A Typical Stack
While there was very little left of the great Arcadian Mine when we had last visited, there were still some treasures to be found. The most notable was what you see above, a large poor rock and brick behemoth rising up from the ground apparently all by its self. How we missed this thing the first time through is beyond me, but it existence we should have predicted. As mentioned here on this site many times before, hoists need boilers to supply them with steam, and boilers need a large smokestack to vent off the smoke from the coal. If we look hard enough we are bound to find the remains of this stack somewhere on a mine site. At Arcadian we just didn’t look hard enough.
I am rather surprised that this smokestack was not of a more permanent design. There are basically two types of smokestacks used throughout the copper country. The most popular was a design such as the one featured here: a concrete or rock base on which a steel stack was mounted. This base, like all the others, features a series of long metal rods protruding out of its top. These rods were used to hold down a steel flange that was attached to the base of the stack. While this method is used most frequently, I had expected with the large amount of investment in this surface plant that the second method would of been used instead - a free standing concrete stack. I suppose that the Arcadian might of pre-dated the use of those concrete stacks, so perhaps thats the true reason.
What I find most interesting on this structure is the use of the red-brick quoins on the corners. While I had always admired these seemingly artistic touches, I now know that this was down to insure a more stable and clean corner. The interlocking placement helps to keep the whole thing together. Its worked wonders in this case, since after more then a century the thing is still standing.
Once a large pipe connected the base to the boiler house next door, but today that connection has been severed. Now you can crawl right in through the opening - which I did. It probably wasn’t the safest thing to do, considering the flu opening had fallen down and the surrounding rock was crumbling. I was struck by how I didn’t see any creosote covering the inside walls. In fact the walls were pretty clean, with only a hint of ash sprinkled about. I was sure I would find interior walls black with soot but instead I got what you see above.
Next door to the base of the old stack we could make out the remains of the boiler house - although the snow covered most of it. These ruins shared similar design attributes as the smokestack base including red-brick accents on the corners and inside edges.
These ruins were a series of short rock walls, set in parallel. Between the sets were these curious half-circle cut outs, which when matched to the cut-out on the opposite side made a circular depression in the foundation. We had seen these before at North Kearsarge #3, but there they were part of the compressor building. The placement of these foundations next to the smokestack would suggest to me that it was the boiler complex, but these circular cuts make me wonder.
its amazing what you’ll find when the leaves are gone from the trees.
Adam from Detroit | December 11, 2007