Mine: Calumet & Hecla Mine, Calumet, MI

Various → Calumet & Hecla Mine → Closed

Operated for 104 years.

From: 1864

Owned by: Calumet & Hecla Mining Company in 1871, then Universal Oil Products in 1968.

Produced: Copper Ore

Method: Underground shaft mining.

Railroad connection: Hecla & Torch Lake railroad (C&H)

Stamp Mill/Smelter: Calumet Lake mill, then mill at Lake Linden.

Until: 1968 (strike). Mine dewatering pumps turned off in 1970.

Lifetime Production: 

Notes

Until 1867, the Calumet portion of this mine was known as the Hulbert Mining Company. Edwin Hulbert was ousted as president and the company was reorganized as the Calumet Mining Company with Alexander Agassiz as president. The Hecla Mining Company was soon added to this company.

From 1869 to 1886 this was the leading copper ore producer in the United States. By 1881 the mine had 16 shafts. By 1897 the Red Jacket shaft reached a vertical depth of 4,900 feet, the deepest in the world at the time. [Wiki]

The Calumet and Hecla mining properties were located between the original Calumet (later Laurium) and Red Jacket (which later assumed the current name of Calumet).  In 1872, the Hecla mine had four shafts (No. 1-4) northwest of and parallel to Mine Street. They also had a rock house between shafts 2 and 3. The Calumet mine also had four shafts along Mine Street north of the Hecla shafts. Numbered 1-4, they also had a separate rock house next to shaft No. 4 year Elm Street. The Hecla & Torch Lake railroad served both rock houses, as well as Hecla's machine shop which doubled as a engine house. [MIN-2022-Sp]

C&H was the largest operator of copper mines in Michigan. These C&H mines were first worked in 1866 and had 12 inclined shafts and one vertical shaft by the end of operations. Other C&H owned mines in the area had additional shafts.

Time Line

1867. January. The Calumet company has ordered a new tug, to be delivered in the spring, to be 120' in length, and have a speed of 18 miles an hour. It is said she is to do the towing for the company and carry the mail and passengers to and from Torch Lake. The softness of the roads have prevented the hauling of any rock from the mine to the lake for the past three weeks. [DFP-1867-0104]

1867. Ore was hauled on a wagon-sled road from the mines southwest to the Detroit and Lake Superior Smelter along Portage Canal in Hancock. [MIN-2022-Sp]

1867. Crews constructed a stamp mill at Calumet Lake about 1/2 mile from the mines. A cable tramway system was built connecting the shafts and the mill at Calumet Lake. [MIN-2022-Sp]

1868. The Hecla Mine begins using their new mill at Lake Linden, via the H&TL and an incline track for the last mile. The Calumet Mine continues their mill at Calumet Lake. [MIN-2022-Sp]

1869. The H&TL is extended one mile north to Calumet Mine and a new rock house is established there. The railroad employs 50. [MIN-2022-Sp]

1872. The mill at Calumet Lake is closed in favor of using the new Calumet mill at Lake Linden via the H&TL. [MIN-2022-Sp]

1874. A miner was killed in the Hecla mine. He and his two partners were working in a drift and was charging a back hole and had put in two or three charges of powder and ramming down with his hammer handle, when it exploded throwing him backwards on a sharp rock. The handle struck him on the forehead and killed him instantly. He leaves a widow and four children. [DFP-1874-0305]

1874. A man was apprehended for passing forged C&H drafts (checks). He ordered the drafts from a Western firm, who at once communicated with the officers of the company. [DFP-1874-0509]

1891. The C&H is now operating a pump that can throw 51,000,000 gallons of water daily. 'Tis the largest water thrower in the world. [OWT-1891-0522]

1891. The C&H will make some experiments in operating its drills, pumps, etc., with electricity. The manufacturers are to make the tests at their own expense. [DD-1891-0627]

1900. Most C&H shafts are connected to the standard gauge DSS&A to facilitate handling of mine timbers. [CRR]

1901. It seems a settled fact that James McNaughton will leave the Menominee range and take a position very high in the management of the C&H mining company. The position which the newspapers assign him is that of superintendent. [DD-1101-0611]

1904. A plan is in contemplation for the extensive electrification of the Calumet & Hecla property. It embraces enlargement of the electric generating plant at Lake Linden and the conveying of the energy by wires to Calumet for use throughout the property. [DFP-1904-0622]. Editor's note: The railroad was never electrified.

1921. Mining stops on C&H properties due to a post-war recession. Production resumes one year later. [CRR]

1923. The Ahmeek, Allouez, Centennial, Osceola and C&H mining companies were merged into the Calumet & Hecla Consolidated Copper Company. The first four properties had been served by the Mineral Range railroad which was considered expensive. A right-of-way along the Trap Rock River valley was secured and construction begun in June 1924. [CRR]

1925. September. The new Trap Rock Valley Railroad was completed. [CRR]

1955. The C&H Company purchased the Wolverine Tube Company in 1955, located at 1411 Central Avenue, just north of the Wabash railroad in southwest Detroit. Copper billets were sent by rail from the C&H smelters to Wolverine where they made seamless copper tubing.