Monday, February 15, 2010

46/365 - F is for Furnace

Red and black rock, forming two letters F in a stone wall
Click the photo to see it on Flickr.

F is for the Forgotten Facade of a Furnace -- a 110+ year old steam boiler, to be specific! This F comes to you from the corner of the old Quincy Mine #7 boiler house, built in 1898.

The darker rock is poor rock from the mine -- mineral-free rock brought up from the mines and reused in buildings. Many Copper Country mine buildings -- especially from before 1900 -- have poor rock foundations. The red quoins are made of Jacobsville Sandstone, a building material native to the Keweenaw (and very commonly used in buildings up here). They sure don't make 'em like they used to!

While I'm at it -- does anyone else think that the lines, stripes, and swirls in the sandstone look a bit like close-ups of Jupiter?

2 comments:

Sarah Ann said...

i love it! great picture hon :)

Anonymous said...

I can definitely see the Jupiter bands being an analogy to the patterns in the sandstone. Good eye!