Exploring The Copper Country

June 18, 2024

Houghton, Hancock, The Quincy Mine

I was awakened by a spectacular lightning display in the early morning hours and I got to enjoy it from my hotel room window. I'd have enjoyed it from a tent too, but in very different ways. For one thing, I'd quite literally be on the ground floor. For another thing, I'd hear the rain and thunder better. But I must say, it'd be tough to beat that 5th floor view.

Much heavier storms are expected tonight. Large hail is a possibility. These are not the kind of storms I remember from my Northern Michigan University days in the U.P. Sure, there were heavy snow falls, blizzards, wind gales that could sink huge ore boats, but I just don't think this type of Iowa-style storm was normal back then. I'm guessing the average Yooper wouldn't suggest "Climate Change," so neither will I.

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Last night, I treated myself to a restaurant dinner. I had fresh Lake Superior whitefish. I had forgotten how good that fish meat is. Then I walked around the downtown area and found Houghton to be a pretty cool town--a town that deserves more exploration. It only has a population of something like 7,500, but I've noticed before that towns of such size seem extra vibrant when they are the biggest metropolitan area for a couple hundred miles in any direction. Plus, it's a college town. Plus, there is the town of Hancock just across the Portage River.

Nice town, hot & humid day, severe storms tonight . . . I convinced myself to ask the gal at the front desk for another night in my room. She was most accommodating.

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I visited the laundromat one block from the hotel. I liked that its washers and dryers accepted credit cards. I've never seen that before, though it's been a couple years since I've been to a laundromat. I hate using the change machines only to end up with way more quarters than I need.

My next business before random exploration was to get some groceries for the next couple days. That mostly means snack foods like Cheetos, red licorice and Poptarts. I still have a half jar of Peanut Butter, a package of ramen noodle soup, and a freeze-dried backpacker's meal of fried rice with chicken for my main meals.

And since I had to ride back up the Highway 26 hill to get groceries anyway, I rode a little bit further to get a picture that I was too cold and wet to take yesterday.

Did you see my bike helmet in the picture. It could also serve as my hockey helmet . . . IF I played hockey, which I don't. I wouldn't have even mentioned my hockey helmet had I not ridden a quarter mile downhill without it. Only after I got to the grocery store did I realize it wasn't on my head. Back up the hill I went.

(By the way, Houghton's claim of having the first professional hockey team is true. I looked it up.)

I looked it up on this information board when I got back downtown.

I unloaded the groceries from my bike, carried them into my room, and set out to see the sights. The first sight I came to was this Cornish copper miner setting out to go to work and G-2 setting out to do whatever ridiculous thing he was up to.

The second sight was this Episcopalian Church.

On the side of the church was an interesting bit of mining history.

I took a bunch of pictures after that, and they seemed significant at the time--things like fraternity row on the campus of Michigan Tech University, really old looking building from the 1800's, shots of the historic main streets of Houghton and Hancock, the county courthouse, the Isle Royale National Park Visitor Center, various viewpoints from the bike trail along the Portage River, etc. I might have even taken pictures of the Super 8 motel and the Little Ceasar's Pizza shop.

But then I thought my journal should focus on the most important part of the Keweenaw Peninsula's history--copper mining. Specifically, the Quincy Mine, which was the largest and deepest copper mine in the world. A century ago, 90% of the copper in the U.S. was mined in and around the Houghton-Hancock area. Forget all those irrelevant pictures!

So, like so many miners and mining enthusiasts before me, I stopped for a pasty before heading up to the Quincy Mine.

Roy's seemed like the kind of place where miners in the late 1800's and early 1900's would pick up a pasty for lunch. I suppose a few of the lower paid miners had wives who made pasties at home and packed them into their lunch boxes.

Going into miner mode, I enjoyed my pasty alongside the riverside bike trail.

If I wanted to get to the Quincy Mine, I had to cross the bridge into Hancock, and then climb up into those hills.

See that big gray tower at the top? That's my destination, and it was no small task to get there.

I wasn't all the way up the hill went I took this picture.

I wasn't all the way up when I took this one either.

I wasn't quite all the way up when I staged this selfie either.

For the life of me, I can't fathom how those miners rode their bikes up that hill every day for all those years. And that was before derailleurs and granny gears were ever invented!

At this point, I wasn't sure what I was looking at, but I knew I was almost up to that big gray tower.

Another building on the historic Quincy Mine site.

I didn't take the 2-hour tour of the mine. Instead, I watched a 20-minute video inside of the big gray tower. See those red benches on the "escalator" to the right. From what I understand, that thing lowered the miners up to 9,000 feet below ground so they could dig. At the end of the day, it raised them back up. And I thought my little bike ride up here was hard.

I'm not sure what these rocks are about, but I'm sure it has something to do with mining. I was a few hundred feet back down the hill at this point.

I hiked out to the end of the rocks. It was the only place view-blockers weren't blocking my view back down to Houghton. Perhaps you can see my hotel down there. It's the place with the blue roof.

I wonder if the miners stopped at Amy's for an after-work pasty. I didn't because I was too worn out.

On second thought, I'll show a few of my non-mining related pictures, but not the really stupid ones.

I know I've constantly been a day or two behind on my journal. Now I can say it feels good to be caught up. All it took was a day off. But with all that climbing in such a short distance, I'm going to call it a working day off.

Moving forward, it's not likely you'll hear from me for a few days.

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Emily SharpWhat are all of those little dashed lines off of Sharon Ave that look like trails? Mtn biking or cross country skiing? Cause mtn biking would be fun, but cross country trails in summer... not as much fun (and maybe full of ticks).
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6 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Emily SharpI don't know the answer, but I bet they're cross-country ski trails. I see they're adjacent to Michigan Tech, and that's a reasonably flat area around there.
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6 months ago

Today's ride: 18 miles (29 km)
Total: 228 miles (367 km)

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Emily SharpNot much of a rest day, but thank you for the tour. That was a seriously big, steep hill. Very interesting, though, and from that overlook of town, gosh, there really are a whole bunch of view-blockers there!
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6 months ago