Reynolds to Speak on Mining the Stamp Sands of Torch Lake
Terry Reynolds, chair of the department of Social Sciences, will present
a program examining the reclamation of copper from stamp sands in the
Copper Country. The presentation will be held Thursday, June 27, at 7
p.m. in the log cabin on the campus of the Houghton County Historical
Society in Lake Linden. Reynolds will examine the use of dredges and reclamation
plants along the Torch Lake shoreline near Lake Linden to reprocess stamp
sands. "Although the traditional underground mining went into sharp decline
after World War One," Reynolds notes, "Michigan continued to
produce large amounts of copper through the late 1960s. Several local
companies survived this long only because of the profits they generated
by extracting copper from the waste sands left by their earlier milling
processes." Reynolds' talk will be illustrated with historic photographs of industrial
buildings and machinery. The Quincy Mining Company dredge beached along
the Torch Lake shoreline near Mason was a critical part of the industrial
reclamation process, collecting the stamp sands from the lake and delivering
them to onshore processing facilities. This presentation is part of the "Fourth Thursday in History"
program jointly sponsored by Keweenaw National Historical Park and the
MTU Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections and co-sponsored
by the Houghton County Historical Society. Additional sponsors are sought for the series, especially local historical
societies, genealogical societies, social organizations and school groups.
The program arranges public presentations on important aspects of Copper
Country history, techniques for the preservation of historic documents,
photographs and structures, and current research concerning regional history.
Presentations are scheduled in venues throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula,
particularly historic sites associated with specific topics. Presentations are free and open to the public. For further information,
contact Keweenaw National Historical Park at 337-3168 or the MTU Archives
at 487-2505." 6/14/02
