Keweenaw Country of Michigan

Because Zack showed such an interest in visiting the Iron Mine the last time we were up north, my dad decided to take him (us) on a day trip over to the Houghton/Hancock area of Michigan to tour the copper mine.

The Quincy Mine Hoist 

This tour was very different from the Iron Mine.

The tour started in this building:

where we saw a short movie and then toured the building.

Below is the apparatus which was used to lower the men into the mine.  It is like a ladder and each step could fit three men.  It was suspended by cables which were wrapped around the big drum in the picture above.  As one end of the drum would unwrap the cable to lower men into the mine...the other end would wrap the cable and pull men out of the mine.  Pretty interesting.

mine shaft car

That, however, is not how we got into the mine.  We boarded a tram like vehicle which slowly lowered us at a 45% angle to the lower ground.

view from inside the tram

Once we got to the lower ground we boarded a wagon pulled by a John Deere that brought us into the mine.

Mine entrance

The whole tour took about 2 hours.  After the tour we continued north to Copper Harbor while driving along Lake Superior. The weather wasn't that great to begin with but dropped to 56* while driving along the lake.

Ollie didn't care, though. He still enjoyed the head hangin out the window.

We had packed a picnic lunch but ended up just eating in the car!

We drove to northern most tip of the peninsula and enjoyed a beautiful view and waterfall.

Mom, Zack, and me

Mom, Dad, and me

Zack and me

It got warmer as we headed home...

Houghton was beautiful:

Bridge between Houghton and Hancock

And by the time we got back to Iron Mountain at 8:30 it was 77*.

Ollie tuckered on the way home: