Keweenaw National Historical Park facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Keweenaw National Historical Park
Keweenaw National Historical Park Location in Michigan Show map of Michigan Keweenaw National Historical Park Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	Upper Peninsula, Michigan, United States
Nearest city	Calumet, Michigan
Area	1,869 acres (7.56 km2)
Established	October 27, 1992
Visitors	Not available (in 2005)
Governing body	National Park Service in cooperation with other private and non-profit organizations.
Website	Keweenaw National Historical Park
Keweenaw National Historical Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Park Headquarters
Location	Calumet, Michigan
NRHP reference No.	01000108
Added to NRHP	October 27, 1992

The Keweenaw National Historical Park is a special place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's managed by the U.S. National Park Service. This park was created in 1992 to celebrate the amazing history of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

The park has two main areas: the Calumet Unit and the Quincy Unit. It also works with 21 "Heritage Sites." These sites are on different lands, including federal, state, and private property. The National Park Service owns about 1,700 acres within the Calumet and Quincy Units. The park covers parts of Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties.

When the park was created, the government noted two very important facts:

• The Keweenaw Peninsula has the oldest and largest lava flow on Earth. This lava flow created the only place where you can find large amounts of 97% pure copper.
• It is also the only place in the country where ancient Native Americans mined copper long ago. They traded items made from this copper as far south as Alabama.

Copper Heritage

The Keweenaw Peninsula holds the world's largest known natural copper deposits. This copper was very pure. It could be easily taken from the rock. People used it to make many things. Early miners made jewelry and tools. Later, it was used for coins and electric wire.

Copper was mined here for about 7,000 years. This started around 5000 BCE and continued until 1968. From 1840 to 1968, over 11 billion pounds of copper were mined. During World War I, in 1916–1917, the area produced a huge 270 million pounds of copper each year!

The story of copper mining in Keweenaw is best seen in three parts:

• The Village of Calumet shows the social life, different cultures, and businesses.
• The old Calumet and Hecla Mining Company buildings show the power of the mining companies.
• The Quincy Mining Company buildings show how copper was dug up and processed.

Ethnic Heritage

Many different groups of people helped build the history of Keweenaw National Historical Park. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, immigrants came from all over Europe. They came to the Keweenaw to work in the copper mines. By 1910, people from French Canada, Germany, China, Ireland, Cornwall, Croatia, Finland, Italy, Greece, and Syria lived here.

When news of the rich copper spread in the 1830s, many families came from Cornwall, England. They brought their famous Cornish pasty and their skills in hard-rock mining. Some park sites, like the "Old Victoria" log cabin village, show Cornish heritage.

Later in the 1800s, many families from Finland came to the United States. Finland was part of Russia until 1918. Many Finns settled in the Western Upper Peninsula. They felt it was similar to their homeland. They found work in the Keweenaw mines. You can still find Finnish saunas all over the area. The "Hanka Homestead" is a park site that shows the Finnish influence.

Calumet Unit

The Calumet Unit of the park includes many places in and around Calumet and Laurium. These are not ghost towns. They are active towns that survived after the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company closed in 1968. The miners and owners of Calumet & Hecla found rock formations filled with almost pure copper.

The Calumet & Hecla was the richest copper mine in Keweenaw. The towns built around it showed how successful it was. You can still see a 1,200-seat opera house, large churches made of Lake Superior brownstone, and fancy mansions built by the mining bosses. These buildings remind us of the mine's glory days.

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  Main Office of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company (now the Headquarters of the National Historical Park)

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  The Company Library and Bathhouse for its employees.

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  Warehouse of the C&H Mining Company in Calumet, Michigan.

Quincy Unit

Quincy Unit, Keweenaw National Historical Park

The Quincy Unit celebrates an amazing engineering feat in northern Michigan. This is the 9,000-foot deep Quincy Mine shaft. The Quincy mine was called "Old Reliable." This was because it paid annual dividends to its owners for decades. It was located on the rich copper rock of the Pewabic Lode. A private group helps keep the Quincy Mine's surface mine hoist. This hoist is the largest steam-powered hoist in the world.

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  Quincy Mine plan created by the HAER, National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

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  Quincy Smelting Works plan created by the HAER, National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

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  Mine Hoist Powerhouse for the Quincy Mine Hoist.

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  KNHP sign for the Quincy Mine

Heritage Sites

As of 2013, Keweenaw National Historical Park works with 21 heritage sites. These sites are located across the Keweenaw Peninsula and nearby areas. The heritage site system started in 2007 with 19 sites. In October 2013, two new sites were added. These were Houghton's Carnegie Museum and the Michigan Technological University Archives.

Adventure Mining Company

The Adventure Mining Company is in Greenland, Michigan. The Adventure Mine operated from 1850 to 1920. It had five shafts, with one going 1,300 feet underground. Even though it looked promising, the mine never made a profit. Today, the Adventure Mining Company offers tours of the mine's surface and underground areas.

A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum

The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum is now located across from the Advanced Technology Development Complex in Houghton, Michigan. It was named after Arthur Edmund Seaman. He worked at Michigan Tech and was the museum's curator.

The museum's mineral collection started in the 1800s. By 1890, it had 27,000 specimens. A museum building was built in 1908. The museum has moved several times. The collection has grown to over 30,000 specimens. About 8,000 of these are on display. The museum has a huge mineral collection. It also has exhibits on how copper formed. It has the world's best collection of crystallized native copper.

Calumet Theatre

The Calumet Theatre

The Calumet Theatre is in Calumet, Michigan, within the park's Calumet Unit. It was built in 1899 and opened in 1900. It was the first theatre built by a city in the country. Famous performers like Frank Morgan (from The Wizard of Oz), Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Sarah Bernhardt performed here.

In the late 1920s, it became a movie house. It showed movies until the 1950s. Live summer theatre returned in 1958. The theatre was restored in 1975. Today, the Calumet Theatre hosts about 80 events each year. About 20,000 people attend these events.

Coppertown USA Museum

The Coppertown USA Museum is in Calumet, Michigan, in the park's Calumet Unit. It is located in the old pattern shop of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. The museum shows the history of copper mining. It covers everything from ancient times to today. It focuses on the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company's work.

Delaware Copper Mine

Delaware Mine entrance

The Delaware Copper Mine is off U.S. Highway 41, 12 miles south of Copper Harbor, Michigan. You can tour one of the oldest copper mines in Keweenaw here. It dates back to 1846. The mine had five shafts, with the deepest reaching 1,400 feet. The mine is open from June through October. It offers both guided and self-guided tours.

Finnish American Heritage Center & Historical Archive

Finnish American Heritage Center

The Finnish American Heritage Center & Historical Archive is on the campus of Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan. It has a theater, an art gallery, and historical archives. These archives hold the largest collection of Finnish-North American materials in the world. The center connects Finnish communities in America and Finland. It has exhibits on Finnish history and traditions.

Fort Wilkins Historic State Park

Copper Harbor Lighthouse

Fort Wilkins Historic State Park is on US 41 in Copper Harbor, Michigan. The fort was built in 1844. It helped keep order and protected copper resources during the Civil War. The park also has one of the first lighthouses on Lake Superior. You can go camping, fishing, hiking, swimming, and biking here.

Hanka Homestead

Hanka Homestead

The Hanka Homestead is about 3 miles west of U.S. Highway 41, near Pelkie, Michigan. This is a Finnish-American "stump farm" homestead. It was first settled around 1900. The Hanka family lived there until 1966. The farm has been restored to look like it did in 1920.

Keweenaw County Historical Society

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

The Keweenaw County Historical Society has five locations in Keweenaw County, Michigan. These include the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, Central Mine Historic District, Phoenix Church, the Rathbone School, and the Bammert Blacksmith Shop. Visitor Centers are at the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse and Central Mine. Their sites are open from June through October.

Keweenaw Heritage Center

Keweenaw Heritage Center in Ste. Anne's

The Keweenaw Heritage Center is in the old Ste. Anne's church in Calumet, Michigan. This is within the park's Calumet Unit. Ste. Anne's was built in 1900 as a French Canadian Roman Catholic church. It was no longer used as a church after 1966. In 1994, local citizens bought the building. The center wants to "preserve and interpret the culture and heritage of the Copper Country." They plan a major museum on the first floor.

Laurium Manor Inn

Laurium Manor Inn

The Laurium Manor Inn is in Laurium, Michigan. This 13,000-square-foot building was built in 1908. It was the home of a rich mining captain, Thomas H. Hoatson. It cost $50,000 to build. Today, the house is a bed and breakfast. It is also open to the public for tours.

Old Victoria

Old Victoria is in Rockland Township, Michigan. This site has a group of small log houses. Miners from the Victoria Mining Company once lived here. These cabins were built in 1899 and left empty in 1921. The buildings were restored in the 1970s. You can take tours through the cabins and the old mine site.

Ontonagon County Historical Society

The Ontonagon County Historical Society is in Ontonagon, Michigan. It was founded in 1957. Its goal is to collect and save historical items from the county. It also teaches the public about the area's history. The museum has items from the early mining days. The Society also runs the Ontonagon Lighthouse. This lighthouse was built in 1851–52. The Society bought it in 2000 and offers tours in the summer.

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Porcupine Mountains vista

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is west of Ontonagon, Michigan. It is on Michigan State Route 107. The park is 59,000 acres large. You can go day-hiking, backpacking, camping, canoeing, biking, and do winter sports here. There are also many old copper mining sites in the park. You can also see untouched forests.

Quincy Mine Hoist and Underground Mine

Quincy Mine Hoist center

The Quincy Mine Hoist and Underground Mine is in Hancock, Michigan. It is part of the park's Quincy Unit. The company offers tours of the Quincy Mine's surface buildings. They also offer tours underground.

Upper Peninsula Firefighters Memorial Museum

Calumet Fire Station

The Upper Peninsula Firefighters Memorial Museum is in Calumet, Michigan. It is within the park's Calumet Unit. The second floor of the building has exhibits. These exhibits show the history of firefighting in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Images for kids

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  First Congregational Church, home of the Houghton County Historical Museum

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  Carnegie Museum

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  Chassell School