The Victoria Mine is the name given to a series of copper mines located in Rockland Township, Ontonagon County , in Michigan's Copper Country . It was near this location that a large piece of float copper, known as the Ontonagon Boulder , was found. The mine operated off and on from 1849 until its final closure in 1921. Most of the metal found there was low grade native copper from the Forest Lode. Quartz , epidote , calcite , prehnite , and pumpellyite are also found in the rock.
62-534: Prehistoric mining pits indicate that the area was mined long before Europeans ever set foot in North America. Near this area was the location of a large piece of float copper, also known as the Ontonagon Boulder . Originally discovered by missionaries, the boulder sparked the interest of British investors. In 1771, Alexander Henry the elder , an early British explorer, was sent to open a mine along
124-521: A chip from it, but it was too tough for our small axe. During a geological voyage around the perimeter of Michigan in 1820, Henry Schoolcraft first reached the mouth of the Ontonagon River on June 27. Schoolcraft and his fellow voyagers, led by four Native Americans, journeyed up the Ontonagon River in two canoes. The next day they continued up the river until they reached a set of rapids. From there they traveled on foot until they finally reached
186-806: A fishing and lumber town up to the present. It includes the Chassell Township Museum and the Friends of Fashion Vintage Clothing Collection. The Copper Range Historical Museum is located Trimountain Avenue in South Range, Michigan . The museum is located in an old bank building and features exhibits on the Copper Range Company . The Coppertown USA Museum is located at 25815 Red Jacket Road in Calumet, Michigan , within
248-555: A house. In 1667, the Jesuit missionary Claude Dablon made his way up the Ontonagon and confirmed the existence of the fabled rock. In 1766, under the guidance of a party of Ojibwe , trader Alexander Henry the elder laid eyes on the rock, and reported that he found it to be so pure and malleable that he was able to easily remove a large piece, and estimated the boulder's weight at ten tons. In May 1798, David Thompson recorded
310-580: A non-profit organization. The staff consists mostly of volunteers, though there are eight full-time staff members. Today, the Calumet Theatre is home to as many as 80 theatre-related events a year, with an estimated 20,000 people attending. The Chassell Heritage Center is located at 42373 Hancock Street in Chassell, Michigan . The heritage center, located in a 1917 elementary school building, features exhibits that trace Chassell's history from
372-782: A theater, an art gallery, and Historical Archives which house the largest collection of Finnish-North American materials in the world. The Finnish American Heritage Center links the Finnish community in America to the one in Finland through exhibits on Finnish history and tradition. The associated Historical Archive houses the largest collection of Finnish-North American materials in the world. This collection, established in 1932, currently houses 20,000 items, including genealogical resources, information about Finnish culture, artifacts, and Finnish-American artwork. Fort Wilkins Historic State Park
434-566: A year before the Forest Mine took over in 1850. Eight years later, the company reorganized as the Victoria Mining Company. The company experienced several disasters during this time. The first stamp mill was destroyed in a fire and the second washed away in a flood. After 1855, the mine was operated sporadically for a number of years. During this period of time, estimates show that 200 to 250 tons of copper were mined from
496-605: Is a Finnish-American "stump farm" homestead originally settled around the turn of the twentieth century. The farm was lived in by members of the Hanka family until 1966; the farm has been restored to its appearance in 1920. The Houghton County Historical Museum is located at 5500 M-26 in Lake Linden, Michigan . The museum houses over 100 years of photographs and artifacts with three floors of exhibits of local Copper Country mining, logging and cultural history. In addition,
558-628: Is currently a museum focusing on local history. The Calumet Theatre is located at 340 Sixth Street in Calumet, Michigan , within the park's Calumet Unit. The theatre was built in 1899 and opened on March 20, 1900. It is the first municipally built theatre in the country. The theatre originally housed live theatre, attracting notable performers such as Frank Morgan (later famous for his roles in The Wizard of Oz ), Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. , Lon Chaney, Sr. , John Philip Sousa , Sarah Bernhardt , and Madame Helena Modjeska among others. However, in
