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HISTORY
The Adventure Mine operated
from 1850 to 1920 and is one of the best preserved mine
sites of its age. Like almost all of the mining locations of
the Copper Country, the Adventure was opened on existing
prehistoric excavations located on Adventure Bluff. These
prehistoric workings date to about 5,000 years before
present and were very extensive. The mine consisted of five
shafts; four were inclined at 45 degrees to follow the ore
body and one was vertical. The deepest of these shafts, the
No. 3, contained 13 levels and extended down 1300' following
the ore body. The Adventure shared most of the same board
members as the famous, and highly profitable, Quincy Mining
Company and was incorporated several different times trying
to develop a profitable mine on Adventure Bluff. Although
the Adventure always showed great promise and millions of
dollars were spent pursuing that dream, the mine always won
out in the end. It never produced a profit.
GEOLOGY
The Mine is located on
ancient precrambrian basaltic lava flows and the copper
being mined occurred only in pure native metallic form.
Large masses of pure copper were routinely encountered in
this mine and pieces weighing up to several tons were not at
all uncommon. Copper occurs in the top gaseous portions of
the lava flows with the copper acting as a filler in cracks
and voids of the rock. Post-volcanic activity formed the
copper (likely from precipitation out of warm-water
solutions permeating throughout the host rock) and it was
never molten with the initial basaltic lavas. There are none
of the common copper oxides such as azurite or malachite
present here. The flows in this area have been tilted to a
45 degree angle from past tectonic action.
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Prehistoric
Blades and Points
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Prehistoric
Copper Bracelet
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Adventure No. 3 Shaft
House
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Adventure Mine Pay
Office
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Adventure No. 3
Shaft
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Photographs of the old
Adventure Copper Mine courtesy of MTU Archives and
Copper Counrty Historical Society Collections,
Michigan Technological University.
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Adventure
Mining Company
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Adventure Road (off M-38), 12 miles East of Ontonagon,
MI
Greenland, Michigan 49929
Phone: 906-883-3371
E-Mail: mportfleet@yahoo.com
for more information
Hours: 9 am to 6 pm daily, 11 am to 6 pm Sunday, Open Late
May through Mid-October
Fall
Hours: After
Labor Day the Adventure Mine wil be open 6 days a
week, closed on Wednesdays.
Adventure
Mine Home Page
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