Miners were paid was 25 cents an hour. A team of three men worked by the light of single candle. Calumet and Hecla provided inexpensive housing, a hospital, schools and a library stocked with 35,000 volumes in several languages. A large public bath house with a pool still stands. So does the library.
Visitors can also see at least a dozen historic churches.
These and dozens more once offered services in Finnish, Norwegian, Italian, French and several other languages. The area has the feel of a ghost town. Many downtown businesses are empty. Windows are boarded over, doors are nailed shut. At the Quincy mine, several stone buildings are sinking into the earth.