Wild Daisy

A wild daisy on the high rocky ridge at Copper Falls -- on my last visit before moving away.

Ball Mill

Catching up...

A ball mill at the old White Pine mine. This was one of many attempts to make mining the Nonesuch Shale pay -- a bed of sandstone with extremely fine copper embedded in it. The Nonesuch mine (in the Porcupine Mountains) was the first attempt, with the old White Pine coming again later. It took quite a long time -- until the 1950's! -- for the Copper Range Company to solve the problem (at which point the White Pine became a real bonanza).

The ball mills were an early attempt at the White Pine, but they benefitted from the many many many attempts made at the Nonesuch -- but as it turned out, these rotating containers didn't work all that well either. The ruins are spectacular, but never made any money.

This photo was taken after my overnight solo backpacking trip into the Porkies -- my last real adventure while living in the UP.

Between Silos

Hey, look -- wide angles!

This is another view of the "United Crushers" abandoned grain elevators in Minneapolis. A rail line runs between these, and it's not fully abandoned -- but currently only used for construction traffic on the new light rail branch.