River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-08-20
Leaving Ashland, iWis., at us in


, the evening of the 18th ult. via the
Chicago & North Western line,
, came to Saxon, Wis, where al
about IL o'clock at night took the
Duluth, South Shore & Ashland
line for Nestoria, Mich, where al
an early hour the next morning,
again changed to the Copper Range
Railway which finally landed me at
Calumet, Mich, at $50 Sunday
morning, in time to get lunch,
brush up a little, see pastors and
arrange for brief talks that day in
three of the largest churches here,
the First Presbyterian, the Calumet
Congregational and the Calumet
Methodist respectively, before and
after the sermon in the morning in
the first two mentioned, and at
night in the last named, where the
pastor gave me considerable time
and then added some very interest
ing thoughts bearing on the Race
Problem. In this section I find
people as much alive to the i'm
portance of this great question as
in any part of the country ! visit,
and especially here at Calumet
where the principal organizers of
1.-THE Industrial Missionary Asso-
ciation,' which l serve, used to live.
Anyone taking night leap, as it
were, from Wisconsin town to this
point, will be surprised to find him
self in the midst of a teeming, hust
ling population of nearly 10000
people, representing large num-
Der of nationalities, whereas, he
had expected to find town of pos
sibly 900. And besides this great
town, several others of 5000 and
1900 each, to say nothing of great
many little villages grouped about
the STAMP Mills" where the cop
per ore is crushed in preparing it
| for further processes.
The Copper Range, as it is called,
extends in northeasterly and
southwesterly direction from this
city and is about IS or 70 miles in
length and from to miles wide.
Copper is found at depths ranging
from few feet below the surface to
5000 or 1000 feet in depth. Some
of the mines can be visited by those
who desire to do SO, but the great
Calumet and Hecla Mines cannot
be visited except by special permits
sion from the president of this COM
pany, who is at Boston, Mass.
However, as some of those open to
visitors are about 1,500 feet below
the surface, they give one pretty
good idea of copper mining. |
have not yet had time to go down
into a mine but want to before |
leave if | can.
Copper is distinguished under
several different names, by the
miners, as it is found in the ore, as
follows for instance: malaconlte,
meaning black copper; azurite, blue
copper; chalcopyrite, copper mica
or pyrites; tetrahedrite, gray cop
per; malachite, green copper; bor-
mite, variegated copper; cuprite, red
copper. Perhaps this will be
enough of 'ites" for this time.
The thickness of the various veins
of copper as it is found at different
depths varies from few feet up to
20 feet and more. 1t takes an i'm
mense amount of timber to serve as
supports where the ore has been re-
moved. Sometimes as high as 3O,-
600 900 feet are used in a years
time.
The machinery used is of the
most powerful make. The other
evening l stepped into one of the
large engine houses and there were
two engines under the same roof,
one of 1000 horse power and the
other of $500, combined power of
IL, 500. One great fy-wheel in this
building weighed forty-five tons,
and was nearly thirty feet in diane
ter. The great buildings where the
ore is received as it comes from the
mines are four and five stories high
and they remind me of the grain
elevators of the northwest. The
ore in most mines is brought from
the mine in cars holding from two
to three tons each, of the rock and
copper together. These are low
cred and hoisted by means OF
wire cable which hau1s them rapid
" I'D an incline of about go degrees
to the top of the building where the
contents pass through a crusher
and then falls into cars away below
TO be further treated until it be-
Games as fine as sand and then 1t
masses through washing process
to separate the pure copper from
~ he 1c