Inside the Abandoned Quincy Stamping Mill: Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan
WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.
We've seen the Quincy Mine and the Quincy Smelter...now it's time to take a look at the abandoned Quincy Stamping Mill.
The Quincy Mining Company Stamp Mill was used to crush rocks in order to separate the copper. It is located on M-26 in the Keweenaw Peninsula near Torch Lake in Osceola Township, Houghton County.
The first Quincy Stamp Mill was built in 1860 closer to the Quincy Mine; but with the dumpings of sand into Portage Lake, it threatened the passage of ships. Therefore, a new mill was built six miles east.
The new mill began construction in 1888 and included a boarding house, cistern, dock, and other buildings. $182,000 later (and by 1894) the new mill site was pretty much complete. With the enormous output of the Quincy Mine, an extra mill was necessary in order to keep up. The second mill popped up in 1899 and opened in 1900.
After the first World War, the mill declined and the second one was shut down in 1922. Thanks to the Great Depression, the mine closed in 1931, putting the kibosh on the stamp mills.
The mills weren't down and out quite yet...copper prices made a comeback, making a re-opening of the mine and mills necessary in 1938. By the time the second World War ended in 1945, the mills finally closed for good.
The second mill has been destroyed, but much of the first mill stands abandoned and decayed along M-26. The gallery below contains photos inside the old stamping mill and a few of what it looked like over 100 years ago...
Abandoned Quincy Stamp Mill
MORE ABANDONED MICHIGAN: