September 23.
We were in no rush to get anywhere today. Our only obligation was a 1:30 pm time for our tour of the Quincy mine so we spent a leisurely morning over coffee and breakfast before heading out to explore downtown Houghton on our way to the mine.
It was a 40-minute drive to Houghton along roads that have become like old friends. We did take a short detour down to the Portage river and could catch a glimpse from a small boat access of the eastern entry into the river. We were puzzled by the all-metal full enclosed rusting boat moored to the dock but there was no one around to inquire as to its story so we moved on.
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| you can see the entrance to the river at the far center |
Traffic was light coming into Houghton and soon after passing through the Michigan Tech campus and along the main street we found a place to park. As ordered we intended to explore Houghton.
Houghton appears to be a nice little town with an unusually high number of small coffee shops, probably catering to the students. Although we did notice a few abandoned store fronts and some rather tired looking spaces. But parking was free and it was a lovely day to be out seeing someplace new.
The town has a lovely waterfront boardwalk and the (newish?) library faces the river with wonderful views from just about everywhere inside.
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| the Quincy mine above Hancock on the other side of Portage river |
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| The lift bridge |
We popped into a couple of shops and then found a cafè to grab a cup of coffee. While sipping our cups of Joe we both commented on the contrast in personalities between the two shops we visited. The first was an upscale women's clothing store manned by a very nice young woman who was friendly, eager to chat and who we learned was not a student at the university but in fact had lived in the area all her life. The other shop was run by a woman who seemed quite tired of it all and, although she knew her yarn, didn't seem terribly enthusiastic about much of anything. Were we seeing the spectrum of life from effervescence to resignation?
Oh, here's something we learned while speaking with the young woman. We had noticed when driving through campus that at all the marked crosswalks (where we've all been trained to stop for pedestrians) the students would just wave us on through. And when we stopped at Eagle River the day before one of the locals who volunteered at a museum there asked us if we experienced that phenomenon passing through Houghton. Why yes, we did. Did he know why? Nope. No idea.
So we asked the young shop woman in Houghton who explained that the students are told to give way to cars passing through. Most likely not to hold up traffic along Route 41 that passes right through the campus carrying eager tourists heading north.
After leaving downtown Houghton we crossed the river and wended our way through Hancock. Since we had plenty of time before our tour and the mine was only a few minutes away we stopped at the Finnish Heritage Center. We walked in but couldn't find anyone at the front desk so we popped into the Finnish bookstore next door.
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| the Finnish giant, 8 feet 3 inch-tall "Big Louis" Moilanen |
We learned from a young woman manning the cash register in the book store that there was plenty to see at the Heritage Center so we plan to return tomorrow -- we also hope to try and see the Hanka Farmstead which is located about halfway to Houghton from L'Anse.
After arriving at the Quincy mine overlooking the city of Hancock we walked into the gift shop and checked in for our tour.
Note that the remains of shaft no. 2 would have been connected to the hoist house by cables that would raise and lower the men, cars and rock skips coming up from below the shaft house.
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| shaft no. 2 |
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| gift shop in the back and public restrooms front and center |
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| note part of the cable scaffolding still in place |
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| ruins of the boiler house used to power the steam hoist |
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| our guide Kyle talking about the hoist |
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| really a large winch designed to lifts multiple tons of rock using some two miles of cable |
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| the hoist operator would sit at the top of this structure |
The tour lasted about 2 hours 20 minutes. The first 30-40 minutes were spent watching a short dated but informative video about the mine followed by meeting our tour guide Kyle. He then led us into the hoist room where he talked at some length about the worlds largest steam hoist, the Nordberg (no relation to O. J. Simpson's character in Naked Gun). You can learn more about the hoist (which is worth your time) right here.
From the hoist house our group walked outside and over to the cog railway tram. Now, according to our guide there are only three cog railways in the US: Pike's Peak, Mt. Washington, and this one. So it's official, I have been on all three and Susie and I have together been on two (Mt. Washington and this one).
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| our tram awaiteth |
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| backside of the hoist house and our group scurrying to catch up |
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| top of the railway that will haul us down (and eventually back up) a 17% grade |
From the tram we made our way to the mine entrance. Actually the tour is through an "adit" or horizontal tunnel dug at a slight slope to allow drainage from the mine, to provide ventilation and to make it easier to remove ore from the mine.
Bear in mind that this entrance is at level 7 of 92 levels or a little less than 400 feet below ground. This particular underground space has been used extensively by Michigan Tech students to hone their mining and engineering skills. The miners themselves would have been dropped down via man cars in the shaft house as far as level 92 - more than 9,000 feet below ground! And in the early years they worked using just candles, which, given the generosity of the company, the miners would have to provide themselves along with their own tools.
We walked back into the mine some 2,000 feet. It was light sort of, dark mostly, constant dripping and hey watch out for that drainage ditch! Every so often our guide would stop and talk geology or safety or how the miners actually worked underground. We learned about the Cornish miners who brought their mining skills passed down from father to son. We also got to see what it would have been like to work drilling by just candlelight and also the various tools for drilling into rock. The tour was fascinating, informative and shocking in the extreme, all at once.
Two things about this image below: first is the blueprint for the mine. The vertical yellow lines are the various mine shafts going down as far as more than 9,000 feet. The second is the hunk of "rock" below the map - a chunk of copper. Often large pieces of copper were simply left in mines since it wasn't worth the time and trouble to break them down for removal. It was cheaper and easier to remove copper from large pieces of ore. Strange but true.
Well worth one's time and money to be sure. We headed back home to relax with a glass of wine and a dinner of leftovers brought from home.
Tomorrow, our final day in the UP, we hope to spend more time learning about the Finns who came to this country. The question are they willing to tell us? Stay tuned!
We wish you all safe travels and be well.
