• Monday-What'sUP August 4 - 05:07 pm

If you're visiting the Copper Country or even if you live here and have never been on this ride, you have to put it on you list of "things to do before summer ends". Cindy Freeman made sure she completed the mission of taking in the view from the Quincy Tram. This Tram ride was developed to take folks safely down a very steep hill, then once you get to the bottom your guide will take you into the mine for a look underground, the way mining was in the Quincy Mine. Once you're finished in the darkened mine, you'll hop back on the Tram for the ascent of the hill. Kind of reminds me of the initial trip UP on a roller coaster ride!

For more information and rates, be sure to check out: Quincymine.com.

Wow, does that bring back memories. I spent many a summer giving underground tours in Quincy, and many winters doing maintenance underground as well. Anybody know if they found a replacement for Ed yet??? Definitely something I'd be interested in....

Oh by the way, I am back from Scotland!! ;-)

Welcome back Capt. Hope your trip was nice.
Did you happen to go by Kilsyth, my birthplace?

We really like the mine tours, I think my little guy is going on one tomorrow actually. We also like the Delaware but want to see a couple others in the area too.

Happy to see you and the Doc made it back, Capt.

Good luck with Edouard, Capt. Paul and Dr. Nat! Please keep us up to date.

Great pics! I will have to write this one on my to do list also.

lovethekeweenaw: please see my question in yesterday's what's UP.

I was a miner when I left the academy. At first I couldn't cope with it, but I managed to take the program under my wing. To be truthful about it, It changed my life for the better. To this day I cant stop thinking about the time I spent there. I'm just sorry that it's closed now. I would have liked to revisited everyone. However I noticed a few names in some of the post that I remember so I'm saying hello to all. Drop me a message or call sometime. (662)335-8299. I'm no longer in Michigan, I decided to move on to Mississippi in 2002. Champion Hall Hurahh!!!! this is for all that attended the radar base when it was a youth academy.

Refresh a far too old memory
Which direction is the view in the top picture?
N-E-S-W? (Still have enough memory left to box the compass if sombody wants to specify it that way)
Thanks for the picture & the memories.

Louis C, the heading in the top photo is roughly 190. I used to have the data points programmed in my old GPS, but I lost it when I upgraded. I rode in the innaugural test run, and got to drive the tram for a few years when I was in college.

Anyone who hasn't seen the tram and the mine for themselves should check it out.

South, looking at Houghton.

Alex: Did not go through Kilsyth, but know exactly where it is. I have one small piece of the family from Lanarkshire, but everyone else is from the far northern highlands and more specifically, Strathnaver.

We're definitely keeping a close eye on Edouard, although we are far enough inland that we shouldn't get the worst of it. We're still going to button everything up here and clear the backyard so our lawnchairs don't become green missles.....

Capt...I'll bet it was a great trip. I went back in 1969 with our family, but I was too young to really appreciate it. Hope to get back soon.

Maybe you can start up a Haggis.com website and ship those tasty treats like pasties...and don't forget the black pudding. (just don't tell anybody what it is.)

I really enjoyed this trip to the Quincy Mine. Actually, last year I won the tickets from the Pasty Cam monthly contest. It was very informative and interesting. A word of advice is to make sure to put on one of the jackets they provide for you to wear down in the mine. It was freezing down there! Some people just refused to do that and they were really cold. It must have been a very hard, tiring job to work there day after day with so many possible dangers. I have great respect for those who worked there.

Cindy,
The part of the mine that is still open for the tour stays cool. The parts that were actually worked in the last several decades of operation were hot. The deeper parts of the Copper Country mines reached temperatures in the 80's and 90's.

Paul, I didn't realize that. Wow! One extreme to another. It must have been awful to get that hot along with the dampness down there, too.

The 7th level of Quincy (adit level) stays a constant 43° year around. If there is a breeze blowing through, the wind chill can make it feel a bit cooler. As the other Paul stated, the mines of the Copper Country (and all over the world for that matter) get much hotter as you go deeper as a result of something called the geothermal gradiant of the earth. For the UP mines, the temperature reached about 100° at the deepest parts of Quincy and C&H. Homestake Mine in South Dakota was about 120° at the bottom, 8,000 feet down. The mines in South Africa however, are the deepest in the world at 12,136 feet vertical. At those depths, temps can reach 160° with 100% humidity. Fortunitely, the air at those depths is cooled for the workers...... to a "comfortable" 100°.

Kinda like summer in Houston, hey?

Exactly!! I wish I was back in Scotland, where we experienced their hottest day of the year: 77°.

Love the shot of the bridge. But I love any shot of that bridge.