Copper Country Explorer Field Guide No.3: The Quincy Smelting Works (Volume 3)

By Michael Forgrave

Here at Copper Country Explorer we tell the legend of a forsaken empire that once reigned over the scenic shores of the Keweenaw Peninsula, an empire ruled by copper. In no other place in the world did it occur in such purity and abundance. Its discovery led to one of the great colonizations of the modern age, transforming the remote and rugged wilderness of the Keweenaw into an industrial metropolis of over 100,000 people. It was not to last however. After over a century of rule, the empire would draw its last breaths. The mines closed, the people left, and the industrial metropolis returned to the wilderness from which it had come. In its place would be only ruins, the crumbling remnants of a lost civilization we know today as the Copper Country. It is within the shadows of the lost empire that this field guide wanders, exploring the ruins and remnants of a land lost in time. While the empire may have fallen, its legacy endures - crumbling ruins buried in the rugged wilderness, soaring stacks rising high above sprawling forest, and grand sandstone buildings lining quaint village streets. It is this field guide's mission to document these glimpses into history, and share the stories they tell. Featured in this volume...The Quincy Smelting Works is the last of the last, a lone remnant of a vast industrial landscape that once lined the Portage Waterway for miles. Like her shoreline brethren, the Quincy complex existed solely to serve its copper masters, and when the copper empire died she died along with it. As time marched forward the sprawling industrial ruins around her were sacrificed to the region's new master - tourism. The shoreline on which smelters, foundries, warehouses, and coal docks once stood were transformed to parks, boardwalks, and rows of townhouses. But through it all the Quincy smelter remained. Though battered and bruised and showing her age, the old gal continues to remind us all of the copper country's rich industrial heritage that still can be found along its shores.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1500945153
• ISBN13: 9781500945152
• Release Date: January 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 106 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.3" x 5.5"