WORKING IN THE COPPER MINES

The mining frontier added a new dimension to Michigan's population. The dominance of New England stock, so marked in the settlement of the farmer's frontier of southern Michigan, was notably absent in the mining country, although Boston dollars were heavily invested in the copper mines. The newcomers included at first workmen from the lead mines of Illinois and Missouri. Heavy reliance was placed, over the years, on foreign immigrants. The contributions of skilled miners from Cornwall were of inestimable value. There was a large influx of Finns. Many Irish, Germans, and -after 1890-Italians, and other southern Europeans came. The number of foreign-born residents in Keweenaw County, in the Copper Country, exceeded the number of native-born in 1870, and in Marquette County, major center of iron production, over 61% of the inhabitants that year were foreign-born.
   Each day the copper miners would descend into the mine on "mancars", which as the images below show, angled down into the dark and wet mine shafts.  The image on the left is a historic photo, while the image on the right is a restored mancar.  The "box-like" apparatus on the left of the mancar is an ore car.  As the men descended into the mine, an equal weight of ore was hauled up, to counter the weight.   Likewise, at the end of the day, as the men were being carried up, out of the mine, empty ore cars were descending.

Source: Unknown                                                                Source:  Photograph by Randy Schaetzl, Professor of Geography - Michigan State University

Copper mining was not only difficult work, but dangerous work as well.  Miners had to work by candlelight, as shown below.  Often they went about their work in total darkness, to save on oxygen that the candles were consuming.  Imagine driving steel pins into rock in complete darkness--a darkness as black as the darkest night!  Or better yet, image that you are holding the pin....

Source: Unknown    

Source: Unknown    
     TYPICAL SHAFTS IN A COPPER MINE

Source: Unknown    

Ore was removed in two parallel shafts.  The method by which the mine is worked is simple. Much of the rock is moved through the shafts in cars, which run on suspended wire ropes. They are so arranged that two of theses tracks, each running to a different chute, extend from the same ore body, or are connected so as to operate together. The one loaded car going down draws up an empty car on the other. This arrangement facilitates getting the ore out of the mine very easily and with a minimum of energy expended.

Source: Unknown    

Often, early copper miners had to work in near darkness, for the excessive use of candles would use up the limited oxygen that was in the deep mine shafts.  Note the candles on the helmets of the miners shown below.  In some instances, the miners would work in total darkness, again to preserve the precious oxygen in the mine.

Source: Unknown    

Neither was it high-paying work.  Examine the Table below for evidence of that!

Source: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review. Vol. 20, Jan-June 1925. Washington: Government Printing Office, pages1033-1039

The Pasty

The pasty (pronounced pass tee) is a traditional British foodstuff, originally developed for the tin miners of Cornwall in the far southwest of the country. A pasty consists of a circle of pastry filled with meat, potatoes and other vegetables which is then folded over to form a filled semicircular pie-like thing. Like other traditional British foods such as shepherds pie, pasties would be made the night before using local ingredients, and were handily self-contained so that they could be taken to work in the morning and eaten later on. A proper Cornish Pasty will have a very thick crust along the joined edge where the two halves of the pastry were joined together: this is because tin extraction used to require handling arsenic, and the miners used to hold the pasty by the crust and eat the filling, then throw away the arsenic-contaminated crust afterwards. They had a huge advantage in the cold, damp copper mines because the ingredients would stay warm until lunchtime, providing the miners with a welcome hot meal. They remain highly popular in the Copper Country even today.

Some of the images on this page were donated by Nate Verhanovitz, a mechanical engineering grad student at MSU.

This material has been compiled for educational use only, and may not be reproduced without permission.  One copy may be printed for personal use.  Please contact Randall Schaetzl (soils@msu.edu) for more information or permissions.