The Osceola Mine was first started in 1873 in hopes to mine the highly rich Calumet Conglomerate lode that had been so successful for neighboring C&H. The mine opened a pair of shafts on the conglomerate itself in short order, but quickly realized that the conglomerate was not nearly as rich on is southern extension. Luckily several years later another lode was discovered on the property, a copper rich amygdaloid lode that would become known as the Osceola. The discovery turned what was becoming a dismal failure into one of the more successful companies in the region.

The Osceola would quickly buy up its neighbor to the south – the Opechee – and began sinking a total of six shafts along its property atop the newly discovered lode. The mine would build itself a stamp mill on the shore of Portage Lake just outside of Hancock, its rock hauled by the independent Mineral Range railroad. Later the mine would build a new mill at Torch Lake and utilize its own railroad to haul its copper down for milling.

The mine would later fall under the ownership of C&H, who would operate the mine up to the dawning of the Depression. In the 1950′s C&H re-opened the mine, concentrating its efforts on the southern No.6 shaft. It installed a modern surface plant and would continue to operate the shaft up until C&H’s own closing in 1967.

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