Shaft House

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.

Our experience with shafts from Osceola and elsewhere has given us a general idea of what to expect when we find one. Generally they are marked with a barbwire fence, either on old rotten wood posts or rusty steel stakes. Inside the usually failing and fallen fence is a large depression, about ten feet or so square. Inside of this depression is usually a good amount of brush and small trees.

The hoist building is actually two connected buildings; a narrow and short building in which the hoist cables entered and a larger building shown here. The sheer size of this building would suggest it held a large piece of equipment, possible the hoist itself. However, modern hoists (as this mine would have used) are powered by electricity and are much smaller then their steam powered ancestors.

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.

Sitting on those snow-covered rails, our mystery machine seemed to be patiently waiting its return to the underground it called home. Only the loading door ahead of it was closed, and the collar house beyond silent and empty. It’s destiny now seemed to slowly rot away behind the collar house – another victim of a lost empire.

The Cliff Range was home to many mines, one of which was the first profitable mine to exist in the Copper Country. It was in the middle of the nineteenth century that the Cliff Mine blossomed into an industrial juggernaut. Working a fissure vein at the Greenstone flow, the mine worked the cliffs from all angles; shafts at its base, adits driven into its face, and even by shafts sunk into their top.

The mine at North Kearsarge (and its sister mine at South Kearsarge) enjoyed the benefits of an association with one of the more wealthy mine companies along the Copper Country. The Osceola Consolidated controlled not only these mines, but also the six shafts of the Osceola as well as sharing owners with C&H’s rival – the Tamarack Mine. They operated past the turn of the century when eventually they shared the fate of all successful competitors to C&H. C&H bought them out.

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.

Probably the best thing that has come out of my experience with Explorer has been the contact with other people who share the same passion and curiosity about the Copper Country as I do. I am not the first to explore this haunted landscape and will not be the last. What draws me into the woods and back-alleys of the Keweenaw draws many other people from all around this country as well. Because of this, I have decided share this website with my fellow explorers and dedicated readers through a series I call Copper Country Scrapbook.