Michigan Copper - America's First Mining Boom
CopperTownUSA is a Michigan-based company that crafts and sells copper jewelry. We also celebrate the unique powers of copper, our favorite precious metal! That being said, we wanted to educate everyone about Michigan's rich history in the copper business.
Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula (the northernmost part of the Upper Peninsula) has copper mines that date back to approximately 5,000 BC. The identity of these original miners remains a mystery to this day, as they seem to have vanished without leaving any trace of their civilization. They left behind only trinkets and tools made from Lake Superior's unique native pure copper, along with abandoned mines. Some of these artifacts have even been discovered in prehistoric cultures all throughout the North and South American continents!
What makes Michigan's copper so special is that it is the only place in the entire world where pure native copper is commercially available in abundance. Perfect conditions, formed by Lake Superior and by excessive lava flow, created copper-bearing rocks. Flows of lava created percolating hot waters that rose from vast depths, bringing copper in solution. As it cooled, the waters filled fissures and gas cavities (amygdules) with pure copper, forming the world's greatest deposit of native copper!
In 1842, the Chippewa Indian tribe relinquished the Keweenaw Peninsula to the United States. Reports of the precious-metal-rich land began to circulate, and by 1843, people were sailing to the Keweenaw Peninsula from all over the world to "strike wealth." The Keweenaw Peninsula was dubbed "Copper Country." Small towns and hundreds of copper mining operations were established along Michigan's Lake Superior coast. The rush lasted over 100 years and at its peak, approximately 95% of America's copper was coming from Michigan. The unearthing of copper provided 10 times more wealth than the gold rush of California.
Around 1968, after producing 14 billion pounds of copper, the easy access to pure native copper was about depleted at a commercially abundant level. There is still native copper available, but it is much deeper in the ground, and the industry has leaned toward mining in states like Arizona and Utah, where lower-quality sulfide copper is abundant and closer to the surface. Now, most Michigan copper mines are abandoned, and the towns that once thrived are ghost towns. Today, you will find museums, tours of some mines, and some scenic views in quiet small towns mostly inhabited by descendants of the copper rush scattered throughout "Copper Country."
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