620-708: Is located on US 41 in Copper Harbor, Michigan . The fort was built in 1844, and provided order and protected the Keweenaw's copper resources during the Civil War . The park also contains one of the first lighthouses on Lake Superior, and offers camping, fishing, hiking, swimming, and biking, and day-use facilities. The Hanka Homestead is located approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) west of U.S. Highway 41, off Tower Road in Pelkie, Michigan . The Hanka Homestead
682-418: Is the site of the most extensive known deposits of native copper in the world. Occurring here in relatively pure form, the red metal could be broken out of the rock and worked to make a wide variety of products, from jewelry and tools by its earliest miners to coins and electric wire by its final generations. Keweenaw copper was mined for approximately 7,000 years, from 5000 BCE until 1968. During
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#1732797330978744-517: The Advanced Technology Development Complex . The museum is named for Arthur Edmund Seaman, who worked at Michigan Tech in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was the museum's curator from 1928 to 1937. The mineral collection was established in the 19th century, and by 1890 numbered 27,000 specimens. A museum to house the collection was constructed in 1908. The museum has since moved several times, and
806-780: The Eagle Harbor Lighthouse , Central Mine Historic District , Phoenix Church , the Rathbone School and the Bammert Blacksmith Shop. Visitor Centers for the Historical Society are located at the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse and Central Mine. Their sites are open from June through October. The Keweenaw Heritage Center is located in the old Ste. Anne's church at 25880 Red Jacket Road in Calumet, Michigan , within
868-490: The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community , the boulder was used by tribe members to make offerings to its manitou (spirit) and to seek improvement in their health and well-being. Although many attribute the boulder to a relic of Michigan's copper boom, it was not a product of the boom but the reason for it. The copper boom was only fully realized after the boulder had been moved to Washington D.C. While
930-771: The Keweenaw Peninsula and nearby. The heritage site system was established in 2007 with an original set of 19 sites. In October 2013, two new sites were added: Houghton's Carnegie Museum and the Michigan Technological University Archives . The Adventure Mining Company is located at 200 Adventure Avenue in Greenland, Michigan . The Adventure Mine operated in Greenland from 1850 until 1920, and consisted of five shafts, one of which descended 1,300 feet (400 m) beneath
992-714: The Quincy Mining Company ." Many ethnic groups contributed to the heritage of the Keweenaw National Historical Park. Throughout the later half of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century, immigrants from across Europe migrated to the Keweenaw to work in the copper mines and mining communities. By 1910 the Copper Country had been settled by French Canadian, German, Chinese, Irish, Cornish, Croatian, Finnish, Italian, Greek and Syrian people. When news of
1054-802: The Treaty of Fond du Lac granted to the United States the rights to minerals exploration and mining within Ojibwe lands located north of the Prairie du Chien Line. In 1842 the Treaty of La Pointe ceded lands now parts of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. After many failed attempts, the Ontonagon Boulder was finally removed in 1843, by Julius Eldred, a Detroit hardware-store merchant. Prior to extraction, Eldred purchased
1116-408: The 1970s, an attempt was made to preserve the historical aspects of the area. The Society for Restoration of Old Victoria began repairing a group of the old cabins where the miners lived. The site opened in 1976 and has been giving guided tours ever since. Currently, four cabins have been restored and furnished to suit the time period, including two boarding houses and a family home. It is now one of
1178-634: The 9,000-foot (2,700 m) deep Quincy Mine shaft. Nicknamed "Old Reliable" for its record of paying annual dividends for decades, the Quincy mine enjoyed a position on the rich copper rock of the Pewabic Lode. A private preservation foundation maintains the Quincy Mine's surface mine hoist , which is the largest steam-powered hoist in the world. As of 2023, the Keweenaw National Historical Park operates in cooperation with 23 heritage sites in
1240-705: The Calumet Unit and the Quincy Unit, and almost two dozen cooperating "Heritage Sites" located on federal, state, and privately owned land in and around the Keweenaw Peninsula. The National Park Service owns approximately 1,700 acres (690 ha) in the Calumet and Quincy Units. Units are located in Baraga , Houghton , Keweenaw , and Ontonagon counties. The Congressional legislation establishing
