The Upper Floors

Playing the role of both friend in foe in the tale of the Copper Empire is the omnipresent force of gravity. Out at the mine this ever present force required the installation of large and powerful machinery to properly overcome - at a large cost to the company. The deeper the mines got the more costly it was to overcome, and over time it would slowly erode away the company’s profits.

But here at the mill gravity was looked at much differently. In fact, if it wasn’t for gravity the ability of the mill to do its job would be close to impossible - the use of copper’s specific gravity was at the heart of the separation process. From the beginning the designers of stamp mills knew to embrace the role of gravity and to use it as much as possible within the mill to make their jobs much easier. While at the mines engineers were having to counteract the effects of gravity on a daily basis, the mill engineers were striving to encourage it. Towards that end, the standard Superior region mill was built along a step-stair foundation, with a drop of several dozen feet from the rock bins to the final tailings discharge. The Mohawk was no exception.

Old Sanborn maps indicate the Mohawk Mill consisted of four levels, which would of adhered to the somewhat standard order of stamp level, roughing level, refining level, and wash floor. Those maps also indicated a height difference of 5 feet between the first two floors and a 15 foot difference between the 3rd and 4th. While this was rather clear, the remains of those floors on site were a little less so.

The first wall we came across at Mohawk was the large wall seen above, anchored in a sandstone base and topped by a few feet of concrete. The total height here was about a dozen feet - much higher then the 5 feet indicated. However, protruding out of this wall in at least three places were concrete foundations about five feet in height and a few dozen feet deep. These foundations created a sort of intermediate step between the wash floor and the upper floor - which made us believe that they were perhaps the remains of the second floor.

Here’s a look at one of those “stair” foundations from the top of that 15 foot wall. Due to the amount of debris scattered about between these foundations we assumed that most of the second floor had collapsed, except for those sections supported by these large foundations. By the look of things it appeared that those “stair” foundations were five feet up from the first floor, and it was another five feet to where we were standing. This matches up with the Sandborn figures, and meant that the floor we were standing on was in fact the third floor.

Turning around to look out on what we now knew was the third floor we were confronted with yet another see of concrete pillars and foundations. We have seen this many times before, and is apparently quite standard at a mill site (the Champion looked identical). Being the third floor these foundations most likely supported the roughing jigs, though how and in what capacity I have no idea.

There looked to be four groupings of these foundations, one set apparently for each stamp. Each grouping consisted of two separate sets of pillars - one of which you can see above. These sets consisted of a large flat pedestal at the head, followed by a pair of narrow pillars, followed by a second pair of wider ones. Bringing up the rear (behind where I was standing to take the picture above) was a much larger pillar set at a right angle to the rest.

Here’s a closer look at those head pedestals.

Heres a look at the second row of pillars. Behind them you can see two of those large pillars set at right angles to the rest. You can also see the launder in the floor just after the fourth pillar.

Along the back of this floor was about a ten foot wall, atop of which sits the mill’s fourth and final level. Unlike the first wall we found on the first floor, this one was cracking and breaking apart in large chunks. We could see through the walls and into some type of darkened interior - there was a room back there.

Searching the wall it didn’t take us long to find the entrance to that room, it sat tucked back in the corner near the mill’s outside wall. It was only about five feet in height, and I had to duck down to get through it. But once inside the room opened right up and I was able to stand upright.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much there to see. From the light filtering in from the crumbling outside wall I could tell that it was simply an empty concrete walled room. Using the flash on the camera I was able to shed some light on the subject, but it was still just one large empty room.

Behind me was what looked to be a window of some type, chiseled into the mill’s outside wall. It looked like something might of entered this room through that window, but nothing of it remained today. The room seemed slightly unstable, so I hastily retreated back out into the sunshine. It was time to move up to the next level….

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