Location: Michigan Smelter, Cole's Creek, MI

The Michigan Smelter was a copper ore smelter facility located on the Keweenaw Waterway, 2 miles west of Houghton. It was placed into operation in 1904, jointly operated by the Copper Range Company and the Stanton group of mines.

Several mills sent stamped copper ore to this facility for smelting into pure copper, including the Champion, Baltic, Mohawk, Trimountain and Wolverine mills via the Copper Range railroad. Product from each mine was kept separated. 

Photo info: Top, a colorized postcard view of the Michigan Smelter near Houghton. 2nd and 3rd images, views of the Michigan Smelter along Portage Lake canal. [LOC Collection]. 4th image, a map of the Michigan Smelter in 1917. [SBM-1917]

Notes

The smelter was reached from the COPR Houghton Yard using a short branch line (Cole's Creek branch) along the Portage Lake canal. 1915 maps suggest that the upper side of the smelter appears to have been reached via a switch back on the west side of the complex.

Ore was brought from the mills near Freda to Mill Mine Junction, then down to the smelter. There were many railroad trestles on the site at all levels. Ore from Mohawk, north of Calumet, was brought here by the Copper Range railroad over the Portage Lake lift bridge and into the Houghton Yard, west of downtown.

An dam on the smelter site, formally used by the old Atlantic Mill, was reused by the smelter as a water source. Operations at the Michigan Smelter ceased in 1948.

Buildings on site included an office and lab and were heated by exhaust steam. There was also a warehouse and two 150 ton railroad track scales. [Wiki] Finished product was brought to Houghton for loading on lake freighters or into box cars.

This was a first smelter in the region to use gravity in its processing, with ore loaded into the top. Other smelters in the area were built on flat ground. The smelter could handle 90 million tons annually. This smelter used separate melting and refining furnaces instead of performing both operations in one furnace. [HAL]

Most refined copper was transported from the smelter in ingots one mile to the Copper Range docks in Houghton and then out by lake boats. Coal and coke was received at these same docks and transported by rail to the smelter. [HAL]

Time Line

1903. The Stanton-Paine group of mines incorporated the Michigan Smelting Company and began a plant on Portage Lake west of Houghton, and west of Cole's Creek. The works here would smelt copper rock from the Copper Range mills near Freda, as well as other Stanton-affiliated mines such as the Wolverine, Mohawk and Atlantic mining companies.  It also processed ore from the Winona and Michigan mines. The Stanton group held 8,000 shares and the Stanton-Paine group held 12,000 shares. [HAL]