Ring on the Wall

A ring on the wall of the old Key Mill, at the Centennial mine.

This was at the Centennial #3. Centennial had quite a history: it began by trying to mine the Calumet Conglomerate, which was making the Calumet & Hecla mine (immediately to the south) fabulously rich. Amazingly, the lode ran basically at the property line. Centennial didn't give up... the built full-out mines on two more lodes, before Homestake bought the mine and returned to the Conglomerate in the 1980's.

Homestake must have thought that it was promising... they even went so far as to build a mill (the "Key Mill") at the site, in some more or less featureless sheet metal buildings on the site. Unfortunately, the experiment lasted for only a year or two, and the mine has been shut down (and decaying severely) since then.

The mill was sold and torn down last year. However, not all of it is gone -- random cement pedestals and metal artifacts remain, standing in the late afternoon sun.

Dead Lightpost

The Kingston mine was one of the very few Copper Country mines ever to have a parking lot. Most were closed long before automobiles became popular.

Crocuses

It's spring!

"Crocus" means "spring" to me. I take a crocus photo every spring, kneeling in snow, getting muddy and cold... because they're just so dang beautiful.

Trust

Trust me, this will all work out...

Ruins of the Champion Mine's mill, in Freda, Michigan. Freda was the end of the line, and existed only for the mill. Once the mine went under, so did everything else in town.

Dam Beams

The massive support beams at the Redridge Steel Dam.

These are on the downstream side of the dam, behind the massive steel face which once held back water. The only reason that the afternoon sunlight can show so beautifully on them is because holes were cut in the dam years ago, to help drain the reservoir and avoid overtopping!

Rock Car Wheel

This wheel once helped to dump rock cars from the Quincy Mine. It's long since rusted solid.

These rock cars are lined up on a bit of rail still left near the #2 shafthouse, leading under the rock bin.

Quincy through the window

A classic view of the Quincy mine's #2 rockhouse, as viewed through a window of the #4 hoist house.

Rock Crack

Light hilighting the edge of a crack in the rocks at Canyon Falls, Michigan. (Spring 2009 -- I'm going through the back catalog to see what I missed!)