North Kearsarge Mine

After oversleeping for a few months, winter has finally awoken here in the Copper Country. It hasn’t taken it long to get to work either, dumping a good amount of snow across the peninsula already. Earlier in the week, we took our first snowshoe excursion into the trails and woods encompassing the old Allouez and North Kearsarge mines. While mild at first, the lake effect snows kicked in making for a white wintry wonderland.

One of the highest concentrations of mines along the Keweenaw can be found in a 4 mile strip of land sitting between the towns of Calumet and Mohawk in an area known as the Allouez Gap. Seven mines – Mohawk, Ahmeek, Kingston, Allouez, North Kearsarge, Wolverine, and South Kearsarge – called this area home sinking over a dozen shafts into the Kearsarge Amygdaloid lode. The lode itself accounted for over 17% of all production in the Copper Country, second only to the great Calumet Conglomerate.

During the third quarter of the 19th century, copper mining had begun its southward migration to greener pastures around Calumet. One of the pioneers of this movement was the Osceola Consolidated Mining Company. While its original workings on the Calumet Conglomerate were less then successful, its holdings along the nearby Osceola Amygdaloid were a different story. This success prompted the company to expand further, manifesting itself in 1897 with the opening of two mines along the Kearsarge lode – the North and South Kearsarge Mines.

It could be argued that the hoist was the heart of a shaft; working tirelessly day and night transporting rock, copper, tools, equipment, and people in and out of the depths. It kept the shaft in operation, and the mine making money. Without it neither could happen. But the hoist had needs of its own, the most notable was it’s appetite for steam. Without steam the hoist was just a static drum, and could neither keep the shaft in operation or make the mine money. Steam is the lifeblood of the hoist and heart that keeps it pumping lies in the boiler house.

While most mines paired up a dedicated boiler house for each hoist, the steam from those boilers were often used in a variety of applications. The steam would often be used to power other engines at the mine, such as compressors or pumps. It also was sent to radiators to heat some of the buildings. These peripheral uses were fed by a series of steam pipes that ran underground from the boiler house out to the other buildings.

We walked around the perimeter of the pile, trying to find a less steep side to climb. Along the way we came across a new find, buried in the trees. It was a pair of concrete stones, in the shape of triangles. Along the shorter edge were a pair of bolts sticking up from the surface. We thought they must be some sort of support footings to a nearby structure we hadn’t found yet. It didn’t take us long to find it.

Climbing the pile proved a little difficult, but after some slipping and sliding we made it to the top. The pile stretched out ahead of us in a single long line out into the gap. Beyond it lie a grand vista across the heart of the Keweenaw. Walking along the pile towards the tip, the view opened up all around us. Below us the village of Copper City rose above the tree tops, and further away the sprawling area of Mohawk was laid out over the hillside.

It was from our poor rock pile perch that we discovered yet another ruin at North Kearsarge. This one was at our feet, literally. Down below us, snuggled up against the east face of the pile was a large concrete slab. It was square, and was sprinkled with a series of concrete blocks of some sort. It reminded us at first of something we’d find at a stamp mill, but we knew there couldn’t of been one here.

The Kearsarge Amygdaloid was home to more independent mines then probably any other load. No less then a dozen mines struck shafts along its length from the Cliff Range to Calumet. These included (from north to south) the Ojibway, Seneca, Gratiot, Mohawk, Ahmeek, Allouez, North Kearsarge, Wolverine, South Kearsarge, C&H, and Le Salle. Most of these mines lie within or near the Allouez Gap in an area I like to call the Valley of the Mines.

It has been said many times here in these pages that the hoist was the heart of a mine. The life blood of copper flowed by the power of these steam behemoths. Often a mine’s most expensive purchase was their hoist engine, and it was the center of attention. Impressive arrays of support buildings were assembled just to service them and keep them running. The men who operated them viewed them with pride, and the company that owed them made sure to keep them spit and polished and the buildings that housed them clean and neat.