1302-1084: The Houghton County Historical Museum runs the 3 ft ( 914 mm ) narrow gauge Lake Linden & Torch Lake Railroad, the Traprock Valley School House (a one-room school), the First Congregational Church in Lake Linden, Michigan (used as the HCHS Heritage Center), the Leo Chaput Log Cabin, and the Perl Merrill Research Center (used as the archives and a genealogical facility). The Keweenaw County Historical Society, established in 1981, has five locations throughout Keweenaw County, Michigan . These locations include
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#17327973309781364-647: The Keweenaw Heritage Sites in the Keweenaw National Historical Park . 46°42′9.62″N 89°13′36.92″W / 46.7026722°N 89.2269222°W / 46.7026722; -89.2269222 Ontonagon Boulder The Ontonagon Boulder (/ˌɒntəˈnɑːɡən ˈboʊldəɹ/) is a 3,708-pound (1,682 kg) boulder of native copper originally found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan , United States, and now in
1426-463: The Keweenaw National Historical Park includes many sites in and around the villages of Calumet and Laurium , which are not ghost towns but operating human communities that have survived the shutdown of their parent employer, the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company , in 1968. By digging shafts into the rock, the men and owners of the Calumet & Hecla found geological formations of rock laced with nuggets of almost pure copper. The Calumet & Hecla
1488-587: The Park stated, among other things, that: (1) The oldest and largest lava flow known on Earth is located on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. This volcanic activity produced the only place on Earth where large scale economically recoverable 97 percent pure native copper is found. (2) The Keweenaw Peninsula is the only site in the country where prehistoric aboriginal mining of copper occurred. Artifacts made from this copper by these ancient Indians were traded as far south as present day Alabama. The Keweenaw Peninsula
1550-739: The Smithsonian Institution. As of 2011, the Ontonagon Boulder is located in the National Museum of Natural History , but it is currently behind the scenes. It was to be installed in the Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals when it opened, but at the last minute, engineering concerns led to a veto. A new exhibition of the boulder is being planned. A replica of the boulder can be found at the Ontonagon Historical Museum. While various numbers are given for
1612-495: The United States. Until 1918, Finland belonged to Russia as a Grand Duchy. A large percentage of these Finns settled in the Western Upper Peninsula because of perceived similarities between their old and new homes, and found work in the Keweenaw. Finnish saunas can still be found throughout the area. Several park Heritage Sites, including the "Hanka Homestead", recall the Finnish influx. The Calumet Unit of
1674-549: The Victoria was "placed in a position to handle rock of lower average grade than perhaps any other mine in the Lake Superior district". During this time, the village near the mine site, Victoria, grew to eighty houses. All buildings in the town were owned by the mining company, including the school, general store, and houses. The inhabitants of the town were miners and their families. These miners were paid average wages of
1736-559: The Victoria. The company shipped the copper to Calumet, Michigan, where it was smelted. In 1881, The former mining captain of the Nonesuch Mine , Thomas Hooper, assessed the state of the Victoria Mine and after pumping the water from the mine, he found it to be in disrepair. Many of the tunnels and adits had collapsed and the support timbers were found rotted. He concluded that a large investment would be needed in order for
1798-477: The banks of the Ontonagon River where the boulder had been found. The venture ultimately proved unsuccessful after the adit caved in due to the fact that they were mining into a river bank. After this, the project was abandoned and the site remained empty for the next seventy years. In 1849, Christopher Columbus Cushing opened a mine not far from the area where Henry had attempted to dig. The Cushin Mine ran for about
1860-593: The boulder fit the definition of a sacred object under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act . Consultations were held with the tribe in 1998 and 1999, including a visit to the area in which the boulder was originally located. In 2000, the Repatriation Office decided that the Ontonagon Boulder does not fit the definition of a sacred object under the repatriation law, and the right of possession belongs with
