Rock House

The concrete structure we approached was a more modern structure then what we have been accustomed to. Instead of poor rock and red bricks, this structure was completely constructed out of concrete. Two large concrete foundations, about twelve feet in height and six feet in width straddled the old rail line. Above the line, a concrete ceiling created a tunnel of the space below. The cap sported a group of large openings, probably used to dump the rock into the waiting ore cars below. Now however, only a small tree and various bushes took advantage of the openings for light.

Copper mining across the Keweenaw shared a uniform approach toward surface infrastructure. Specifically, every mine across the copper country had within it surface plant three main buildings: the shaft house, the rock house, and the hoist building. For contemporary explorers such as us here at copper country explorer, these three buildings become the main ruins we expect to find on any mine excursion. We are rarely disappointed.

The Kingston Mine was the most modern shaft / rock house built by C&H. It was of a common design, seperating the shaft building from the rockhouse vie a short section of exterior skip road. The elevated rock house sat atop a large rock bin, where the copper bearing rock was stored before it was dumped into waiting rail cars. This design is very similar to Centennial, Osceola #13, and even the Gratiot mine we featured earlier on this site.

Rising a good four stories above our heads the tower sat perched on one of two parallel concrete walls. It was in reality a concrete column wrapped in an iron blanket that had begun to peel off. The tower was new to us, but the concrete base was unmistakably that of a rock house; the gap between the walls once straddling a rail line the once brought copper rock from here to the mill down at Gay.

Mining is simple. You drill holes into rock, you stuff explosives in those holes, and you blow the rock up into smaller pieces. From that point on everything at a mine – people, machines, buildings, and railroads – all work together to remove that rock from underground and separate any copper found within it. The first stop for the rock on this journey is the rock 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.

It toiled on the surface for over three decades, pillaging the underground for precious metals one loaded skip at a time. It worked an expansive and deep foray into the earth, judging by the two massive rock piles that now flanked it. One day it simply stopped. Now the meek and humble ruins that remain bear little resemblance to the once proud buildings that once served here.

Copper mining existed along the Keweenaw for almost 150 years (roughly between 1850 and 1995) During this time the technology, architecture, equipment, and environment changed significantly. The remains of the Mohawk #1 and its brothers represent the 2nd generation of Copper Mines on the Keweenaw. It was born from everything learned and lost by copper mines before it, and passed on that heritage to those mines that followed.

We made our way forward to the front of the collar house. Turning the corner we could see the monolithic rock house standing tall only a hundred or so feet away. From this angle (and this close) the building looked massive. It rose high above our heads and if we watched the clouds pass over it long enough we swore the thing was falling over on top of us. We turned back to the collar house, the front end consisting of one large opening. The opening had been covered by sheet metal, but something else was plain as day.

There are two types of rock underground – the type of rock that makes money and everything else. Copper may be more abundant here then anywhere else, but even here it’s a minority. Within the lodes that it calls home, Copper is scattered about in small pockets and thin veins largely outnumbered by the value-less rocks around it. In conglomerate lodes copper exists as pebbles. In amygdaloid lodes it was more like flakes. Mines were lucky to get a pound of copper for every 100 pounds of rock mined.