Keweenaw_National_Historical_Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Keweenaw National Historical Park Keweenaw National Historical Park Keweenaw National Historical Park (2) The Keweenaw Peninsula is the only site in the country where prehistoric aboriginal mining of copper occurred. Artifacts made form this copper by these ancient Indians were traded as far south as present day Alabama."[1] Copper heritage The Keweenaw Peninsula is the site of the most extensive known deposits of native copper in the world. Occurring here in relatively pure form, the red metal could be broken out of the rock and worked to make a wide variUpper Peninsula, Michigan, USA ety of products, from jewelry and tools by its earliest miners to coins and electric wire by Calumet, MichiganNearest city: Calumet, Michigan its final generations. Keweenaw copper was mined for approximately 7,000 years, from 1,869 acres (7.56 km²) 5000 BCE until 1968. During the period for October 27, 1992 Established: which records were kept, 1840-1968, more October 27, 1992 than 11 billion pounds (5 million metric tons) of copper were mined here. During the peak Not available (in 2005) production years of World War I, 1916-1917, National Park Service in cooperation the annual copper yield reached a maximum with other private and non-profit of 270 million pounds (125,000 t). organizations. Location Nearest city Area Established Visitors Governing body Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2007, it is a partly privatized park made up of two primary units, the Calumet Unit and the Quincy Unit, and 16 cooperating "Heritage Sites" located on federal, state, and privately owned land in and around the Keweenaw Peninsula. The National Park Service owns approximately 1,700 acres (6.8 km²) in the Calumet and Quincy Units. Units are located in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties. "(1)The oldest and largest lava flow known on Earth is located on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. This volcanic activity produced the only place on Earth where large scale economically recoverable 97 percent pure native copper is found. Hanka Homestead "(7) The entire picture of copper mining on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula is best represented by three components: the Village of Calumet, the former Calumet and Hecla Mining Company properties (including the Osceola #13 mine complex), and the former Quincy 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mining Company properties. The Village of Calumet best represents the social, ethinic and commercial themes. Extant Calumet and Hecla buildings best depict corporate paternalism and power, and the thems of extraction and processing are best represented by extant structures of the Qunicy Mining Company."[2] Keweenaw National Historical Park bosses survive as memories of the Calumet mine’s glory years. Ethnic heritage Two ethnic groups, the Cornish and the Finns, are especially important in the heritage of the Keweenaw National Historical Park. When news of the region’s rich native copper was first widely published in the 1830s, many families from the English county of Cornwall immigrated to the Upper Peninsula, bringing the Cornish pasty and their region’s knowledge of hard-rock mining with them. Several park Heritage Sites, including the log cabin village of "Old Victoria," recall Cornish heritage in the region. Later in the 1800s, many families from Finland emigrated to the United States. Until 1918, Finland was a colony of Russia. A large percentage of these Finns settled in the Western Upper Peninsula because of perceived similiaries between their old and new homes, and found work in the Keweenaw. Finnish saunas can still be found throughout the area. Several park Heritage Sites, including the "Hanka Homestead", recall the Finnish influx. The Company Library Main Office of the and BathCalumet and Hecla house for Mining Company its (now the Headquaremployees. ters of the National Historical Park Warehouse of the C&H Mining Company in Calumet, Michigan. Quincy Unit Quincy Unit, Keweenaw National Historical Park The Quincy Unit of the Keweenaw National Historical Park commemorates one of the most remarkable feats of engineering in northern Michigan, the 9,000-foot-deep (2,700 m) Quincy Mine shaft. Nicknamed "Old Reliable" for its record of paying annual dividends for decades, the Quincy mine enjoyed a position on the rich copper rock of the Pewabic Lode. A private preservation foundation maintains the Quincy Mine’s surface mine hoist, which is the largest steampowered hoist in the world. Calumet Unit The Calumet Unit of the Keweenaw National Historical Park includes many sites in and around the villages of Calumet and Laurium, which are not ghost towns but operating human communities that have survived the shutdown of their parent employer, the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, in 1968. By digging shafts into the rock, the men and owners of the Calumet & Hecla found geological formations of rock laced with nuggets of almost pure copper. The Calumet & Hecla was the richest of the separate copper mines of the Keweenaw, and the towns built at the mine head reflect its productivity. A 1,200-seat opera house, large churches built of Lake Superior brownstone, and mansions built by the mining Quincy Mine plan created by the HAER, National Park Serivce, Department of Quincy Smeltthe Interior. ing Works plan created by the HAER, National Park Serivce, Mine Hoist Powerhouse for the Quincy Mine Hoist. 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Department of the Interior. Keweenaw National Historical Park • Laurium Manor Inn, Laurium, Michigan • McLain State Park, Hancock, Michigan • Old Victoria, Rockland Township, Michigan • Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Ontonagon, Michigan • Quincy Mine Hoist and Underground Mine, Hancock, Michigan • Upper Peninsula Firefighters Memorial Museum, Calumet, Michigan, Heritage Sites As of 2006, the Keweenaw National Historical Park operated in cooperation with the following 16 cooperating heritage sites: • A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum, Houghton, Michigan • Calumet Theatre, Calumet, Michigan • Copper Range Historical Museum, South Range, Michigan • Coppertown USA Museum, Calumet, Michigan • Delaware Copper Mine, Copper Harbor, Michigan • Fort Wilkins Historic State Park, Copper Harbor, Michigan • Hanka Homestead, Pelkie, Michigan, information • Houghton County Historical Museum, Lake Linden, Michigan • Keweenaw County Historical Museum, Eagle Harbor, Michigan • Keweenaw Heritage Center, Calumet, Michigan References [1] Public Law 102-543 (Oct. 27, 1992); 106 STAT. 3569 [2] Public Law 102-543 (Oct. 27, 1992); 106 STAT. 3569 See also • Copper Country • Copper Island External links • Keweenaw NHP - official site • Keweenaw NHP - Heritage Sites Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keweenaw_National_Historical_Park" Categories: Archaeological sites in Michigan, National Historical Parks of the United States, National Register of Historic Places in Michigan, Visitor attractions in Michigan, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Houghton County, Michigan, Museums in Michigan, National Park areas in Michigan, Mining museums in the United States This page was last modified on 8 May 2009, at 20:57 (UTC). 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