“There! On the riverbank, sir! The great copper boulder before our very eyes… the tales we have heard all these years bore the truth!” The first Michigan state geologist and renowned surveyor, Douglass Houghton, let the moment wash over him. The Jesuit tales dating back to 1672 are finally confirmed on this 1830 geological expedition. “A great discovery, indeed, finding the famed Ontonagon Boulder, but is it truly evidence of mineral riches in this wild, remote country that the Indians call Keweenaw?” thought Houghton.
In spite of Douglass Houghton’s 1841 published findings urging caution and conservative exploration, the nation’s first mineral rush was afoot by 1843. Copper is what built the Keweenaw (pronounced kéy-wha-naw) from remote forests to thriving cosmopolitan communities. Calumet, in the heart of the Copper Country, was 60,000 strong by 1890; the Quincy Mine was instrumental in spawning the city of Hancock, the Finnish cultural center of the United States. When copper production declined, however, so did the copper-dependent economic structure of the Keweenaw.

Keweenaw National Historical Park preserves the heritage of copper mining in this unique setting amid many of the original structures and landscapes of the copper era. It preserves the stories of human struggle, ingenuity, vision, and conflict. Now this unique story is preserved for the enjoyment and benefit of this and future generations.