1922-411: The boulder the rest of the way to Detroit. In Detroit, Eldred placed the legendary Ontonagon Boulder on public display, charging a cash admission. Then in 1847, Eldred and the federal government went to court fighting over ownership of the boulder. In the end, the government took the boulder, but paid Eldred $ 5,644.93 (equivalent to $ 184,589 in 2023 ) for "his time and expense in purchasing and removing
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1984-441: The boulder's weight, the most commonly accepted figure is 3,708 pounds (1,682 kg). Keweenaw National Historical Park Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service . Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan . It is a federal-local cooperative park made up of two primary units,
2046-543: The collection has grown to over 30,000 specimens, of which 8,000 are on display. The museum features an extensive mineral collection and exhibits on copper formation, and has the world's best collection of crystallized native copper and native copper in crystallized calcite. The Carnegie Museum in Houghton is a former Carnegie library and former home of the Portage Lake District Library . It
2108-652: The company now owns three dams upstream of the Victoria Dam in order to harness enough water to supply power for the area. Near the main dam, the Taylor Air Compressor, its canals, and the dam (Hooper Dam) built in 1902 to supply it now lay submerged. Though no longer in use, the Taylor Hydraulic Air Compressor may be fully operational. Following the closure of the mine, the village of Victoria fell into disrepair. During
2170-587: The early days of mining and other topics. The Society also operates the Ontonagon Lighthouse , constructed in 1851–52. The Society acquired the lighthouse in 2000, and offers tours in the summer months. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is located west of Ontonagon, Michigan on Michigan State Route 107. The park totals 59,000 acres (24,000 ha) and offers day-hiking, backpacking, camping, canoeing, biking and winter sports. There are also numerous historical copper mining sites within
2232-587: The end of the short line, pick up the rails from behind, and place them in front of the car again. Eldred and his men did this for four miles (6.4 km) before reaching the bottom of the rapids, where the boulder was then loaded onto a raft. Once the raft reached the mouth of the Ontonagon River it was loaded onto a schooner , which sailed to Copper Harbor . Eldred's victory was short-lived because when they arrived in Copper Harbor Eldred
2294-449: The exact origin of the Ontonagon Boulder is unknown, it has been determined that the boulder reached a location about 20 miles (32 km) upriver from Lake Superior , on the west branch of the Ontonagon River, after it was dragged by a glacier . In the early 17th century, Voyageurs traversing Lake Superior heard word of the massive solid copper boulder. Early stories of the boulder describe it as being over five tons and as large as
2356-510: The first floor is planned. The Laurium Manor Inn is located at 320 Tamarack Street in Laurium, Michigan . The 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m ) structure was built as a home by wealthy mining captain Thomas H. Hoatson in 1908 at a cost of $ 50,000. The house functions as a bed and breakfast and is open to the public for tours. The Michigan Technological University Archives, housed in
2418-419: The following during his exploration of the "River Ontonoggan", Learning from my men that a short distance up the river there was a mass of copper, we left our canoe and proceeded on foot to it; we found it lying on a beach of limestone at the foot of a high craig of the same; it's shape round, the upper part a low convex, all worn quite smooth by the attrition of water and ice, but now lying dry. We tried to cut
2480-461: The former Calumet and Hecla Mining Company properties (including the Osceola #13 mine complex), and the former Quincy Mining Company properties. The Village of Calumet best represents the social, ethnic and commercial themes. Extant Calumet and Hecla buildings best depict corporate paternalism and power, and the themes of extraction and processing are best represented by extant structures of
2542-559: The late 1920s, the theatre converted to a movie house, serving in this medium until the 1950s. Summer stock theatre was brought back to the Calumet Theater in 1958, and performed there every summer until 1968, and returned in 1972. In 1975, the auditorium was restored for the centennial of Calumet. In 1988−89, the exterior of the theatre was restored. In 1983, the Calumet Theatre Company was incorporated as
