12/24/2022 0 Comments Everlasting summer mine shaft![]() On December 6, 2008 Michigan TechAssociate Professor William J. The Number 6 Shaft House (no longer standing) is often pictured in photographs as a picturesque example of shaft house architecture. The mine and surrounding areas are part ofKeweenaw National Historical Park. There are museum-style exhibits within many buildings. ![]() Tourists are transported to the 7th level by the Quincy and Torch Lake Cog Railway. The Quincy Mine Hoist Association maintains the buildings and grounds, and provides guided tours of the Number 2 Hoist House and the 7th level of the mine during the summer. The Quincy Mine is now a popular Keweenawtourist attraction. The Number 2 Hoist House was built as a reinforced concrete structure on a scale rare for 1918, making it one of the first of its kind The very decorative Hoist House was used as a showpiece for visiting investors. yards of cement and over 8 tons of reinforcement material. The hoist sat on the largest concrete slab ever poured, containing 3200 cu. Weighing more than 880 tons, it lifted 10 tons of ore at 36.4 miles per hour, thus saving $16,080 in fuel bills in its first year of operation. The Nordberg Steam Hoist and its reinforced concrete building, built in theGeorgian architectural style with brick veneer and Italian-tiled walls, cost over $370,000 in 1918 but was used for only eleven years until it ceased usage in 1929. To raise and lower ore and workers into this shaft, the world's largest steam-driven mine hoist was built in 1918 and housed in the Quincy Number 2 Hoist House. When the mine ceased production in 1945, the Quincy Number 2 shaft was the world's deepest shaft, at 9,260 feet (2.82 km or 1.75 miles) along the dip of the deposit on a 55 degree decline. When the government stopped supporting copper prices after the war, the mines quickly closed for good. During World War II, the mines re-opened due to increased copper demand. The Quincy Mining Company closed operations (but did not dissolve) in 1931 due to low copper prices. This strategy proved effective and helped the Quincy Mining Company retain its status as one of the premier mining companies in the region. But the east coast executives realized that if they offered nicer homes to the workers, the miners were more likely to stay, raise families, and be less likely to leave the area or transfer to another mining company. However, the on-site managers didn't think it was necessary for the miners to have such high-class dwellings. The executives on the east coast wanted to build more elaborate and fancy homes with amenities such as electricity and running water. ![]() Over the course of operations, the types of housing ranged from simple tents in the early days, to complete three story houses shortly before the mine's shutdown. To attract a better class of worker, the Quincy Mining Company built and maintained housing for the workers. This helped the mine survive longer than almost all other Keweenaw copper mining companies, except the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company and the Copper Range Company. The company bought the Pewabic mine in 1891, the Mesnard and the Pontiac in 1897, and the Franklin mine in 1908. The Quincy company expanded laterally along the lode by buying out adjacent properties. Amygdaloid mining proved much more productive than fissure mining, and the size and richness of the Pewabic lode in particular allowed the Quincy to produce profits for 53 consecutive years. Rock bearing small pockets of copper could be blasted out immediately and processed elsewhere at much lower cost. Amygdaloid mining consisted of extracting lower-grade strataform orebodies in the "amygdaloid zones," the upper portions of basalt lava flows. High-grade fissure veins contained large, pure masses of copper, but the masses could take days or even months to extract, at high cost. The mine was the first Michigan copper mine to switch from fissure mining to amygdaloidmining, when the recently discovered Pewabic amygdaloid lode was found to cross Quincy property in 1856. While many other copper mines were founded at the same time, the Quincy Mine became the most successful of the 1840s-era mines, and was the country's leading copper-producing mine from 1863 (when it exceeded the production of the Minesota Mine) through 1867 (after which it was exceeded by theCalumet and Hecla). The directors met and decided to merge, with significant investment coming from Massachusetts (the town of Quincy, Massachusetts lent the mine its name). Due to poor communication between government offices, these two speculative mining companies had purchased the same tracts of land during the mining rush of the early 1840s. The Quincy Mine was founded in 1846 by the merger of the Northwest Mining Company and the Portage Mining Company.
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