The Minis take Michigan - 2023 Michigan Road Trip Day Fifteen: Quincy Mine and Our Final Evening
Day fifteen of our RV journey through Michigan with highlights of the trip, sites and destinations along with food, fun and ideas for your trip through Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. We have been finding things to do in Michigan with fun adventures, places to see and visit and more. Today we toured the Quincy Mine, recorded our podcast, and enjoyed our final evening together.
September 2
Fins Up, Jimmy. We started the day learning that Jimmy Buffet died yesterday. Sad day.
There was bacon in the fridge, so we needed to eat it. We started the morning with bacon and waffles, with the maple syrup we bought from the monks yesterday.
After breakfast, we did a little work and got ready to check out the smelting facility and underground tour of the Quincy Mine.
Smelting
We started at the smelting facility, because we had reservations for a 1:30 underground tour. After an informational video, our guide lead us through the smelting plant. We saw the ore dump, smelting ovens, ingot mold carousel, weighing building, assay office, motor building, and machine shop. For those of you more experienced in mining terms, please forgive my errors!
Underground Tour
After the smelting tour we headed to the main facility for the underground tour. We had a little snack that we had packed in the morning, since there was no time for lunch.
Tony pulled his back during the smelting tour, so he decided he should stay off his feet. He found a comfortable place to sit, popped open a book by Nick Russell, and sent us on our way to the tour.
We saw another video, then boarded a bus. Normally guests ride to the entrance on a tram but it unfortunately broke down in the past couple days.
The underground tour is more than a mile, according to my Apple Watch. The route was originally where the mining operations were seeking a new deposit. We saw an original tunnel, and I’m really glad that Michigan Tech has since enlarged the tunnel so it was much more spacious. In fact, they used to have labs and classrooms down there!
The tunnel is always 43° F inside, year round. I found it fascinating that from that level, Level 7 down to Level 9, the temperature increases to over 90° F! I wondered in the Level 8 temperature was a perfect 70°, and if I could request to work at that level. LOL
The copper in Keweenaw Peninsula is pure, rather than being bound with sulfur. Therefore, the processing is much simpler and doesn’t require chemical separation. From the 1840s until 1968 mining operations processed pure copper on the peninsula.
The guide showed us where the 1.1-billion year basalt that formed when the continental rift closed and cooled quickly, leaving gaps and spaces that were later mineralized. A younger basalt layer, that cooled slowly and is smooth and homogeneous, is what the main shaft was cut through.
Linner
We finished the tour about 3:30 and we had just snacked for lunch, so we decided to find a place for our final dinner. It was surprising how many people were in The Ambassador at 4:00 when we were there!
Podcast
When we were full we headed back to camp. Bill took care of Zappo, while we set up the mics to record this week’s podcast episode. It was fun having Bill to record with us. We cleaned up the mics and popped open a beer for our final evening of chatting.
Final Evening
We folded up the Lippert gazebo tonight to save us some work in the morning.
We have had a grand adventure with Bill and Zappo in Michigan. We will miss them, and Bill says Zappo will miss us tomorrow when we head our separate ways. Fear not though; they are going to Balloon Fiesta next month so we will see them then!
