A Mill at Delaware

The Delaware Mine is the mine of a thousand faces, having a long and sordid history under the guise of several different names and owners. Over the years the mine has been under the corporate umbrella of several companies including the Pennsylvania, Conglomerate, Northwest, and Lac La Belle. With each new ownership change came a renewed investment in the mine’s surface plant, including the construction of no less then five separate stamp mills. Three of those mills were constructed along the shore of Lac La Belle, with two others having been built near the mine itself. One of those mills was believed to be the first steam-powered mills in the district, built along the banks of the Montreal River just south of the mine site. This is the mill we take a look at today.

It was my Stamp Sands series a few weeks back that first brought this mill to my attention, and it was that series that sent me out into the woods in search of it. Heading down the old Keweenaw Central grade just south of Delaware, it wasn’t long before we spotted the sands off in a wide clearing. What was interesting here as compared to most other mill sites we have explored was the amount of vegetation that had managed to make those sands home. This was probably due to the limited amount of time this mill was in operation which was only a few years at best.

Getting out onto the sands themselves we notice that they resembled those sands we had found out at Hill’s Creek - red tinted in color and course in size. These sands also match those found down along the Lac La Belle shore which collaborated our theory that these sands were the ones we were looking for. The next step was to follow these sands to their source which we had hoped would bring us to the mill itself.

It turns out that these sands seemed to sprawl endlessly along the Montreal River, and the further we walked the most vast they became. We started to give up any hope of finding the mill and began to head back down the trail in failure. It was only then that we ended up finding what we were looking for - sitting right along the trail itself. We hadn’t expected it to be that easy.

This mill was technically built for the precursor to the Delaware Mine - the Northwest - in 1859. It had replaced an earlier mill that was powered by a water wheel, which quickly proved inadequate for the amygdaloid nature of the copper coming up out of the mine. (In difference to the Cliff-type mass fissure vein the investors had hoped to pillage) This new mill was much larger relying not on a water wheel but a dedicated steam engine to provide the reciprocating action for the stamps installed within it.

While there was little evidence of those stamp batteries today, you could still make out the rotting and splintering timbers that once supported the mill’s floor. They sat in a criss-cross pattern, with several nails still protruding up from their tops. The plank flooring that was once held down atop those timbers have been reduced to a scattering of splinters, which now are littered across the forest floor.

Scattered about along with those splinters are a great deal of other small artifacts from the mill, including pipes, washers, fasteners, and what looks to be small flakes of copper.

The remains of the old mill are scattered over two subsequent levels which are separated by a short stone wall. Like their more modern equivalents, these early mills relied on three “stages” of production to size and separate the product from the mine - stamps, jigs, and wash tables. Each of these stages were set apart on their own floor, using gravity to their advantage to move material in between them.

Up on the second level we saw more of the same, with very little evidence of the lines of jigs that would of been here. But that’s to be expected, considering these early jigs were light wood-cased affairs in difference to the heavy iron-clad types utilized in later years. Running along the back of these level was a second short retaining wall, which looks to have made its way up to yet another level. More interesting was what could be found at the far end of this level.

Here sat a large stone foundation, topped by a series of threaded iron bolts. At one end of the foundation the stones had fallen away to reveal how those bolts were fastened into the stone - by means of wood boxes that we have seen many times before. This looked to be the foundation to a stem engine, and most likely belonged to the mill’s steam engine. This engine would either have directly driven camshafts connected to the stamps, or would of transferred the power through an overhead belt and pulley system.

Moving deeper into the ruins we make our way atop the last rock wall to find ourselves atop another narrow level. This one is much more overgrown then the previous two, home to a thick concentration of pine trees. This underbrush made our next find almost impossible to find until we were right on top of it - the mill’s smoke stack.

More accurately described as the smoke stack’s base, the stone foundation was a good 15 feet tall, and around 6 feet in width. The stones along one wall had begun to crumble, creating a large gash that was threatening to collapse the entire structure. Here’s a closer view:

Its always amazing to find these stacks intact within the thick woods of the Keweenaw, and this one was even more impressive due to its size. Originally this stone base would of supported a iron flue insert which would of protruded out of its top for a couple dozen feet.

Making our way back to the front of the mill we came across yet another wall, yet this one was much larger then the ones we had found previously. This looked to be the foundation to a large building, which sat up against the hill along the highway just above us. Due to the proximity of the smoke stack base we assumed this was part of the mill’s boiler house.

You can see this old foundation wall in this old photo from the archives. While the photo is simply labeled as the “Delaware Mill” and could of been any one of the five mills built for the mine; I believe that this is in fact the Montreal River mill. Not only does this photo show the stone wall to the boiler house (at the back on the right), but it also shows that raised center foundation that supported the mill’s steam engine (center of photo). The old stack can be seen in the back left as well.

One stamp mill down, four more to go….

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