Three House Town
I remember the hidden town of Gratiot along US41 very well. Every time I drove north I would notice a small line of three or so houses sitting far back from the road across an open field. Once I even drove up that road marked “Gratiot Loc” and checked those houses out for myself. They appeared abandoned, yet the kids tricycle on the overgrown lawn, and the faded coke cans on the stoop seemed to suggest otherwise.
A Modern Ruin
The concrete structure we approached was a more modern structure then what we have been accustomed to. Instead of poor rock and red bricks, this structure was completely constructed out of concrete. Two large concrete foundations, about twelve feet in height and six feet in width straddled the old rail line. Above the line, a concrete ceiling created a tunnel of the space below. The cap sported a group of large openings, probably used to dump the rock into the waiting ore cars below. Now however, only a small tree and various bushes took advantage of the openings for light.
A Mine’s Remains
Copper mining across the Keweenaw shared a uniform approach toward surface infrastructure. Specifically, every mine across the copper country had within it surface plant three main buildings: the shaft house, the rock house, and the hoist building. For contemporary explorers such as us here at copper country explorer, these three buildings become the main ruins we expect to find on any mine excursion. We are rarely disappointed.
A Shaft Building
Our experience with shafts from Osceola and elsewhere has given us a general idea of what to expect when we find one. Generally they are marked with a barbwire fence, either on old rotten wood posts or rusty steel stakes. Inside the usually failing and fallen fence is a large depression, about ten feet or so square. Inside of this depression is usually a good amount of brush and small trees.
The Dry
Mining was a very dirty occupation. Working underground, drilling holes in rock, lifting and loading rock, dumping rock into skips; all this makes for some dirty clothes at the end of the day. To quell unrest with the miners wives at home, mine companies often built facilities that miners could use to wash up and change from (or to) their work clothes. Often referred to as “the dry” these buildings would be located close to the shaft buildings – as where we found dry for the Gratiot Mine.