Planes, trains, and automobiles: there was a time when a person bound for the Copper Country could choose any of the three ways to travel. Although many decades have passed since train whistles echoed through Keweenaw towns,
August evenings in the Copper Country tend to be warm and relaxing, the type of atmosphere that invites people to sit on porches and savor the summer. For Calumet on August 13, 1983, evening peace would be impossible as a century of history vanished into the flames.
In 1868, the place later called Calumet was an infant town–raw,
Cross the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, northbound or southbound, or take a walk along the canal in Houghton, and you can’t help but notice it.
What stands out in people’s memories? Ask that question of a dozen passersby, and you might get a dozen answers: weddings, births, graduations, special vacations. All of these examples are good, noble, and vivid. But,
The Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, a department within the J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library,
To Copper Country locals, “White City” today evokes images of a sandy beach–a rarity in the Keweenaw–with the Huron Mountains’ verdant, distant slopes rising above a glistening Lake Superior.
On behalf of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, in partnership with the Friends of the Michigan Tech Library, we hope you will help us welcome our new Archives Intern for spring 2022. Samuel Oral was was selected as the Friends of the Michigan Tech Library Archives Intern after a competitive national call for applicants.
The Michigan Tech Archives reading room will be closed to patrons for two weeks over winter break. The closure begins on Monday, December 20. Normal appointment hours will resume January 3, 2022.
Remote research requests may be submitted via
Dominic and Mary Vairo were in their kitchen when they heard the commotion upstairs. The voices were loud, insistent, emotional. Had a fight broken out? With tension palpable in town,
It was the boss’s house, the boss’s rules, and the boss’s style.
Michigan’s copper mines regularly provided housing to their workforces. Indeed, a company who did not offer dwellings felt itself at a disadvantage in trying to attract workers.