2025-07-05 – McLain State Park – Houghton, MI
Heading west through Marquette, we made a stop at the Michigan Iron Industry Museum. Iron mining has been a major industry in Michigan since the mid 1800s. The first iron “range” discovered is named the Marquette Range and the very first mine in the area was right at the site of the museum. Subsequently, two more major ranges were discovered, the Menominee and Gogebic Ranges. The museum traced the history of the industry, focusing on this early discovery and detailing the technical developments that made mining more efficient over time. It’s a good museum, well worth the stop.
But we’re leaving the iron mining area of the Upper Peninsula, heading for the copper region of the state. We’d best start with a little primer on the area we’re visiting over the next week or so.
Looking at a map of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, you’ll notice a “thumb” that extends up into Lake Superior. The thumb is known as the Keweenaw Peninsula. Its principle city is Houghton, roughly in the center of the Keweenaw and you’ll notice that a body of water runs through it. That body of water is known variously as the Keweenaw Waterway, the Portage Canal and other names. A mostly natural waterway, it was dredged for use as a commercial waterway in the 1860s. The canal saved up to 100 miles for ships that needed to go around it.
Copper has been mined in the Keweenaw for at least 8,000 years. Copper deposits here are unique in the abundance of pure native copper in addition to more traditional ores of copper sulfides and oxides. Commercial mining began there in the mid-1800s and continued until the last mine closed in 1997. Today, the area is turning to tourism with emphasis in both its natural beauty and on its mining history.
It is also worth noting that the museums we visited in the area are not the usual type operated by the National Park Service even though they carry the imprimatur. Instead, The Keweenaw Heritage Sites are official partners of Keweenaw National Historical Park, but are privately owned. Each site interprets and preserves an important aspect of the area’s copper mining history.
McLain State Park, where we camped, is on the north side of the Portage Canal, described above, at its west end. Typical of all the state’s parks we’ve visited so far, it was sparklingly well maintained.
Dinner was a very simple classic of Amy’s canned tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
2025-07-06 – McLain State Park – Houghton MI
We headed in to Houghton to explore the city and its surroundings. It’s a nice place with plenty of shops and restaurants. It is home to the Michigan Technological University. The school consistently ranks among the top in the nation for its outstanding engineering programs. More importantly, to some, is that it is the birthplace of professional hockey.
One of the most notable sights in the city is the Portage Canal Lift Bridge. The bridge is the only way to get to the northern part of the peninsula as it is the only bridge across the canal. The bridge also happens to be the widest and heaviest double deck lift bridge in the world. While its upper deck was used for cars and trucks, the lower of its two decks handled railroad traffic. Rail service was discontinued for the Keweenaw in 1982 and, today, the bridge is only completely lowered in the winter so the lower level can be used for snowmobiles. Commercial traffic under the bridge is rare these days But it still opens for pleasure and tour boats.
The city has done a yeoman’s job of “parkifying” its waterfront with gardens, bike paths, benches, etc. It’s a lovely place to enjoy the water and the sun and lots of people take advantage of it.
It is hard to ignore the Quincy Mine #2 Shaft Rock-House because it looms over the city of Hancock across the canal from Houghton. The mine, nicknamed “Old Reliable” because of its consistent profitability, was operated from 1846 to 1945. By the time it closed it had one of the deepest mine shafts in the world at 9,260 feet! We did a self guided tour that explained how the mine worked and let you explore inside the buildings that were part of the mine. They also offered a three hour guided tour down inside the mine that we declined.
As in nearly all vertical hard rock mines, there was a huge cable-operated lift that lowered and retrieved different kinds of boxes called “skips” from the mine shaft. Some skips lifted ore to be dumped into bins, others lowered and lifted mine workers and still others lifted water that collected in the lowest part of the mine. The machinery that pulled the cable was housed in a separate “hoist house” building and was powered by a large steam engine. The hoist cable was guided to the top of the rock house through a tall gantry.
Getting the ore out of the mine was only the first job. It then had to be processed, first to be pulverized so that the copper-rich parts could be separated from the poor rock. A company owned railroad transported the ore rocks six miles to the Stamp Mill which was located along the canal. There, steam powered hammers crushed the ore. Unfortunately, that site is unstable and is not open to the public.
However, the next step in the process, the Quincy Smelting Works, is open for touring. In smelting, the enriched ore from the stamping mill was melted in huge furnaces, slag was removed from the melt and the purified copper was cast into ingots to be used by customers who fabricated the metal into products. The smelting works is quite rough and in its very early stages of preparation for tours but our guide did a great job.
Dinner was chicken in capered cream sauce and sautéed asparagus.
2025-07-07 – McLain State Park – Houghton MI
The stamp mill discarded leftover rock when it separated the rich ore from it. Later on it was dredged back up from the river bottom and refined by newer technologies. There’s not much left to see except for Quincy Dredge Number Two, abandoned half sunken on the edge of the canal.
The town of Calumet, a bit north of Houghton, was once the center of Michigan’s copper mining industry. The Calumet & Hecla Company, who for a time produced half the worlds supply of copper, was headquartered here. Currently, the town is home to the Coppertown USA Mining Museum. This museum is not so much about the development of mining as it is about the people who lived here, who mined and who processed the ore.
Notice the distinct stone used to construct buildings in the area. This particular distinct red sandstone with white streaks is fairly unique to northern upper Michigan. It is called Jacobsville sandstone.
The copper mining boom attracted people from a multitude of backgrounds, including people from Finland, Germany, Italy, France, and England. The museum delved into those disparate groups and how they managed to both preserve their traditions while succeeding in knitting together a larger community.
July 7 is Sandy’s birthday. We celebrated by both enjoying a seafood dinner at Joey’s Seafood & Grill in Houghton. Great food with a proud owner who makes a point of serving great gluten free dinners. And, to our surprise & delight our waitress informed us that our meal had been paid for by a couple at a neighboring table!!
