The Minong Mine is a historic mine site located west of McCargoe Cove campground on
Isle Royale National Park
Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale – known as Minong to the native Ojibwe – along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan. ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, United States. The district contains both the remnants of a 19th-century copper mine and remains of pre-contact mining activity.
Pre-contact archeological sited in the district include a
Late Archaic
Late may refer to:
* LATE, an acronym which could stand for:
** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia
** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law
** Local average treatment effect, ...
copper mining pit site designated 20KE24 and a nearby site designated 20KE73.
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1977
and designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 2021.
Prehistoric mining
Native Americans first began mining copper at the Minong Mine site 4500 years ago, using stone implements to extract the pure
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
available at the site
and cold-hammering the metal to form spear points and other implements.
These prehistoric miners created pits, some as much as 30 feet deep,
that can still be seen at the site.
Some pits showed evidence of early engineering efforts, using boulders to support the walls of the pit and drains to remove water.
There was evidence that these ancient miners utilized fire-setting, where rocks were split by heating them with fire and rapidly cooling them with water to extract the copper within.
When re-discovered in the 19th century, the prehistoric excavations in the Minong Mine area were described as extending "in almost a continuous line for more than two miles, in most instances the pits being so close together as barely to permit their convenient working."
A number of ancient mining artifacts were collected from the Minong site; primarily smooth cobbles used as hammers which were, it was said "collected by the cartload."
In addition, a fragment of a wooden bowl about three feet across, a wooden shovel, and a rawhide string were also discovered at the site.
The Minong Mine (1872–1885)
Modern copper mining on Isle Royale was begun in the 1840s and 1850s, although not at the Minong Mine site.
This activity ceased in 1855, and for a number of years there were no permanent inhabitants on the island.
In 1871, a group of explorers working for the North American Mineral Land Company arrived on the island.
In the fall of that year, the explorers found the old Native American pit mines west of McCargoe Cove.
In 1872, a group of prospectors returned and staked out the Minong Mine.
In late 1874, the Minong Mining Company was organized in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
to mine the copper deposits in the area.
The name "Minong" was taken from an
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
word for "island" in general and Isle Royale in particular.
This company purchased land from the North American Mineral Land Company and commenced a mining operation in 1875.
Most of the copper mining was still done in
open pit mining
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
This form of mining ...
, but two shafts, one over 300 feet, were also sunk at the mine.
In 1875, more than 50 people were working at the Minong Mine and living in the nearby settlement of Cove, at the end of McCargoe Cove.
Later, at the height of the Minong operation, some 150 miners were employed at the mine.
A railroad ran between the mine proper and Cove, and the mining settlement had a post office, a dam, a
stamp mill
A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operatio ...
(built in 1876), a dock, and a blacksmith's shop.
![CopperNuggetMinongMine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/CopperNuggetMinongMine.jpg)
The mine produced some large nuggets of copper; the first, in 1874, was a 5720-pound nugget which was subsequently displayed on the courthouse lawn in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
and at the 1876
Centennial Exhibition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
.
This copper mass showed evidence of being worked by prehistoric miners, "the surface of the mass had evidently been beaten up into projecting ridges... depressions, several inches deep, and the intervening elevations, with their fractured summits, covering every foot of the exposed superficies."
In 1878, a copper mass weighing six tons was discovered, and in 1879 two nuggets of 3317 and 4175 pounds were discovered.
In 1879, the Minong Mining Company was reorganized to form the Minong Copper Company, with its headquarters also located in Detroit.
The Minong Copper Company continued work until June 1883, when they suspended mining operations, due in part to the low price of copper.
A few individuals continued mining operations for another two years or so, but by 1885 all activity had ceased.
In the ten years between 1875 and 1885, Minong Mine produced 249 tons of copper.
However, the amount of copper produced slowly dwindled, and the mine was abandoned in 1885.
The site today
The area around Minong Mine sports small prehistoric pits, as well as the larger pits (now filled with water) and shafts from the 1870s mine.
Piles of tailings, the wreckage of a smithy, railroad tracks, and ore carts also are at the site.
As of 1994, the dam near McCargoe Cove was still intact.
File:Minong1.jpg, The general appearance of the precontact mining pit cluster landscape in 2015
File:Minong2.jpg, The Minong Mining Company Tramway remnants as they appeared in 2009
File:Minong3.jpg, Hammerstone found beside precontact mining trench on Minong Ridge in 2012
See also
*
Copper mining in Michigan
Copper mining in Michigan became an important industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its rise marked the start of copper mining as a major industry in the United States.
Geology
Within the state of Michigan, copper is found almost ex ...
References
Further reading
*
{{National Register of Historic Places listings in Keweenaw County, Michigan
Geography of Keweenaw County, Michigan
Isle Royale
Copper mines in Michigan
Archaeological sites in Michigan
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
National Register of Historic Places in Isle Royale National Park
National Historic Landmarks in Michigan