White Pine is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in Ontonagon County in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The CDP had a population of 474 at the 2010 census. White Pine is located within Carp Lake Township. Much of White Pine was developed in the 1950s as a

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

for miners at the

White Pine mine In Michigan, copper mining 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 almos ...

. Mining companies in Michigan often built and leased housing to workers so that miners could live adjacent to mine operations. This allowed mining companies to attract workers with families, which were believed to improve retention rates by ensuring miners were socially and financially invested in the town created by the mining company. White Pine was developed as a typical post war suburb. Many dwellings were single-story ranch homes, although a trailer park and apartment complex were also built. The community never developed fully as the

Copper Range Company The Copper Range Company was a major copper-mining company in the Copper Country of Michigan, United States. It began as the Copper Range Company in the late 19th century as a holding company specializing in shares in the copper mines south of Hou ...

envisioned. The automobile transformed how workers commuted where previous mine sites had workers walking from nearby housing to the mine, many workers by the 1950s preferred driving up to 90 miles a day to remain in their current homes rather than move to the company town.

History

It was a station on the Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Paul Railway. Thomas H. Wilcox, a mining engineer, found mass copper in the Mineral River and formed the White Pine Copper Company to mine it. The settlement was given a post office as "White Pine Mine" in June 1915. The community of White Pine was listed as a newly-organized

for the 2010 census, meaning it now has officially defined boundaries and population statistics for the first time.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, White Pine has a total area of , all land. White Pine is located within Carp Lake Township east of the

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park The Porcupine Mountains, or Porkies, are a group of small mountains spanning the northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, near the shore of Lake Superior. The Porcupine Mountains were named by the native ...

. The

operated the

in White Pine from 1955 to 1995. White Pine is served by the 49971 ZIP Code, which is the highest numeric ZIP Code in the state of Michigan.

Demographics

References

External links

Mine Site Visit: Copper Range Company White Pine Mine
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste, observations from EPA site visit May 5 and 6, 1992 *

Copper mining in Michigan In Michigan, copper mining 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 almos ...

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Ontonagon County, Michigan Census-designated places in Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan Census-designated places in Ontonagon County, Michigan