walking out on the sands at Copper Falls quickly became a surreal experience. The sands spread outwards in all directions, drifting off into the forest surrounding us. These sands were more coarse and darker then the sand found at the Mohawk mill. This was probably due to the differences in rock types between the two lodes, as well as the primitive nature of the stamp mill here.

It was obvious that a stamp mill once existed along the edges of these sands. Knowing a thing or two about stamp mills we had an idea of where to look. Stamp Mills relied on two things in order to separate copper: water and gravity. Any stamp mill would be built near a source of water such as a river or lake. It also would be build along a hill, in order to make the greatest use of gravity. Because of this we started our search along the creek that had cut a path through the sands – Owl Creek.

Even after 150 years man’s presence remains. By now, however, that presence has managed to blend rather nicely into the forest that surrounds us. Long rusted rods seem to grow like trees among their wooded cousins. Metal banding weaves in and out of the ground like exposed roots. Like rocks scattered among the leaves and twigs are broken bits of brick – some with names still visible upon their faces. And most cunning of all was the collection of moss covered tree trunks rotting away upon the forest floor – half buried in the ground.

The adit we discovered at Copper Falls in only part of a much larger labyrinth of tunnels and shafts that comprise a Copper Country mine. The copper rich rock that mines sought were localized and concentrated into areas called lodes. Due to the geological forces that shaped the Keweenaw, copper bearing lodes were long and narrow strips of rock – running generally parallel to the shoreline. These lodes are only a couple hundred feet in thickness and extend for miles on a westward dip under Lake Superior. Because of this, mines in the Copper Country are generally very deep and narrow in structure.

The adit here on the side of the hill was only a small part of the Copper Falls operation. The main focus of the company was a series of shafts sunk high atop the hill above us. The adit tunneled here was used as a convenient means to drain water from the mine without the need for pumps (as water still leaves the mine today). But its main purpose was to expedite the movement of men, materials, and copper rock out of the mine. In fact Copper Falls employed the use of a small locomotive in this adit to pull lines of rock cars out of the mine and to the mill next door.

The passing of over a century of time can do a lot to cover the ruins of men. Once the Copper Falls Mill sat alone on a deforested hillside. Now a forest has grown up around it, and all that it was has rotted or fallen away. All that is except the piled rocks of its foundation.

The high rocky ridge that forms the Keweenaw’s “spine” is more segmented and fractured then whole. In places – such as the Allouez Gap – large sections of the spine is missing. In other parts, the spine has simply been broken into pieces by deep and narrow gashes called fissures. These cuts along the Keweenaw become the “x”’s that mark the spots for companies interested in copper. It is here that mineral rich fissure veins are formed underground.