Quincy Mine

Sorry folks, no photo's (see following post) you gotta use your imagination! So after a seemingly short 8 hours sleep I reluctantly opened my peepers and struggled to get on the road out of Ishpeming at 7:30am. It was a very dreary and overcast morning with some sprinkles but I was on a mission. But..before 10am I had driven through Houghton over the lift bridge and into Hancock and was at Quincy Mine. Not really having a clue what to expect, I grabbed my camera and threw some "essentials" in my backpack...NPS passport book, extra batteries, flashlight, credit card (for the gift shop of course!). First things first....got my NPS passport and journal stamped, got all sorts of pamphlets, had a long talk with Ranger Hottie (sorry I don't recall his name...) about things to do in the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale, then on to the gift store where I found several items of interest!Not all for me...I do Christmas shopping while on vacation...they seem to enjoy the treasures I find for them...and usually several pounds of books for myself. On to the tour! After wandering around aimlessly on the patch to the No. 2 Hoist House I arrived inside and was instructed to grab a hard hat and a darkened Carhart jacket. Did I really need a jacket...it was already HOT (and not just because of the Ranger). I was informed that it is 43 degrees in the mine (fine by me) but unless I wanted my shirt to look like the coat I had better wear it. Ok, I'm convinced. So, a few dozen adventurous folks and myself loaded onto a cog wheel tram that took us down a steep descent down to the mine adit (entrance...I kept thinking he was just mispronouncing attic) which used to be an exit for water drained from the mine. The mine was pretty dark and damp (yeah it probably was about 45 degrees), and poorly lit, I guess to replicate what the miners had to deal with from 1858 until I think about 1945. I was on the lookout for bats....but, never saw any. It was interesting, but it looked like very difficult and dangerous work! They had only hand tools for the majority of the time...a long metal rod that they pounded with a sledgehammer, do that all day long, plug the holes with explosives...kaboom!, then pick up all the chunks, load them into a skip which is hoisted up to the rockhouse with hopes of getting plenty of copper. For the most part, they were one of the most successfull mining operations in the region, turning a huge profit for decades earning it the nickname "old reliable". Back up the hill we went, and into the Hoist House where we learned about the Nordberg Hoist, the largest steam hoist in the world! It was delivered in 1919 and installed in a brand new 3 story building to house the hoist . It had to be brought in in 36 pieces and then welded on site. The building alone cost $90,ooo and $371,000 was spent on the whole caboodle, in 1919! However, the quickly made that up as the hoist increased the speed of production by using steam power to raise and lower workers, copper ore and water, rather than manual labor or smaller hoists. The size of the hoist alone was quite impressive! I'm so sorry I can't share that with you...maybe you'll just have to check it out for yourself! After the conclusion of the tour I kicked around the ruins taking some very nice and now deleted photos of flowers and such, and then was soon on my way north.