Hecla Mine

Sandwiched between the towns of Red Jacket (later Calumet) and Laurium was an immense industrial corridor stretching over a mile from the north side of Red Jacket as far south as Osceola. This was home to the great Calumet & Hecla mine and its impressive surface plant. Mine shafts, carpentry shops, foundries, pattern shops, rail yards, round houses, warehouses, blacksmith shops, boiler houses, steam engines – the buildings stretched from horizon to horizon.

The greatest copper mine in the Copper Country (and probably the world) was born from pure happenstance. While surveying the military road running between Fort Wilkins at Copper Harbor and Fort Atkinson in central Wisconsin, a man by the name of Hulbert stumbled across a peculiar find. It was an ancient Indian storage pit, left by native miners from Isle Royale. The pit was filled to the brim with a copper treasure, and prompted Hulbert to secure the land around it.

The mine known as Hecla consisted of 8 shafts. Shafts 1-5 lined up along Mine street from Red Jacket Road south to Agent Street (Swedetown Road). From here Mine Street moved slightly to the west and continued on down south towards Osceola. It was along this part of Mine Street that shafts 6-8 were located. The shafts continued on past No. 8 for another four shafts but were then on referred to as “South Hecla” for reasons I’m not sure of. Today we come across the No. 7, looking very similar to her sisters.

Mine Street was the center of the universe for over a century in the Copper Country, for along its length sat one of the greatest copper mines in the world. At its height over 17 shaft houses rose up along this road, along with a collection of billowing smokestacks, miles of cables stands, enormous warehouses, and Superior sized steam engines chugging away day and night. It’s not quite as impressive now, especially here on the south end of the once vibrant road. Unlike the large buildings left standing on the north end – as in the photo above – the south end is more about detail.

While many mines across the Copper Country held to the same standard of pairing one hoist to one shaft, C&H took a different approach. Instead of scattering a collection of small steam engines dedicated to specific tasks (hoisting, compressing, pumping) along their mine, C&H opted to build a few massive engines that could serve multiple purposes at once. Through a series of cables, pulleys, belts, and flywheels, the power generated from these engines could be transfered across the mine site to numerous buildings and shafts.

Since passing Hecla No. 8, we had officially crossed from the Hecla Mine to the South Hecla Mine. Here were the last four shafts along the Calumet Conglomerate ending on the northern border of lands owned by the Osceola Mine. These were also some of the most modern shafts on the lode, sunk near the end of the lodes life-span. Serving them were four shared engines: the “Hancock”, “Pewabic”, “Detroit” and “Onota”.

Before we leave the Hecla and South Hecla Mine, I would like to share one last mystery in a long line of many here. As stated before, because of the shared hoists that this mine utilized it didn’t follow the usual mine ruin pattern. Most notably this meant no hoist ruin in direct line with the shaft. Except for two of the shafts, there was still something sitting across from the shafts. These were a pair of similar structures found across the road from the No. 7 and No. 9/10 shafts.