This is a historic photo of the gabled Quincy No. 2 shaft-rockhouse, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. A train trestle, pulley stands and the original hoist house are also visible. The negative is imprinted with the words "Quincy No 2 Shaft Rockhouse Photo By Isler." Click on photos for larger versions. (Photo and caption courtesy Michigan Tech Archives. Historic photos reprinted here with permission.)HANCOCK -- The Quincy Mine Hoist Association and the Keweenaw National Historical Park (KNHP) are celebrating the 2008 triple anniversary of the Quincy Mine with several events open to the public. The events commemorate the 160th anniversary of the Quincy Mining Company, the 100th anniversary of Quincy's No. 2 Shaft-Rockhouse and the 50th anniversary of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association.
This week's event, "Company Housing at the Quincy Mine," will be a car pool tour from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 10.
The Quincy Mining Company 's Clubhouse (bath house), completed in 1917, is in the lower left hand corner of this historic photo taken from the rockhouse at Quincy Location. Several houses enclosed by fences are shown. Laundry hangs out to dry, and a vintage automobile is parked near one of the houses. (Photo and caption courtesy Michigan Tech Archives)Kim Hoagland, Michigan Tech University professor of history and historic preservation, will lead the tour, which departs from No. 2 Hoist House on U.S. 41 just outside of Hancock. Participants will car pool to different neighborhoods where the historic houses are located. Some are presently occupied.
This historic photo of the Quincy Mining Company's Frenchtown on Quincy Hill shows a dirt road with houses on either side. A note from original negative sleeve reads "Frenchtown." (Photo and caption courtesy Michigan Tech Archives)Hoagland has a special interest in vernacular architecture and has a longstanding interest in workers' housing, focusing on the Copper Country. She served as Chair of the Steering Committee for "Key Ingredients Michigan Foodways," the Smithsonian/Michigan Humanities Council exhibit that was on display in Calumet last summer. She was also the curator for the exhibit "Minor Houses/Miner Houses: Copper Country Company Housing,” at the Keweenaw Heritage Center in Calumet in 2003 and 2004.*
Kim Hoagland, right, chair of the Key Ingredients Steering Committee, and Michigan Tech historian Larry Lankton welcomed visitors at the opening of the Key Ingredients and Michigan Foodways exhibits in the Keweenaw Heritage Center on July 14, 2007. Hoagland and Lankton are both participants in the Quincy Anniversary Special Events 2008. (Keweenaw Now file photo © 2007) During the first event of the Quincy anniversary series, "Understanding the Cultural Landscape at Quincy Mine / Quincy Fire Hall" on June 18, 2008, members of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association and KNHP staff led visitors on a walking tour of the Quincy No. 6 site, which includes the future site of Michigan Tech's Seaman Mineral Museum.
Scott See, Quincy Mine Hoist Association Board member, said the role of the Association was really as the landowner of this site.
"We wanted to get people out to see and appreciate the structures, ruins and natural areas," See said.
During the walking tour of some ruins of the No. 6 site at the Quincy Mine, Scott See, left foreground, and Erik Nordberg, on See's left, both Quincy Mine Hoist Association Board members, give some details of the miners' lives and how they used the Dry House, pictured in the background. Second from right, in the foreground is Steve DeLong, landscape architect for Keweenaw National Historical Park. (Photo © 2008 Michele Bourdieu)Several of the visitors commented on the lilacs growing "wild" among the ruins.
According to Eric Nordberg, Quincy Mine Hoist Association Board member, planning for the future of the site includes identifying what is now there and deciding what to do with it. The hope is to plan smartly -- not change it so much that you lose the original, natural characteristics, he said.
Steve DeLong, KNHP landscape architect, pointed out some restoration efforts at stabilization that have already been done on some of the buildings.
"We're looking to the future of the landscape," DeLong said, "but also looking at how to preserve it."
Brenda Williams, historical landscape architect of Quinn Evans Architects of Madison, Wis., has been working with DeLong and other National Park Service staff and with Will Ballard, specialist in environmental assessment from Woolpert, Inc., on a cultural landscape report on the Quincy Unit of KNHP. Preceding the tour of the Quincy No. 6 site, Williams gave a talk on the report at the Quincy Fire Hall and invited the public to offer input.
She said the report is in two parts. Part 1, which is now nearly complete, consists of research and gathering an understanding of how the physical landscape has changed over time and what is here now today.
"(In Part 1) we begin to try to understand the different periods of history that are being represented by what is here today," Williams said. "We feel we're ready to begin Part 2."
In Part 2, she explained, the team working on the report will move into thinking about the future and decisions that have to be made concerning management of the landscape -- what you preserve or what you try to capture in the future in relation to what was there historically at different periods of time.
More Quincy Anniversary Events
The Quincy Anniversary series will also include events in August, September and October.
"The Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad (QTLRR) Roundhouse" will be the subject of a presentation by Chuck Pomazal, Clint Jones and Dennis Leopold from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9.
Al Johnson will lead a "Tour of Mesnard Shaft and Hoist House, Mesnard Location, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11.
Erik Nordberg, Michigan Tech archivist, will present "Mining in the Movies" from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 16, in Room 138, Fisher Hall, on the MTU campus.
Finally, Larry Lankton, MTU historian and author, will present "The Legacy of the Quincy Mine" from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Anniversary Banquet on Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Portage Room, Best Western Franklin Square Inn in Houghton.
*See the Summer 2007 issue of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association Newsletter on their Web site to read about Hoagland's Material Culture course in which she led students through a process of furnishing a Quincy Mining Co. house kitchen ca. 1910-1920.
For more information on Quincy Mine or Quincy Mine Tours and rates visit www.quincymine.com or call 906-482-3101.
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