Divers Recover 17-Ton Copper Boulder
HOUGHTON MI -- "It is
a gorgeous hunk of the Keweenaw."
So said Bob Barron of Michigan
Technological University's geology and geological engineering department
and coordinator of the recovery of a 33,000-pound copper boulder from
Lake Superior.
Barron and two other divers
secured foot-and-a-half wide straps around the boulder at a depth of 40
feet, and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers barge and crane lifted the specimen
from the lake bottom.
The barge steamed back to shore
with the somewhat turtle-shaped boulder and the crane went back into action,
transferring it to a flatbed truck for a slow 15-mile trek to its new
home.
Earlier in the week, dive crews
had placed custom-designed nylon straps under the boulder, which measures
18 feet across, 8 feet wide, and more than a foot thick. It is the largest
mineral specimen ever taken from Lake Superior.
"Everything went just
perfectly," Barron said. "We got it to the surface, cleaned
it off a bit with a fire hose, and you could see the colors come out.
It is predominantly light green, with some brown, and even some blue areas."
The boulder is part of one
of the richest deposits of copper on Earth, near Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the peninsula was the scene of
the first mineral boom, providing much of the world's copper. The deposits
stretched out under Lake Superior. For years, divers have explored a ridge
of copper about a mile offshore and recently came across this copper behemoth.
The final destination, the
Quincy Mine, is the site of the world's largest steam hoist that was used
to send miners hundreds of feet into the earth and to haul the copper
back to the surface.
The boulder will form the centerpiece
of the new home for Michigan Tech's Seaman Mineral Museum, which is also
the official mineral museum for the state of Michigan. Officials have
raised $2 million of the $8 million needed for the museum's new home at
the site of one of the most productive copper mines ever operated, the
Quincy Mine in Hancock, Michigan.
The museum, currently located
on campus, has the most extensive academic mineral collections in the
world, including the largest collection of Lake Superior native copper.
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For more information, contact
Dean Woodbeck (906-487-3327 or dlwoodbe@mtu.edu)
NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos of
the "boulder-raising" are available in high-resolution digital
format. Contact Dean Woodbeck.)
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