• Sunday-What'sUP November 27 - 09:08 pm

You may have seen today's Shoebox Memory before, if you've ever read "Old Reliable: An Illustrated History of the Quincy Mining Company". This remarkable photo is from the MTU Archives and Copper Country Historical Collection (with our thanks to Erik Nordberg), which transports us to a place where I have personally spent some time over the past few years: the top of the Quincy Mine shafthouse. See the big wheels in the left side of the second photo? We have to climb around these to get to our Pasty.NET broadband wireless access points, which blanket the Portage Canal valley with high-speed Internet service, from high atop Quincy Hill.

Of course, back in 1908 the Internet was lightyears away, with computers still a half-century down the pike. Our 4 brave (or crazy) skywalkers were on a mission to extract copper out of the ground, replacing the old wooden building with the new steel-frame shaft-rockhouse. You can read more about it in "Old Reliable", available online at QuincyMine.com. By the way, the Quincy Gift Shop will be open each Thursday, Friday and Saturday through the holidays, for your local shopping convenience here in the Copper Country.

Speaking of holiday hours, the MTU Archives - now located on the garden level of the J. R. Van Pelt Library - will be open weekdays now through Christmas: 10 til 5 on Monday and Friday, opening at noon the other days, and staying open later until 8pm on Wednesdays.

Thanks for joining us each Sunday for these visits around a piece of U.P. history. Interesting how landmarks like Quincy Mine still have a vital role in the economic and cultural life of the Keweenaw... and Pasty Central is proud to be a small part of it.

Have a good week :o)

Good Morning to all, once again knowledge of mines is not there, but the pictures are great to look at!

WOW! I use to climb around the 4" wide top edge of a cement silo when I was a young man (high school age) on the farm. Now I get the shakes looking at pictures like these!

Thanks to Erik and Charlie, on behalf of history buffs everywhere.

Brave souls.

Sure would like to see a cut away picture of how all that works, to get the copper from under the ground. When I worked there in 64, I never thought much about it. One of the many different jobs I did when I worked there was on a bore-rock dump in the winter, I liked to froze stiff. The wind was below freezing. A great experience.wright mattingly Lily ky.

I always liked the looks of #2 before the restoration, rusted and holding its own against the elements. But I know that it will be around along time for others to marval at. I hope that they are planing a big 100 year birthday for this shaft rockhouse. Think of the publicity chances.

A fire completely destroyed the Sky Lawn resturant on Saturday 11/26/2005. A passer-by phoned in about 8AM after seeing smoke. Several fire dept's responded - we saw a pumper truck just south of the location of the fire with hoses dropped off a bridge into the river to refill -
Sky Lawn resturant is located 7 mi South of Hurley, WI and has been in business since 1958

http://www.wrycza.org/pics/skylawn/SkyLawnFiresm.jpg

Sky Lawn resturant fire

and

http://www.wrycza.org/pics/skylawn/SkyLawnFire3sm.jpg

Sky Lawn fire 5pm

william wright matttnigly. check the Quincy mine assocation. gift shop . books. they have two books on the quincy mine that show a cut away view . Old reliable. and Quincy mining company engineering drawings. both are a must have . Just look down left side of the pasty .com main page

oops .Right side.

Grace, just curious: what did you mean by "once again knowledge of mines is not there"?

Maybe Grace is thinking like me...she doesn't know much about these mines and they way they work, but finds the pics of interest to look at.

Where are those brave men when you need them? The rope for the flagpole on top of the shafthouse needs to be "re-strung". If you know of anybody willing to shinney up the pole and slip it through the pulley, let us know. It will look good, once again, to see the flag flying high atop Quincy Hill.

Hey Chuck, I'm sure Dennis L. or myself wouldn't mind doing the re-stringing of the rope. Just one problem..... we're much too large to shimmy up any pole!!! lol

Maija- There were pictures of mines on the Sunday Pasty Cam just a week ago or so. At that time I had mentioned that I didn"t know much about mines but did find the pictures interesting
to look at. That's the point I was trying to make!

Its all a matter of perspective. The four guys standing on top of the pulley stand probably thought the guys going underground everyday were nuts to work in such dangerous conditions.

It always interests me seeing all these old Keweenaw mine site etc. photos of the almost lack of trees or even shrubs.Some areas of the Keweenaw back then looked like tundra! Then as time progresses one can see the re-emergence of foilage, shrubs, trees and so on up to these days where photos of the areas show mature trees, many pines everywhere!
When my mother, brother and I lived in one of the old C&H company houses just 2 doors from Quincy #2 in the 40s, I remember mostly just Lilac Shrubs, a few apple trees here and there, Poplar, and Maple saplings. That was about it.
As kids we often went into the abandoned big power/steam house and climbed around all the machinery and the huge drum. We were though terrified (and warned) to go in the shaft house!
Often wondered what year #2 was built and glad to see these photos. Of all the ones I've got or seen never saw any at this stage!

Was that a house in the distance.. across the road I would guess..

(Ten years later …)

'Tis tempting to wonder if there's any connection between Erik Nordberg (at the MTU Archives and Copper Country Historical Collection) and the Nordberg steam hoist at Quincy #2. A relative of Bruno V. Nordberg, founder of the Nordberg Manufacturing Company, which built the Quincy steam hoist, perhaps?

It wouldn't surprise me. As Doug (Greenhermit) noted in Cam Notes on (click →) Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 09:08 pm:

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Quote:

"[Bruno] … was a Finn. He was born in Helsinki in 1857 and emigrated to Milwaukee in 1880 where he first worked for the Allis Company before forming his own company in 1890. His father had been a ship builder in Finland, and the Nordberg companies are part of the "genealogy" of Finland's present-day global manufacturing giant, Metso.

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