Last Building Standing

The Allouez mine takes many forms. It is in fact three different mines in one, working three completely different lodes. First there was the original mine which worked the Allouez Conglomerate lode starting in 1869 (usually referred to the “Old Allouez”). These three shafts sit between the town of Allouez and Bumbletown hill. This was followed in 1905 by the opening of shafts along the Kearsarge Amygdaloid lode across the highway. These shafts are the “New Allouez” and a town of the same name was erected nearby. The third and final Allouez was a single shaft opened by C&H in 1943 working the unique Houghton Conglomerate Lode just behind New Allouez. This shaft was known as the Allouez-Douglas and is where our exploration brings us today.

The Allouez-Douglas was opened by C&H in response to copper incentives during the second world war. (during the same time as the Iroquois further north) The mine operated into the 1960’s, and was quite profitable for C&H. The need for steel restrictions during the war forced C&H to construct most of the mines buildings out of wood. Because of this, very little remains of the mine today. (see the big picture of the mine site as it exists today) Except for the core sample building and the topic of today’s post: the hoist building.

The hoist building is a wood structure sheathed in corrugated steel. It sits about two stories in height, flanked by a mysterious tower. The building is sealed up, and is in pretty good shape considering its age. We approached the building from the back, and the first thing we noticed was the power substation sitting outside. (see the big picture here)

The hoist at the Allouez-Douglas was most likely an electric model. It would of been powered by a high-voltage line, which was stepped down by an electric substation nearby. While the wood framing that supported the power lines and transformers still stand (barely) the equipment had been removed.

Sitting along the back wall of the hoist building was a line of metal hooks that once held ceramic insulators. Here the power lines would be routed into the building through rubber lined holes and then connected to the hoist inside. Here you can see one of the insulators still attached to the hook. These are fragile things, and most likely the rest of them were broken long ago.

Moving around to the front of the building we found where the hoist rope once left the building and moved over out over our heads to the head-frame beyond. A pulley stand attached to the front of the building (seen here) guided the ropes over pulleys on the way to the next cable stand. We could see the end of the hoist rope - which was apparently still attached to the hoist inside - still sitting atop the pulley.

Below the cable stand we saw a pair of large iron eye-bolts bolted into the buildings foundation. Once a support cable for the cable stands would of been attached to this point. You can still see the protective sleeve the cable once was tied around.

While all these features made sense to us, and we had seen them many times before, the wood tower standing next to the building was a mystery from the start. We had never seen anything like it before. In order to try to get a better idea of its purpose we moved in for a closer look.

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