Ontonagon County Information

Ontonagon County was organized in 1843 by James K. Paul.  Ontonagon is the oldest permanent settlement on the south shore of Lake Superior.  The port was used extensively by the copper and silver mining industries until the turn of the century.  The famous Ontonagon Copper Boulder was removed by James K. Paul and is now at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

The Lumbering Industry was a major employer in the early 1900’s with the Diamond Match Company located at Ontonagon being one of the more well known.  The Lewis Genson Company of Ewen became one of the biggest users of hardwood in Ontonagon County.  During that time, Ontonagon County’s population was more than 12,000.

The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park offers an interpretive guide along  the Union Mine Trail.  The Union Copper Mine, established in May of 1846, was on the leading edge of our nations first mining rush.  Along this 45 minute trail you will have occasion to visit the site of the historic mine.  As you walk along the trail, you need to draw upon your imagination.  Picture yourself as one of the early miners in this rugged and remote land to working for $40 per month in dangerous conditions.  Your breakfast would have been bread and pork with home made corn coffee.  From the corner of the cabin you would retrieve your pick and shovel and head down to put in a shift at the “diggins”.

 Like most claims in the Porkies, the miners who worked the Union excavated numerous shafts and pits in their search for copper.  There were crude ways of excavating for copper like a wooden dam and water wheel.  Early in 1848, the Union mine was abandoned along with a large amount of machinery.  Hundreds of tons of rock had been removed from the mine, but little copper was discovered.

  The property lay idle until 1864, when record Civil War copper prices inspired new owners to reopen.  The old number 1 & 2 shafts were enlarged and two more shafts begun.  Some Shafts were dug quite deep.  All work underground was done by hand labor using pick, shovel, sledge, steel drills and black powder.  Ore was hoisted up to the surface in large buckets called kibbles”.

Most travel was done by foot, but oxen were used to transport wagon loads of supplies and machinery.  A stamp mill, blacksmith shop and pine dwellings were also located nearby.  There was also a boat landing on Lake Superior.

It was no accident that many early mines were located alongside a river or stream.  In the rugged land, miners quickly learned that the exposed rock of a riverbed made for easier prospecting.  Once a copper vein was located, the flowing waters would prove valuable for power and washing the ore.

There were 40 copper claims made in the Porcupine Mountains, but only a handful commenced serious mining work.  They were the LaFayette 1845, Union 1846, Carp Lake 1858, Cuyahoga 1859, Porcupine Mountain 1860, Lone Rock 1859, Miscowabic 1859, Nonesuch 1867, Halliwell 1985 and White Pine Extension 1914.  None of these ventures. however, profited on the small deposits of copper flakes and grains they found in their Porcupine Mountain Mines.