Powder House

What was left of the #6 Rock House sat at a crossroads. Nearby was the snowmobile trail coming up from Traprock valley on its way north to Mohawk. In fact these ruins were being used as a makeshift sign, as someone had pointed out the direction of Calumet and Mohawk on its walls. Also nearby – the building was almost right on top of it – was Number 5 Road, also on its way to Mohawk. Knowing that the rest of the Mohawk Mine would be in that direction, we headed out along it to see what we could find.

Sitting uncomfortably close to the Central School and nestled between a pair of rocky cliffs lies the Central Mines powder house. In this building was stored the mine’s supply of black powder, placed a safe distance away from the mine and town. The building is designed from the ground up to help contain any explosion that might occur inside. A major component of that design – its three foot thick walls – has helped it survive over a century and a half relative intact. Getting a closer look reveals a few other design elements unique to a powder house such as this.

Yesterday we took a first look at the powder house at Central, an impressive building still standing in the woods atop the bluff. Today we’ll take a look at the big picture, with a few panoramics of the building from a few different angles. The massive size of this building can only be appreciated by being right there next to it, but perhaps this Big Picture from next to its 3-foot thick walls can provide a small clue.

We have seen a few of these buildings, and we could tell almost right away what it was for once we stumbled across it. The thick walls, lack of windows, and vents over the doors all point to one thing: powder house. We have featured two other similiar buildings here on Explorer; one at the Central Mine and another at the Mohawk Mine. These buildings were built tough, specifically to survive the detonation of its explosive contents. Nature and time won’t be quite as harsh.

After the dynamite sticks were completed and boxed, they would then be loaded onto narrow-gauge rail cars for transportation over to the storage buildings at the other side of the property. Atlas had three separate storage buildings (known as powder magazines) to insure an accident at one wouldn’t destroy the entire inventory. All three were served by a spur of the Copper Range Railroad, which would haul box-cars full of dynamite out to Keweenaw copper mines.

Man’s pursuit of the Earth’s mineral riches is yet another violent expression of his dominion over the natural world – practiced with the destructive force of explosives. With these powerful weapons we’re able to extend our influence into the Earth itself, thousands of feet below the surface we were meant to inhabit. But with this great power comes an inherent danger, demonstrating in the end that our dominion over the Earth may be nothing more than an illusion. For the Copper Empire this meant that the same explosives that provided them with their riches, could just as easily take those riches away.

Now that we have a vehicle that can more readily travel along the old roads near Copper Harbor we took a trip down an old road near the Clark Mine in search of the old mine’s powder house. The road is marked on maps as “Powderhouse Road”, so I had a feeling that we would find what we were looking for down its length. (It’s those sharp instincts of mine that allow me to find all these abandoned places) About a mile down its very rocky and rugged length we finally found it – conveniently right up alongside the road.

The LaSalle Mine begin its life in 1880 as the Tecumseh, a struggling mine south of Osceola that made several failed attempts to mine both the Calumet and Osceola lodes. The mine’s prospects incredibly brightened with its effort at the Kearsarge Lode, where it sunk two shafts near the turn of the century. In 1906 the company re-organized as the LaSalle, a company that also acquired the Caldwell mine to its south. Several years later the new company was bought up by the C&H, which would go on to utilize the property for another decade. The mine closed for good in 1920.

It was rumored to exists somewhere out by the old Baltic Mine, and it looks like we finally have proof thanks to fellow explorer Jay Wrixon. Its the mines powder house, still in remarkable shape and hidden deep within the fall foliage of the southern range. At first glance its a rather typical design, built from thick poor rock walls with sandstone quoins. But the roof, the roof is something all together different. Compared to the roofs found at other powder houses built around the same time (Trimountain, Ahmeek, LaSalle) this one is strikingly different. Instead of a rounded concrete top the building features a pitched wood version sheathed in corrugated steel.

Nestled deep within the wooded slopes of Tamarack Hill on the outskirts of the Swedetown trails stands a concrete oddity. As we first approached it looked to be a short concrete wall running along the trail, but soon it became clear that it was in fact something much more substantial.