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2604-418: The legendary boulder. Schoolcraft was originally disappointed with the boulder, finding it much smaller than legends claimed it to be. However, Schoolcraft reported that the rock was scarred by the chisels and axes of Native Americans He went on to describe it as 3 feet 8 inches (1.12 m) by 3 feet 4 inches (1.02 m) and estimated its weight at 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg). In 1826
2666-483: The machinery…". In 1904, Charles Havelock Taylor, a Canadian inventor, visited the site in order to build a hydraulic air compressor that would harness the water in the Ontonagon River. Once running, the Taylor Air Compressor was able provided the Victoria Mine with an inexpensive power source which uniquely equipped the mine with the ability to extract the low grade ore. In fact, the Mines Register reported that
2728-556: The mass of native copper". The boulder remained in the possession of the War Department until 1860, when it was placed on public display in the Smithsonian Institution . In 1991 an assessment was initiated after the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community requested the return of the Ontonagon Boulder as a sacred object. A preliminary analysis indicated that the tribe presented insufficient evidence to establish that
2790-456: The mine site beyond are available. The Ontonagon County Historical Society is located at 422 River Street in Ontonagon, Michigan . The Ontonagon County Historical Society was founded in 1957 "to collect and preserve the artifacts of the county's history and to educate the public about that history and related topics." Exhibits at the historical society's museum include artifacts related to
2852-594: The mine to run again. Because of this, it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that the mine finally reopened. Beginning in 1899, the Victoria Copper Mining Company started running the mine and Captain Hooper was hired to run the operation. One of the first problems Hooper encountered was a lack of fuel. Wood was hard to come by at that time and coal was expensive, so Hooper began to look into other energy sources. Even as early as 1882,
2914-485: The oldest copper mines in the Keweenaw, dating back to 1846. The mine had five shafts, with the deepest reaching 1,400 feet (430 m). The mine is open June through October and offers guided and self-guided tours. The Finnish American Heritage Center & Historical Archive is located at 601 Quincy Street on the campus of Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan . The Finnish American Heritage Center includes
2976-479: The park's Calumet Unit. Coppertown USA is housed within the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company's old pattern shop. Exhibits span the range of the copper mining timeline, from prehistoric times to the present, but concentrate on the operations of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. The Delaware Copper Mine is located off U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), 12 miles (19 km) south of Copper Harbor, Michigan . The Delaware Copper Mine provides tours of one of
3038-535: The park's Calumet Unit. Ste. Anne's was built in 1900 as a French Canadian Roman Catholic church and deconscrated in 1966. It was underutilized for a number of years until, in 1994, a group of local citizens bought the building. The Keweenaw Heritage Center's mission is to "preserve and interpret the culture and heritage of the Copper Country through the preservation of buildings, development of exhibits and other educational activities." A major museum on
3100-399: The park, as well as stands of virgin timber. The Quincy Mine Hoist and Underground Mine is located at 49750 US 41 in Hancock, Michigan , within the park's Quincy Unit. The company offers tours through the surface buildings of the Quincy Mine as well as underground tours. The Upper Peninsula Firefighters Memorial Museum is located at 327 Sixth Street in Calumet, Michigan , within
3162-466: The period for which records were kept, 1840–1968, more than 11 billion pounds (5 million metric tons) of copper were mined here. During the peak production years of World War I , 1916–1917, the annual copper yield reached a maximum of 270 million pounds (125,000 t). "(7) The entire picture of copper mining on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula is best represented by three components: the Village of Calumet ,
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#17327973309783224-471: The possession of the Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History , Smithsonian Institution . In 1843 the boulder was purchased from a local entrepreneur and shipped to Washington D.C. The boulder is a relic of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and was well known to Native Americans in its location on the west branch of the Ontonagon River , in what is now Victoria Reservoir. According to
