Mine: Isle Royale Mine, Dodgeville, MI

Began → Isle Royale Mine → Became

Operated for: 51 years.

From: 1898. Reorganized several older mines.

Owned by: Isle Royal Copper Company. In 1909, sold to Calumet & Hecla Copper Company.

Produced: Copper Ore

Method: Underground shafts. 14 shafts.

Railroad connection: Proprietary railroad on site and tram cars down to mill.

Stamp Mill/Smelter: Isle Royal mill at lake below mill.

Until: 1949 (by C&H).

Lifetime Production: 

Photo info: Top, a locomotive services the Isle Royal Mine about 1929. [Robert Platt Photo, Greg Bunce Collection]. 2nd photo, the iron ore loadout at the Isle Royal Mine in this postcard view. 3rd image, a view of the six stall engine house at the Isle Royal Mine in 1917. [SBM]

Notes

Isle Royal Mine was located in Dodgeville, which was up the hill and southeast of Houghton in Houghton County. Ore was shipped down the hill to the Isle Royal Mill via tram cars. The mine was first worked in 1898 and was a profitable mine during its time. The railroad had a six stall engine house.

Little remains of the original Isle Royal site. Most of the rock piles are gone, used for construction projects and road work. The Houghton Wal-Mart store is located on the former Huron Mine site, and other stores occupy the mine sites of the Isle Royal. The only remaining rock pile is the Isle Royal No. 7, but this is privately owned as well. 

Time Line

1852. The Ohio and Isle Royale Company was organized in 1852 to explore the island of Isle Royale in Lake Superior. The same year, the company transferred all operations to south of Houghton where three rich veins of copper were discovered. [MINDAT]

1855. The company was reorganized into the Isle Royale Copper Company but closed just two years later in 1857. [MINDAT]

1857. The mine was leased on tribute to the Mabbs Brothers. In 1862 the company bought the Webster Mining Company after which time the company worked the mine between 1863 and 1870, but closed it again. Again, the Mabbs Brothers worked the mine on tribute for several years. Between 1853 and 1885, the mine produced 8.8 million pounds of copper. [MINDAT]

1867. The machinery boilers, etc., in the Isle Royale old stamp mill, has been nearly all taken out and removed to the new mill. [DFP-1867-0104]

1899. July. The Isle Royale has begun building a railroad three miles in length to connect the mine with the mill site at the mouth of the Pilgrim river and work on the construction of the stamp mill is to be begun this season. [DFP-1899-0730]

1899. The Isle Royal is now working 22 air drills and work in the new drifts is making good headway. [DFP-1899-0628]

1899. The mine reorganized once again into the Isle Royal Consolidated Copper Company. This new company was a merger of the old Isle Royal, Huron, Grand Portage, Frue, and Dodge Mines. With the additional mines, the “New” Isle Royal was now working 14 shafts on the Isle Royale Amygdaloid. [MINDAT]

1907. No. 5 shaft of the Isle Royale mine has encountered a good copper showing. [DFP-1907-0224]

1909. The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company bought the mine and operated it until the depression. The mine was reopened in 1932 and closed for good in 1949. Between 1901 and 1925, the mine produced over 171 million pounds of copper.