The Phases of Mineral Exploitation
The Exploitation of Ontonagon, Part 2
By Bruce Johanson
The beginning of the mineral exploitation came about with the rediscovery of the copper deposits in the area. The formal mineralogical explorations spearheaded by Dr. Douglass Houghton, the new State of Michigan’s first State Geologist, reported both copper and iron in the previously undeveloped Upper Peninsula. Houghton also visited the massive copper boulder on the Ontonagon River and this became the magnet that drew prospectors to the area.
It soon became necessary to work out some agreement with the Ojibway who still possessed the region. A series of treaties, one in 1842 and a later one in 1854 that established reservations in the area cleared the way for mining. The Native American population which had supported the fur trade, and in the process had become dependent on the white man for the trade goods that changed their lives, were now displaced. Some were assimilated, while others moved to the reservations to continue their cultural decline. In the meantime, the land that they had guarded so carefully was now subjected to digging, blasting, and tunneling while the mineral wealth was taken from the ground, and shipped off to other places for ultimate refining and use.
The history of copper mining in Ontonagon County is well known, but it came in three phases. The first began in about 1847 and continued through about 1871. The main mining operations we saw in this period, were the Minesota, the National, and to a lesser degree, the Forest (Victoria) and the Adventure.
The second phase of copper development began in 1898 with the Michigan Mine (working the former Minesota Mine holdings); Adventure Consolidated; Mass Consolidated; Victoria (formerly Forest Mine); and limited work at the White Pine Mine. This all came to a halt following the end of World War I when copper prices fell.
The third phase of copper development was the White Pine Mine, now working the chalcocite ore body rather than native copper. Starting in 1950, this company really meant business with the building of a smelter and over time they created a large underground operation that totaled over 3,000 acres. White Pine Copper, a subsidiary of Copper Range (formerly of Painesdale, Baltic, and Tri-Mountain fame) created a modern community with its own school district, a hospital, three churches, and a shopping mall. The copper produced was sent out of the area to be made into wire, electrical components, tools, and other goods that used copper as a material resource.
Note that no actual local manufacturing resulted from the local copper mining. It was always a matter of extracting the mineral wealth (including a sizeable quantity of silver) of the area and sending it off to other places. No permanent economic benefit to the local area resulted and only with the closure of the White Pine Mine was any thought given to mitigating the environmental damage that has been a part of the mining operations.
Recently, plans have been laid for the fourth period of copper mining development, and though this will bring the temporary benefit of employment opportunities, it remains to be seen if anything permanent will result other than even more extraction (exploitation) of the mineral wealth of the area.