Bob Gilreath has really been enjoying his retirement this summer, especially with all the warm weather we’ve been enjoying. He gets out on his boat many days for some relaxing times fishing. I love that he always brings his camera along and captures things that we might not otherwise see, from the water perspective. Today he takes us along the shoreline between Hubbell and Lake Linden, where there are numerous buildings from the mining days in the area, some being repurposed for a different industry, others vacant and unused. I don’t really know what these were back in the mining era or what they are now, except that it’s a company called Koppers, an Industrial Chemicals Wholesaler, so if you have any info on their past and present uses, please chime in.

The bottom two photos are remnants of the docks that the Lake Freighters used to come to when they loaded the copper ingots that were processed in these C&H Mining Company buildings. Those are some well made dock pilings, that they are still there and in such good shape yet.

We join “Brian and Jayne” in today’s video, for a slideshow of some abandoned mines they explored in the Keweenaw.

Classic UP blue!

The Orange building in the 2nd photo was the
Calumet & Hecla Smelter where the copper was
refined and poured into Billets & Cakes. The
building in the 3rd photo was the C&H Mineral
House.

Many thanks to Bob (and Mary) for the efforts to showcase and keep alive this great history. There is just show much of it to research but even more to physically explore. I wonder how many people drive M-26 through Lake Linden, Hubble, Mason etc. and never think about or maybe never knew how the area along torch was previous filled with huge copper ore processing facilities including stamp mills, wash plants and smelters. The financial impact and contribution of copper and iron mining in the UP by far exceeded the combined value of all the gold and silver "rushes" and mining throughout all of North America.

Torch Lake has paid the price with all the mine tailings and stamp sands that now cover the bottom of the lake. The government EPA superfund people have trouble even thinking about the magnitude.

When refining technology improved, the mine companies realized how much "lost" copper was at the bottom of the lake, hence the dredges were built and put to use.

In 2016 I took the 4 day study series run by the MTU Geology Department called Keweenaw Geo-Heritage tour. The last day was devoted to the impact the decades of copper mining has had on the area. One interesting demonstration was the bucket dredged from the bottom of Torch Lake. They said that when examined under a microscope it's almost devoid of anything living.

Yum! Making Keweenaw Brownies?

(… Or perhaps chocolate pudding?)

So many things to see from the water UP there.
You never run our of fun things to see and do.

Good video, and a GREAT soundtrack! Love the
Moodies
Good job