Underneath the massive -- but slowly decaying -- Champion #4 rock house. This photo shows the path of the old rail spur which lead under the rock bins, where train cars could pick up copper-bearing rock to take to the mill.
This photo was taken as part of a tour on the Copper Country Explorer weekend, 2010.
Some sort of mechanical-electrical switches at the Champion #4 hoist building.
We gained access to this building as part of the Copper Country Explorer weekend tour in 2010. The building originally housed a giant steam hoist for the Champion #4 mine, but in its later years it was scaled down to a much smaller electrical hoist -- leaving an awful lot of empty space.
Catching up: Here's an old shot from the Delaware Copper Mine, and excellent self-guided mine tour up in the Keweenaw Peninsula. This is a stope hole (possibly better called a "winzie") which connects the 1st and 2nd levels of the mine. The hole connects to the top of a "stope" (an area of copper ore which was removed) which is now filled with water.
The beginning of the tram road from the C shaft of the old Minesota mine's tram road -- yes, that's spelled right -- at the top of the cleverly named C Shaft Hill.
The Minesota was one of the richest mines in the Copper Country -- in its time. But it mined a special type of lode which had huge chunks of pure copper, and which (like most lodes of that type) ran out fairly quickly -- nothing near the 100+ years that Calumet and Hecla or Quincy would survive, working low-grade lodes filled with tiny nodules of copper. The lode mined at the Minesota was right on the face of the bluff, and so the rockhouse and other parts of the mine had to be below the bluff face.
You may have noticed that I suddenly slowed down, and then totally stopped, posting photos recently. Well, I had a good excuse: I was going through a butterfly-like transformation and becoming Dr. Clark!
This photo, taken by one of my colleagues, is from my dissertation defense -- a presentation made to my advisor, a committee of professors, and anyone else from my department who cared to come. I presented on and answered questions about my last 5 years' worth of mathematical research. After some grilling by my committee, the deed was done: they agreed that I would be a doctor of mathematics!
Anyhow, the long and short of it is that, in preparing for this day, everything else took a back burner. After that, the combination of finishing up the final details of my dissertation, moving into a new apartment, and the holidays generally kept me from editing and posting photos. More later, I promise!
