Hollowed ground : copper mining and community building on Lake Superior, 1840s-1990s / Larry Lankton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lankton, Larry D.

Series:

Great Lakes books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mining camps.

History.

Community life.

Copper mines and mining--Social aspects.

Copper mines and mining.

Keweenaw Peninsula (Mich.)--History.

Keweenaw Peninsula (Mich.).

Keweenaw Peninsula (Mich.)--Social conditions.

Keweenaw Peninsula (Mich.)--Economic conditions.

Copper mines and mining--Michigan--Keweenaw Peninsula--History.

Copper mines and mining--Social aspects--Michigan--Keweenaw Peninsula--History.

Community life--Michigan--Keweenaw Peninsula--History.

Mining camps--Michigan--Keweenaw Peninsula--History.

Keweenaw Peninsula (Mich.)--History, Local.

Michigan--Keweenaw Peninsula.

Physical Description:

xiii, 376 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Detroit, Mich. : Wayne State University Press, [2010]

Summary:

In Hollowed Ground, author Larry Lankton tells the story of two copper industries on Lake Superior--native copper mining, which produced about 11 billion pounds of the metal from the 1840s until the late 1960s, and copper sulfide mining, which began in the 1950s and produced another 4.4 billion pounds of copper through the 1990s. In addition to documenting companies and their mines, mills, and smelters, Hollowed Ground is also a community study. It examines the region's population and ethnic mix, which was a direct result of the mining industry, and the companies' paternalistic involvement in community building. While this book covers the history of the entire Lake Superior mining industry, it particularly focuses on the three biggest, most important, and longest-lived companies: Calumet & Hecla, Copper Range, and Quincy. Lankton shows the extent of the companies' influence over their mining locations, as they constructed the houses and neighborhoods of their company towns, set the course of local schools, saw that churches got land to build on, encouraged the growth of commercial villages on the margin of a mine, and even provided pasturage for workers' milk cows and space for vegetable gardens. Lankton also traces the interconnected fortunes of the mining communities and their companies through times of bustling economic growth and periods of decline and closure. Hollowed Ground presents a wealth of images from Upper Michigan's mining towns, reflecting a century and a half of unique community and industrial history. Local historians, industrial historians, and anyone interested in the history of Michigan's Upper Peninsula will appreciate this informative volume.

Contents:

Keweenaw copper : geology, discovery, dreams of wealth

Getting the copper out : exploration, development, and the tools of production

Islands of industry in a sea of trees

Out at the locations : from camps to communities

The Quincy Mine : taking the long road to success

The era of Michigan domination : 1865-1890

The largest and best copper mine in the world : Calumet and Hecla

Befitting a copper king : C&H's visible empire

A far more typical mine : Quincy, 1865-1890

Quincy makes itself over : 1890-1912

Calumet and Hecla : profits now, problems later

An important find : the Copper Range mines open the Baltic Lode

Paternalism revisited : the Baltic, Trimountain, and Champion mines

Holding on : corporate power in an age of social change, 1890-1912

Show them who's boss : the strike of 1913-1914

Making the hard turn : from growth to decline

The Quincy Mine : from struggle to shutdown

Calumet and Hecla : down with the king

Copper Range : staying alive

White Pine : a new mine, a new era

Something old, something new : the White Pine townsite

White Pine : no solution

Legacy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780814334584

081433458X

9780814334904

0814334903

OCLC:

467359125