Osceola Mine

A group of at least three buildings, one to the east and two to the west, that are clustered together along the line. They are not large buildings, more the size of a small house then a warehouse or other building. The foundations are typical to what we find – poor rock and mortar. At least one of them had a definite cellar entrance and basement window.

Climbing poor rock piles can be tricky business, but lucky for us this one had been worked over by a bulldozer – creating a easy ramp of rock for us to use right up to the top. It was a small poor rock pile as far as they go, but it was still a good height above the trees and shrubs that surrounded us. When we got to the top, we could easily see the lay of the land and where we were in relation to metropolis.

Poor rock piles also serve another important purpose. They help in figuring out what shaft you are currently exploring. Mines were worked from a number of shafts – deep holes from which the underground was accessed. There were always numbered, usually in a sequential manner. Mines opened a first shaft – known as Shaft #1 – and then opened sequential shafts further down the lode as needed. (#2, #3, etc). The shafts were always in line along the lode, and were numbered either north to south or south to north. And which each shaft, there was a corresponding poor rock pile.

As we looked down the dusty path at this point in time, it was clear that Tecumseh road was quickly meeting its fate. Here the rail-line moved further south, making a turn to the southwest a few hundred yards distant. Down the road to the southwest, a small creek meandered through a covert and out into the marshland behind us. To the east, poking up above the tree line, Osceola #13 continued it vigil. And just ahead of us – so close we almost missed it – we could see the rust red of bricks in the brush. Ruins!

Cutting through the woods we found ourselves upon a sea of poor rock. This was different then the poor rock we had come across previously. The other rock was brown in color, this being a more common grey color. More noticeable was the sheer size of the pile compared to the others. As we looked up a rising wall of rock reached for the sky all around us. The view was sure to be something – so we climbed.

The second hoist building ( or so we had called it ) was similar in form to the structure we had encountered earlier – only on a more grand scale. This building was easily twice as large as the other – the “H” shaped foundation of red brick was a good eight feet high. The whole structure was a good 20 feet square. If it was a hoist foundation, this one was a much larger machine.

So how do you know a hoist building when you find one? Hoists consisted of two basic parts: a large drum on which a long length of hoisting rope was wound around; and a steam engine connected to that drum which was used to turn it. Because of this standardized design, any foundation we find that was used for a hoist would have to have accommodations for both of those components. Lets take a look at the foundation for what we think is the #5 hoist

While the outer wall is made from poor rock, the inner foundation on which the machinery sat is built with both poor rock and bricks. The bricks apparently manufactured by the “brush” company.

The Osceola Mine was one of the more productive and profitable mines along the Keweenaw Peninsula, mined for over 30 years without prolonged cessation. During that time it produced over 190 million pounds of copper and paid dividends to its investors of over $14 million (over $160 million today). While impressive, these statistics are hardly remembered today. Instead Osceola’s infamy lies not in it profitable nature, but instead for its location as the worst mining disaster in Copper Country history. For here, at the No. 3 shaft, 30 men and boys lost their lives in a matter of hours.

The fire at Osceola No. 3 may of been devastating to workers, but it did little to halt the shafts march of profitability for the next 30 years. The shaft, along with the rest of the lode was finally shut down by C&H in 1931. The lode was worked again in the 1950’s by C&H, but mainly through the No.6 shaft to the south. The remains that exists today on the corner of Tecumseh Road and Store Street are the remains of the original No. 3 surface plant built over a century ago.