Up the Hill Behind Mason…

When Quincy was forced to move its stamp mill from the Portage to Torch Lake, it had to move an entire population of workers as well. Before cars and paved roads were prevalent, commuting long distances just wasn’t an option. The result of this became the town of Mason sitting just outside the sprawling mill complex at Quincy Creek. While the town of Mason itself wasn’t much- just two rows of single family houses along what was then called Hancock & Lake Linden road (M26 today) - the transportation corridor that was shaping up around it was something else entirely. All along the hills overlooking Torch Lake from here to Lake Linden sits the remains of one of the Copper Country’s engineering marvels. Here begins a narrow and steep swath of terrain home to five distinct rail lines, 8 large industrial complexes (Five mills, two reclamation plants and a smelter) four towns and two deep water ports. The result is a convoluted series of trestles, cuts, tunnels and fills which creates the most complex transportation corridor in all of the Keweenaw. And today we start to take a long hard look at it - starting up the hill behind Mason…

Here’s what this area looks like today. From the image you can still make out a century later where the various rail lines once were. Three seperate railroads cross thought this spot. The first to do so - before Mason even existed - was the Mineral Range line along the lake shore (the yellow line). The Mineral Range had the place all to itself until about 1890 when Quincy was forced to move its mill next door. With that mill came the addition of a dedicated rail line to serve it. This was the Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad, which drops down the hill behind Mason on its way to the mill (the green line). The last to join the party was the Copper Range, in about 1902 (the red line). This layout held out till the second World War, after which Quincy closed down the mine and the railroad with it. Only Quincy’s reclamation plant at Mason (at the far right of the picture) remained open, using the nearby Mineral Range line to serve it.

Here’s looking down the old Copper Range right of way, cut in two by Forsman road. I’m not sure if the line crossed the road with a trestle (the height above the road here would suggest that) or the current road is a newer addition built after the line was abandoned. Right now its a good drop down to the road and a good climb back up to the grade on the other side. This photo looks towards Mason.

If you take a short walk up Forsman road, you run into where the Quincy and Torch Lake line use to run. Once again, not sure if a trestle once was here or not, but there is a good climb up to the original grade from the road today. This is looking towards the Mills.

Heres the Q&TL right-of-way again, this time looking towards Mason. This was a narrow gauge railroad, and you can tell the old grade is much narrower then the Copper Range. We have walked this old line as far as Airport Road above Dollar Bay. Besides some trestle ruins where the Mineral Range’s Arcadian Branch once crossed it, there is very little to see along the way. (The mine side is a different story however). From here its about 5 miles to the mine at the other end.

Now for the interesting part. When you look at old maps of the area (like the one above drawn up around 1910) it looks like the Copper Range and the Q&TL merge just behind Mason. This seems very unlikely considering the two are of different gauges. It also doesn’t make much sense, since why would the Copper Range need to run on the Q&TL tracks? (Or vice versa?) It also seems odd because the merge makes it look like the Copper Range serves the mills coal docks instead of the Q&TL - which isn’t how it was. So some investigating was in order.

Following the old Copper Range route (now the snowmobile trail, so its easy to find) I could find no place where the Q&TL could meet up with the Copper Range. But I did find this long stone wall running along a good length of the trail. The wall stood a good 12 feet in height, and ran straight and true right up against the old Copper Range line. (See the BIG PICTURE to get a better look) At first I had thought this was just a retaining wall to hold back the hillside. But it seemed odd since all along the rest of the Copper Range line concrete was used to do this job. It didn’t look like Copper Range put it down as part of its line. I wondered who did, and why.

Climbing atop the rock wall and found my answer. The top consisted of about 20 feet of flat earth ending in a second identical wall on the opposite side. While horribly overgrown, I was sure that this was an old railroad grade. In fact I was sure it was the middle line in the old map above. Only thing is that it didn’t merge with the Copper Range, it simply ran alongside it (so close that they appeared connected on the map). Q&TL trains heading to the coal shed must of backed down here from the main line up above, and then pulled forward onto the track down to the coal shed. It wasn’t a rail line as much as a back up spot. At least that explanation makes some sense to me.

Before leaving Mason and heading next door to the Mill, I thought I’d share one more part of Mason. This interesting structure was just down from the Copper Range line. It appears to be a log cabin which was started but never finished. Maybe some one else out there can fill in some blanks.

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