3286-442: The possibility of hydropower was discussed. The Michigan Department of Mineral Statistics annual report in 1882 stated: "Among the important advantages which the property possesses is the water-power in the west branch of the Ontonagon river, about a mile south of the mine; forty feet of head can be used here…If it shall be decided to systematically work the mine, the water-power in the west branch will undoubtedly be utilized to operate
3348-672: The price dropped to 11 cents a pound, the Victoria Mine closed for the final time. After the mine closed in 1921, the Copper District Power Company purchased the lands with the intent of building a hydro-electric plant on the Ontonagon River. The new dam (a multiple-arch type, built between 1929-1931) created a five mile long artificial lake called the Victoria Flowage. Operated by the Upper Peninsula Power Company since 1947,
3410-434: The region's rich native copper was first widely published in the 1830s, many families from the English county of Cornwall immigrated to the Upper Peninsula, bringing the Cornish pasty and their region's knowledge of hard-rock mining with them. Several park Heritage Sites, including the log cabin village of "Old Victoria," recall Cornish heritage in the region. Later in the 1800s, many families from Finland emigrated to
3472-516: The rock from the local Chippewa for $ 150 in 1841 (equivalent to $ 4,430 in 2023 ). His first two expeditions were only able raise the boulder on skids. In 1843 Eldred tried again. This time he discovered the boulder, that he had already bought from the local Native Americans, now belonged to a group of miners from Wisconsin , who had located the land under a permit issued directly by the Secretary of War. With no other choice Eldred paid an additional $ 1,365 (equivalent to $ 44,636 in 2023 ) for ownership of
3534-406: The rock he had already purchased. After paying for his prize twice, Eldred and his crew of 21 men, using a capstan , lifted the boulder 50 feet (15 m) to the top of the adjacent bluff. It took a week to get to the top of the bluff, where they loaded the boulder into a small railcar . They then cut a swath through the woods and laid out a short stretch of rails. They would push the railcar to
3596-401: The surface. Although the site seemed promising, the mine never turned a profit. The Adventure Mining Company currently offers tours of the surface and underground portions of the Adventure Mine. The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum was located on the Fifth Floor of Electrical Resource Center at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan . As of 2011, it is now located across from
3658-556: The time: $ 1 a day for a ten-hour day and later $ 2 for the same amount of time. Records from this time are hard to come by and so it is unknown exactly how much copper was mined during this time. The mine ran almost continuously for nearly twenty years, but as the 1920s approached, the price of copper started to decline. The cheap power provided by the Taylor Air Compressor allowed the Victoria Mine to remain open longer than most of its competitors. After World War I ended, though, copper prices fell by fifty percent to 13 cents per pound. When
3720-409: The university library, store many documents related to the history of the area. Old Victoria is located at Victoria Dam Road in Rockland Township, Michigan . The site features a group of small log houses which were once used by miners of the Victoria Mining Company. These cabins were built in 1899 and abandoned in 1921. The structures were restored in the 1970s, and tours through the cabins and
3782-426: Was informed that the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury had instructed the Secretary of War to claim federal ownership of the Ontonagon Boulder, and ship it to Washington, D.C. However, Eldred was able to delay giving the boulder to the federal government, and in the dead of night he hoisted it onto the deck of a waiting schooner. He sailed to Sault portage, where the boulder was then loaded onto another schooner, which took
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#17327973309783844-448: Was the richest of the separate copper mines of the Keweenaw, and the towns built at the mine head reflect its productivity. A 1,200-seat opera house , large churches built of Lake Superior brownstone , and mansions built by the mining bosses survive as memories of the Calumet mine's glory years. The Quincy Unit of the Keweenaw National Historical Park commemorates one of the most remarkable feats of engineering in northern Michigan,
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