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HANCOCK ’Äì Through a cooperative effort of Michigan Technological University, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, a giant piece of native copper estimated as weighing almost 17 tons emerged from the bottom of Great Sand Bay on July 12, 2001. Its temporary resting place is the 1894 Hoist House on Quincy Hill in Hancock. Although the copper boulder belongs to the people of the State of Michigan and will be part of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum when the museum collection is transferred from Michigan Tech to Quincy Hill, some Keweenaw County residents believe this piece of Keweenaw natural history, dating back more than a billion years, belongs in Keweenaw County where it was found.
’ÄúThe piece of copper should have been left under the water in the underwater dive preserve (surrounding the Keweenaw Peninsula) for a future generation to decide the proper use of it,’Äù said Keweenaw County Commissioner Don Keith of Eagle Harbor. ’ÄúA proper, possible (alternative) consideration would be that it be displayed on M-26 at Great Sand Bay, where it was originally located ’Äì properly signed and for the public to see free of charge.’Äù Keith added he was aware the boulder belongs to all the people of Michigan but he felt it was taken without the courtesy of notifying Keweenaw County.
’ÄúThat’Äôs the overwhelming opinion of all the people (in Keweenaw County) that I have spoken to about it,’Äù Keith said. ’ÄúWe (the Keweenaw County Commissioners) sent a letter to the DNR asking that it not be removed from Keweenaw County.’Äù
Jim Rooks of Copper Harbor, a naturalist who leads eco-tours of Great Sand Bay that include interpretive lectures on the natural history of the area, said he agreed the copper boulder should remain in Keweenaw County. However, Stanley Dyl, director of the Seaman Mineral Museum, said the specimen belongs to all the people of Michigan. On July 12, with a small group of onlookers and photographers, Dyl waited near the dock at the Lily Pond for the arrival of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers barge H. J. Schwartz, as it descended the Portage Canal, bearing the copper boulder from Great Sand Bay.
’ÄúThe specimen is owned by the State of Michigan and managed via the Department of Natural Resources,’Äù Dyl said. ’ÄúThe state has a custodial agreement with Michigan Tech because we’Äôre the official mineralogical museum of Michigan ’Ķ We have a world-class collection of Michigan minerals, in particular from the Upper Peninsula copper- and iron-mining districts.’Äù Dyl said this official status dates from a 1990 state legislative resolution. He noted the museum has received $410,000 in federal funds through the Institute of Museum and Library Services to create displays for educational uses. The bulk of the funds will be used to complete the interior exhibit design concept for the new museum, to be located in historic buildings on Quincy Hill. Dyl noted part of these funds will be used for the temporary exhibit of the copper boulder in the Hoist House of the Quincy Mine. It is essential that the interior design of the new museum be completed before the museum is moved to the new location at the Quincy Mine, Dyl added. ’ÄúIt’Äôs too important to do haphazardly,’Äù he said. A recent article on the Michigan Tech Web site says officials have raised $2 million of the $8 million needed for preparing the museum's new home on Quincy Hill. The museum is expected to move by 2004 or 2005 to the Quincy Mine's historic Blacksmith Shop and Machine Shop, still being restored. Dyl said the copper boulder ’Äúmay well be the largest single native copper mass extracted from the bottomlands of Lake Superior.’Äù Professor Ted Bornhorst, chair of MTU’Äôs Department of Geological Engineering and Sciences, said the boulder may be as old as one billion, 50 million years (1,050,000,000). Bornhorst, a specialist in Keweenaw geology, said ’ÄúKeweenaw’Äù is used to describe the age of this piece of copper. ’ÄúWe’Äôve radiometrically dated the age of the native copper formation for the whole (Keweenaw) area,’Äù Bornhorst said. ’ÄúAll of this native copper was formed about the same time.’Äù The copper was formed multiple kilometers beneath the surface with rock on top of it, Bornhorst explained. When this rock was stripped away, the copper was exposed. The last exposure was caused by glaciers stripping away the rock during the last several million years. The last glacier departed from Lake Superior about 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, he noted. ’ÄúAt one time Lake Superior covered the whole peninsula except Brockway and Mt. Bohemia,’Äù Bornhorst said. ’ÄúWe know that they were islands.’Äù
During the summer of 1991, Bob Barron, now facilities manager for the Department of Geological Engineering and Sciences at Michigan Tech, was diving with Don Kauppi of Copper Harbor when he spotted the copper boulder about 30 feet below the surface of Great Sand Bay, between Eagle Harbor and Eagle River. Barron said at that time he was working in MTU’Äôs Institute of Wood Research in the Forestry Department but his interest in geology and minerals dates back to his childhood. ’ÄúI was intentionally looking for copper veins out in Great Sand Bay,’Äù Barron said. ’ÄúThis (boulder) actually is an extension of one of the Copper Falls fissures.’Äù A ’Äúfissure’Äù vein, he explained, is a crack or crevice in the earth’Äôs crust. Theories are that the copper was formed in solutions and deposited in these crevices. Barron said diver Brian Schultz had found a smaller copper piece earlier, roughly in the same area.
