NPS Photo, Dan Johnson

Although Then & Now recently featured the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company Library, we felt its contribution to the Calumet-Laurium-Keweenaw area was significant enough to warrant revisiting it.

The building was constructed, in 1898, of mine rock, “each piece being selected and carfully laid with the aim to a harmonious whole,” stated the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co. semi-centennial edition of the Keweenaw Miner, 1866-1916. When opened, it was considered a very large library, containing 6,000 volumes on its racks. So popular was the library that just 17 years later, in 1915, its stacks had increased to more than 42,000 volumes.

One of the points that made this library significant was the number of publications and books it contained in non-English languages.

“Last year there were circulated in addition to the English books,” boasted the semi-annual publication, “the following: German, French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Slovenian, Croatian, and Hungarian, the extent of the circulation ranging from two-hundred fifty-seven Hungarian to sixteen hundred and fifty-two Finnish.”

The Keweenaw Miner reported that for the year 1914-1915, 150,000 books were issued for home use; a total number of library patrons was 282,000. The total attendance of the reading rooms was 90,000.

Michigan Tech Archives

In addition to the staggering number of books, there were 2,460 public documents; more than 12,000 pictures; more than 500 photographs in the Copper Country collection; 8,500 clippings: 35 Underwood travel tours; 56 maps, and 250 periodicals.

In addition to providing unmatched cultural facilities with its collection of books, newspapers, and periodicals in many foreign languages, mounted prints, stereopticon views, Underwood and Keystone travel tours, maps, mineral specimens, and other displays, the library helped to acculturate the many immigrants in Calumet, and was one of the most significant and beloved institutions in the community.

Reader responses:

C&H library in Calumet

– Josh Murphy

C&H Library currently NHP, Red Jacket Rd. and Mine St.

– Blake Curto

This is the old Calumet and Hecla Library in Hecla, now Keweenaw History Center

– Daniel C. Boyer