A Year of Explorer
I decided to take a time out from the normal routine of this site to mark a milestone. Tomorrow marks the 365th day of my daily exploration into the Copper Country, a milestone I owe mostly to you - my readers. It was July 31 of last year that I posted my first first journal entry, an inquisitive look at a series of ruins at Osceola that I thought might of been the Osceola Depot (It wasn’t by the way).
CC Explorer - The Early Months
As you all have no doubt read by now, today marks the 365th day of Copper Country Explorer. To mark this important milestone, today I thought I’d take a little trip back over the year and provide some behind-the-scenes insight into the explorations taken and sights seen along the way. This site is a combination of a lot of trial and error, and today I’ll let you in on a little bit of that process - as interesting as that could possible be.
Lets Play Name That Mine
In my submission box yesterday was this little gem from reader Bill Kasmauski. Its an old Northland Studios pic of a mine apparently along the Cliff Range. (based on the cliff in the background). The photo was in such bad shape he had to take it to a restorer, who was able to fix it up a great deal. Bill thinks this might be the Cliff Mine but wasn’t sure, so he sent it to me to post on the site for everyone to take a look. He thought someone else might be able to pinpoint where and when the photo was taken. While the location seemed right for the Cliff, the buildings seemed wrong. So I thought I’d do a little digging on my own.
The Southern Range (p1)
While lands to the north of the Portage had been thoroughly domesticated, those lands to the south were a completely different story. Here sat a new frontier - almost untouched by the hand of man. There was a good 30 miles of copper bearing lands here - but prospectors had long ago given up on their profitability. Unlike the lodes to the north which lurked near the surface, these southern lodes were buried deeper in the earth covered by a thick layer of overburden. This overburden - copper barren rock and soil - would have to be removed before any copper could be found. There were far easier prospects to the north to be had.
The Southern Range (p2)
The Atlantic Mine’s profitability had spurned a renewed interest in the southern range. This had prompted many investors to take a closer look at the area, hoping to find the next profitable copper deposit. It was atop a high hill overlooking the Pilgrim River valley known as Six Mile Hill where that mystical deposit was finally found: the Baltic Lode. Unlike the Atlantic’s troublesome ash bed variety, the Baltic was much richer in copper (and much more stable) with yields as high as 30 pounds per ton of rock mined. At the time it was believed that the lode might surpass even the Calumet Conglomerate in its richness.