About three years ago, Michigan Tech finally received a DNR permit to remove the copper boulder, Barron noted, but the actual removal was postponed until the time and money were available. The idea of leaving the boulder under the water for divers to see had also occurred to him. ’ÄúI struggled back and forth with that,’Äù Barron said. ’ÄúIn some ways I thought it should stay down there.’Äù He finally decided it should be brought to land for the public to see. He noted this specimen is 10 times as big as the famous Ontonagon Boulder, now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Barron said he and fellow divers Bill Siler and Mark Rowe went down on July 7 and 8 and prepped the boulder for the removal from the water. ’ÄúWe jacked it up using a 20-ton hydraulic jack and put nylon straps on it,’Äù Barron said. Barron coordinated the operation by Army Corps of Engineers staff, who used a crane and hook to lift the boulder from its resting place in Great Sand Bay to their barge. ’ÄúI don’Äôt even think we were there more than an hour,’Äù Barron said of the operation.
When the barge arrived at the Lily Pond off M-203 north of Hancock, the boulder looked like a stone carving of a whale, suspended by the nylon straps, as the crane lifted it to a flatbed trailer waiting on the shore. The museum’Äôs federal grant also funded the $3,000 trailer, on which the boulder will sit until a display stand can be built for it, Barron noted. ’ÄúSomething like this is so unique that it should be seen by a lot of people,’Äù Barron said. ’ÄúIt will help to be a good draw to the area. It’Äôs something that everybody can benefit from.’Äù Barron also said he was aware that the Lake Superior Maritime Heritage Society, whose members hope to build a Maritime Museum in Copper Harbor, would possibly be interested in displaying the boulder there. ’ÄúWe’Äôre going to build a stand for it so it can be mobile, but for now it’Äôs going to stay in the Hoist House in Quincy,’Äù Barron said. ’ÄúIf they get a good, secure site for it (such as the potential Maritime Museum), it’Äôs possible that this could become a satellite exhibit.’Äù
His friend and fellow diver, Don Kauppi, a member of the Lake Superior Maritime Heritage Society, said he has been in contact with Dyl and Barron to work on a plan that will be good for everyone. ’ÄúWe have a working relationship with Michigan Tech, and we have a mutual plan concerning that piece,’Äù Kauppi said. ’ÄúWe are working together to make the best use of it ’ĶThere’Äôs good stuff in the air.’Äù Said Dyl, ’ÄúWe’Äôre going to set it up as an exhibit with a small admission charge.’Äù Keith said he understood the Quincy Hill location might make the copper boulder accessible to more visitors, but he objected to people having to pay to see it.
Ed Yarbrough, manager of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, Inc., now in its 40th year as a non-profit organization, said the Quincy Mine Hoist plays a role of exhibitor for the Seaman Mineral Museum. Other minerals from the museum’Äôs collection are exhibited in a room next to the large room that is now the temporary home of the copper boulder. ’ÄúWe love it. We’Äôre thrilled to have it,’Äù Yarbrough said of the new 17-ton addition to the Hoist House exhibit. ’ÄúIt’Äôs an extraordinary thing. It peaks the imagination of visitors about the formation of pure, elemental copper in the Portage Lake volcanics ’Ķ It’Äôs also really a kickoff exhibit for the relocation of the Seaman Mineral Museum to Quincy Hill.’Äù
Yarbrough noted restoration of the Blacksmith Shop and the Machine Shop has already begun, but millions more will be needed from private donors and federal and state grants to fund the complete restoration and exhibits. Grant money from the National Park Service has already funded some of the restoration, he said. The Blacksmith Shop has been completely repointed. (New mortar with a beaded edge has been added between the sandstone blocks.) ’ÄúAnother National Park Service grant is funding removal of roof sheathing on the Machine Shop to preserve the steel trusses in preparation for the new roof,’Äù Yarbrough added. A cooperating site of the Keweenaw National Historical Park, the Quincy Mine Hoist Association now owns the Blacksmith Shop and Machine Shop. Ownership of these two buildings will be transferred to Michigan Tech when the new museum is in place, Yarbrough explained. ’Äì
Michele Anderson Click here to comment on this article ...
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