The Quincy Mine Hoist stands out and draws many visitors to check it out, but over on the other side of US-41, there are the ruins of the Quincy Dryhouse. Recently, the Keweenaw National Historical Park, the Park Advisory Commission and artist Kasey Koski unveiled four new metal sculptures to highlight these ruins and depict the lives of the miners and their families.

The four statues show a miner waving hello to folks passing by, a mother and child showing the family side waiting for their miner to return home after his shift, three Italian brothers that came here to work, two of which perished in separate accidents underground at different locations in the mine, with the third brother surviving, and lastly, a miner washing up to return home from work. Special thanks to Barbara Bouwkamp who was on hand at the unveiling and shared these photos with us.

You can find out more about the Keweenaw National Historic Park commissioned artist program here: Kasey Koski – Commissioned Artist for KNHP

Upper Michigan Source – TV6 & FoxUP was also on hand and covered the news story on their local news broadcast.

Nice work and contribution to the mine
and the miners who worked and died there.
I can’t even imagine what it would have been
like to go back down after a fellow miner died.
I was pondering whether there were any
female miners back then.

These are so cool. Sounds like a
new place to investigate.

That is so cool..we tried to find them
yesterday...we did see the three bros and caught a
glimpse of one other one...but they are hard to
see...they are planted in deep grass....not easy
for a disabled person to find/see them.

They are fantastic tho!

And cool video on them.

One can only imagine what it smelled like inside the Dry House. Men (no women Alex) would put their sweat soaked clothing on a hook and then raise them on a pulley system, over a heated floor, to help dry them overnight.

I remember talking to Tom about these over the summer. He showed us drawings of what the sculptures would look like and their placement and we liked the idea (Nat and I are lifetime members of the QMHA). Will have to see these in person when we're visiting again.