http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:29:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/boiler-house-in-c/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/boiler-house-in-c/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:29:22 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4596 Approaching the town of Rockland from the east you find yourself traveling between a pair of parallel rugged hills. The hill to the south is marked on maps as South Bluff, while its neighbor to the north was known during the Minesota's time fittingly as the North Bluff. At the turn of the century the North Bluff inherited a new name, thanks to the Michigan Mine's sinking of a shaft into its top - a shaft labeled by the mine as "C" shaft. From that point on North Bluff, would become known as "C Shaft Hill" - a designation it continues to be marked on maps to this day. After leaving the "B" shaft behind, we headed westward towards that very same hill, hoping its "C Shaft" designation meant we would find that very same shaft along its length. For awhile we were doubtful, as a long cold walk along the old railroad grade provided no evidence of any shaft. Finally, however, we caught something off to our right that gave us some hope. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/boiler-house-in-c/feed/ 2 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/the-b-shaft/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/the-b-shaft/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:38:38 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4595 The Minesoata was typical of early fissure copper mines in the region. Scattered and seemingly chaotic, the mine sunk nearly a dozen shafts along its holdings atop the north bluff. With such a rich mine precision and efficiency weren't so important; when the copper was literally lying about your feet you could sink a hole just about anywhere and expect results. But as time went on and that rich lode began to evaporate, such a modus operandi became a liability. As the region matured at the turn of the century, companies could not be so careless. The new century brought with it a much leaner and rarer metal, and mine companies had to adapt to a more efficient and targeted approach or suffer the consequences. Read More... ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/the-b-shaft/feed/ 6 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/a-ruin-of-dubious-identity/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/a-ruin-of-dubious-identity/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:16:40 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4593 Returning from our journey further atop the hill, we made our way back down to the cliff edge to regain our bearings. In doing so we happened across yet another odd ruin perched along the edge of the ridge. While we have had some good ideas as to the identity of the ruins we have found up to this point, this particular specimen was something else all together. It could most easily be described as a concrete box, about ten feet wide and about thirty feet long. Appended to the center of its outer wall was another concrete box, this one square in shape and looking similar to a smoke stack base. But that wasn't what it was. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/a-ruin-of-dubious-identity/feed/ 4 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/scrapbook-friday-phonebook-edition/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/scrapbook-friday-phonebook-edition/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:23:20 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4592 Several years ago I created an interactive presentation on the Champion No.4 shaft/rock house and surface plant for the good folks at Painesdale Mine and Shaft Inc - an organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of that structure for future generations. During my work I was allowed unprecedented access to not only the site but to the vast treasure trove of archival materials they had acquired. I selected a handful of those materials and used them as "artifacts" in the DVD; hidden items that could be found scattered about the menus of the disc. Since that time the only people that could find these artifacts were those lucky enough to both own the disc and be able to find them. Unfortunately over the years I even have forgotten where I hid most of those features. Luckily I also stored them at home on my computer, and am able to share them with everyone else over on CCE's scrapbook pages. One of those DVD artifacts is the subject of our scrapbook post for today. This particular item is a phonebook, or more correctly a "telephone directory". ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/scrapbook-friday-phonebook-edition/feed/ 4 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/the-bonus-boiler/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/the-bonus-boiler/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:03:06 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4591 It sat just a bit farther into the forest, up atop the slight rise on which the machine shop and dry was perched along. We recognized it right away, though its existence at this location seemed rather odd. It was yet another boiler house. Perhaps more accurately I should say it was another boiler, as we found no surrounding walls, flue trench, or stocky stack base. What we found instead was a pair of concrete pedestals and a neighboring squat slab of concrete punctured with a small hole. The three items were joined together, sitting up by themselves a good dozen or more feet from the Machine shop below. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/the-bonus-boiler/feed/ 13 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/walls-and-pedestals/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/walls-and-pedestals/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:35:42 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4589 Leaving the Michigan's boiler house behind we headed further into the forest to explore what we thought might be one of the mine's hoist buildings. While it looked promising from afar, the closer we got to those mysterious rock walls the more apparent it became that we weren't looking at any type of hoist building. Whatever the building was for, it certainly sported a rather robust foundation wall. The wall stood about four feet in height and was punctured by at least one door opening. There didn't appear to be any sign of a complimenting wall across the way, but the rising topography here could have meant that other wall was much shorter in height and possibly covered in snow now. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/02/walls-and-pedestals/feed/ 1 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/high-atop-the-cliff/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/high-atop-the-cliff/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:57:31 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4588 Leaving the diverter behind, we followed its lead and headed upward to the top of the cliffs high above us. As we climbed we passed a few more remnants of cable stands, concrete footings half buried in the dirt and snow. Encouraged we toiled on, but was soon thwarted by more difficult terrain. We changed our approach and climbed parallel to the cliff face for a spell until we found a more accessible route to the top. It was then that we stumbled across our next major find. Partially obscured by the brush and trees surrounding it, we couldn't be sure of what exactly our find was. Though its position up against the edge of the cliff seemed odd, our first impressions were that it was some type of smoke stack base. We could make out what looked to be an ash door centered on its front facade. We climbed higher to take a better look. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/high-atop-the-cliff/feed/ 3 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/a-tip-of-an-iceberg/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/a-tip-of-an-iceberg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:21:33 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4586 The great Minesota mine was incredibly rich in copper, so much so that legend has it that one of its shafts had to be driven straight through a piece of mass copper so immense that it could not be removed from the ground (prompting the exclamation that the Minesota's shafts were in fact lined with copper) Mass pieces of more then 50 tons were rather common, and the mine holds the record for the largest piece every discovered - over 500 tons in size. In the end the Minesota produced nearly 35 million pounds of the red metal, and went down in history as one of the richest mines of the district. Because of this was no surprise when the old mine was re-opened at the turn of the century for another go, this time under the more grammatically correct name of the Michigan. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/a-tip-of-an-iceberg/feed/ 6 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/scrapbook-fridays-scrap-metal-edition/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/scrapbook-fridays-scrap-metal-edition/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:50:00 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4584

New at the Blog

Some of you may have noticed a great deal of changes here on CCE starting last week. What was once a trilogy of sites, has now been concentrated into a new and enhanced Copper Country Explorer. As part of that move, CCE now offers its own Heritage Guide and Scrapbook sections for your perusal. While Heritage Guide is really just old KFG with a new look and purpose, the new Scrapbook section is a new beast entirely. It takes what CCE's very own CC Scrapbook series did and expands on it greatly. At Scrapbook you'll find a collection of photos, maps, and drawings that I have come across during the years. Most of these are generously provided by readers of this site, while others are items I have acquired myself over these last five years of exploration and research. The point is to provide a freely accessible archives, organized by subjects, formats, dates, and contributors. A living history of the Copper Country and the great empire that once called this place home. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/scrapbook-fridays-scrap-metal-edition/feed/ 0 http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/a-hoist-of-champions-p2/ http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/a-hoist-of-champions-p2/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:37:22 +0000 ccexplorer http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/?p=4583

New at the Blog

It was a view that we weren't accustomed to, considering most of the hoist building's we've found haven't even had walls. As for those structures that miraculously still had their walls, this forward wall was almost always destroyed - an unfortunate side effect of the hoist's removal and scrapping at the building's end of life. The most amazing part of it all was the presence of both cable openings in the facade - the top one and the bottom one. These openings allowed egress of the hoist cables which in the case of most Copper Country hoists meant an upper set and a lower set - one for each of the shafts two hoisting compartments. ]]> http://www.coppercountryexplorer.com/2012/01/a-hoist-of-champions-p2/feed/ 13