Last Quincy celebration planned
By JANE NORDBERG, DMG WriterFRANKLIN TOWNSHIP - The public is invited to celebrate the Quincy Mining Company's employees, buildings and legacy at a banquet set for 6 p.m. Nov. 13 in the Portage Room of the Best Western Franklin Square Inn in Houghton.
Historian, author and Michigan Technological University professor of social sciences Larry Lankton will be the featured speaker, giving a presentation on "The Legacy of the Quincy Mine."
The banquet is the last event in the Quincy Anniversary Series, which was comprised of seven events begun last June. The series commemorates the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, the 100th anniversary of the construction of the Quincy No. 2 shaft rock-house and the 160th anniversary of the original incorporation of the Quincy Mining Company.
Previous events in the series included presentations on the Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad, a history of the No. 2 and No. 6 shaft rockhouses and a car pool tour of various homes of mining company employees.
Quincy Mine Hoist Association board member Scott See said while each event in the series dealt with a specific aspect of mining history, Lankton's presentation will help put the local, national and even global significance of the Quincy into perspective.
"Larry's presentation will help pull all of those elements together into a fitting tribute to the company, the workers, and those who sought to preserve its legacy," See said.
Lankton co-authored in 1982 the definitive guide to the Quincy, "Old Reliable: An Illustrated History of the Quincy Mining Company," with Charles K. Hyde. His presentation will look at the history of the company as not only one of Michigan's greatest copper producers but also as one of the leading industrial heritage sites in the region.
The author said he plans to illustrate three important points during his Nov. 13 presentation.
First, he will detail the history of the Quincy Mine, which he said was perhaps the best of the typical mines in the Copper Country.
"It wasn't the biggest or the wealthiest, but of the mines that had to struggle every year to make a profit, it was the best of the typical mines," Lankton said, adding that he considered the Copper Range Mining Company and Calumet & Hecla Mining Company atypical because of their size.
"They were just so big," he said. "That makes them different from the typical mine. Of the typical mines, Quincy was the best."
Second, Lankton will talk about the physical legacy of the Quincy site.
"It's a landmark," he said. "The hoist house, shaft rockhouse and other buildings on that site still say to everybody passing by it that, first and foremost above all else, this was a mining district."
Third, Lankton will explain the significance of the extensive paper trail Quincy executives left behind.
"It's certainly one of the best business manuscript collections from 19th-century America," he said. "The documentation they left behind is an invaluable resource for researchers."
In addition to the three anniversaries previously mentioned, Lankton will also highlight the 30th anniversary of the Historic American Engineering Record project which generated much of the information and photographs used today by researchers.
"That project, put together in about 10 weeks in 1978, provides much of the data that we're still using," he said.
Copies of "Old Reliable," published by the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, will be available for purchase and autographing by the author. The event is sponsored by the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, the Mine Shaft and Rock House Hardwood Grille, Quincy's Restaurant of Dollar Bay, U.P. Engineers and Architects and Keweenaw Gem and Gift.
Tickets for the banquet are $25 each; reservations can be made through the Quincy Mine at 482-3101.
Jane Nordberg can be reached at jnordberg@mininggazette.com
