New Links: Coppertown, directly from Calumet, provides yet more information about the modern era of copper mining in the Keweenaw, which lasted from about 1843 until 1968.
Hancock, MI, was founded by the Quincy Mining Company in 1859.
At its peak, the town's population was nearly 9,000. Today, it has leveled off at about 4,500. Still, Hancock has survived the end of the copper mining era and is still going strong, as its website suggests.
(left) magnificent, multi-peaked Quincy Mining Company shaft in its prime
The Horror of the Italian Hall
In 1913, not long after the O'Briens left the Keweenaw for Detroit, the city of Calumet experienced one of the worst tragedies in its history when the Italian Hall, full of striking Calumet & Hecla miners and their families who had gathered there for a Christmas party, caught fire and burned. The C&H, incidentally, was the mining company that Patrick O'Brien worked -- and, in 1890, died -- for.
THIS is what drove men into the ground each day: the quest for massive chunks of raw copper that would make the mine owners and their investors wealthy and mean a decent wage for the miners themselves, even if they did risk their lives in the process. Although copper mining was decidedly better than coal mining (think Black Lung disease and the bituminous filth that filled the body's every exposed pore, crack, and wrinkle), let's call a spade a spade: It was a miserable existence that ended hundreds and hundreds of lives prematurely and in often horrifying ways.
I found this "Mine to Market Series" on the web (the above card is No. 1 in the collection) and took the liberty of appropriating it for our edification. It is pretty amazing stuff, really, because with these representations, you get a good sense of how sophisticated and systematic the mining process was. They also give you an idea of the way it looked back in the days when Patrick O'Brien, our great grandfather, worked -- and died -- for this very company, Calumet & Hecla. Shaft No. 4. is shown above; Pat was killed when he fell into Number 11 Shaft, Hecla South, on August 21, 1890.
Another card in the series, No. 9, the Calumet and Hecla Smelting works in Hubbell, MI, just a half-mile or so away from Laurium.
Company stevedores on the loading dock at Houghton, MI, wheelbarrow tons of copper -- the fruit of much blood, sweat, and no doubt, a few tears -- up and into a ship's hold for transport. There's something unsettlingly slavish about the scene with management in their black suits and hats hoving in the background while laborers line up to drop their loads. As it states just below, the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company paid investors some $57 million in dividends in the eleven years between 1889 and 1900. THAT is an astounding sum and gives further credence to the old saw..."The rich get richer...." Incidentally, the workers you see here were making about 25 cents an hour.
Keweenaw National Historical Park
Maybe we traveled to the Keweenaw when we were kids (we sure were close enough when we went to the Wisconsin Dells one summer), but I have no memory of being there if we did. Now, after learning so much about the era and the area, I'm thinking that a roadtrip is in order. If any of you get the same bug, you may want to put this park on your agenda while you're there...
"Keweenaw National Historical Park, with its rich heritage centered upon the copper industry, Calumet, and the surrounding areas displays a unique cross-section of cultures, architecture, industry, and history. The park is located in the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is surrounded by Lake Superior. Its only connection to the rest of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is the Portage Lift Bridge located between Houghton and Hancock.
Reports of enormous copper deposits here ignited America's fast mining boom in 1843, a half dozen years before California's gold rush. By 1849, Michigan’s Copper Country provided 85% of the entire United States copper production. These were the richest deposits ever discovered. The mines played an important role in America's Industrial Revolution and performed a crucial mission by supplying copper for military equipment during the Civil War.
Between 1867 and 1884 the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company, based in Calumet, produced half the nation's copper. From 1889 and 1900, C & H paid out $57 million in dividends. The C & H surface plant was called the most efficient in the nation, with 50 steam engines in operation by the late 1890s. The Red Jacket shaft, at more than 8,000 feet in depth, was the deepest in the world. Calumet rests on top of hundreds of miles of shafts, tunnels and drifts. Between 1845 and 1967, the copper mines on the peninsula produced 11 million pounds of copper.
Many thousands of immigrants, mostly from Europe, poured into the area between 1845 and 1910. The miners lived in company housing or in surrounding communities with names such as Red Jacket, Limerick, Sing Sing and Swedetown. C & H provided low-cost housing for the miners. By 1898 the company owned 1,000 dwellings. It also built schools, a library, bowling alleys, a community pool and bathhouse and a hospital. The immigrant's passing is reflected today by the neighborhoods, surnames, foods and traditions. The mine and community buildings constructed by the mining company are handsome structures, built of native red sandstone.
Calumet is located on the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is about 50 miles long and 15 miles wide, on the northern most tip of Michigan. The native copper range forms a narrow spine along the peninsula. The most prominent feature is a 4 to 12 mile wide ridge that forms the copper range and represents a spectacular example of the 1.1 billion year old mid-continent rift. Its glacial topography is only slightly affected by erosion. Hundreds of ancient mining sites, mined in prehistoric times, also lie along the peninsula.
Washington implemented the Keweenaw National Historical Park legislation in October 1992. "
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Everything you ever wanted to know about copper.
Digging Deep
We know that both the Harringtons and the O'Briens came from hardy copper mining stock. But what we DON'T know a lot about is what it was like being on the job and putting one's life on the line. Mining, in general, is exceedingly dirty, dangerous, wretched work. It represents days of hard labor and nights of recovering, only to have to heed the early morning bell beckoning you back to your nightmare deep in the earth. Copper mining in particular was no picnic: Both Patrick O'Brien and his oldest son Daniel (M.E.'s oldest brother) died on the job, along with hundreds of others, during the Keweenaw's run as one of the world's great copper producing regions. Fortunately, M.E. wanted nothing to do with the business of mining...other than insuring its workers. And given how the the odds were stacked against miners, he was no fool.
-Tales from The Daily Mining Gazette-
1889 July 4 JAMES CHELLEW, the young man who died in Calumet at the Hecla mine, last Thursday, by falling 800 feet, was buried in the Hancock Protestant cemetery Sunday afternoon.
1903 February 27 Friday- Matt MAKKI, aged 29 years, a trammer at Quincy mine who was injured at the Quincy mine yesterday by being run over by one of the haulage cars, died at St Joseph Hospital, Hancock last night. He is married and leaves a family in Finland. The funeral will be held this afternoon an burial at Lakeside cemetery, Hancock.
1903 January 3 Saturday- John LAAKENEN was instantly killed in the Adventure mine Thursday morning by falling rock. He was working between number 1 and number 3 shaft when struck. He leaves a wife and five children. He was buried at Greenland, Ontonagon County on Sunday.
1903 January 22 Thursday -- Hebry SAN ANTONIO employed as a trammer at the Arcadian mine, was killed in the mine Tuesday night. He was killed a falling rock. Apparently he should have worked behind the rock and would not take advice and forced the rock down from the front of it. He came to this country a year ago. He leaves a wife and one child to mourn for him.
1903 January 30 Friday- The Associated Press yesterday stated that John GAFFNEY, a former Calumet man, son of John GAFFNEY of Calumet, met his death in the Quincy mine near Salt Lake City, Utah. An avalanche tore down the Quincy mine house and killed him, he was an engineer. He left Calumet two years ago to go to the mine. The body will be shipped to Calumet for burial here.
Click here to learn more about what it was like to be mining copper in Michigan.