The success of the Minesota mine offered hope that another such lode could be found in Ontonagon County. Josiah Chandler thought he had found such a lode on a ridge known as Adventure Mountain, when he discovered a series of ancient mining pits, very similar to the ones that had opened up the Minesota mine. The land was purchased by a group headed by Curtiss Grubb Hussey and Thomas Howe, and they formed the Adventure Mining Company. The Hussey-Howe group did business as the Pittsburgh and Boston Mining Company, and owned the Cliff Mine, on the Keweenaw, and also the National Mining Company, adjoining the Minesota mine in Rockland.

What the company quickly discovered, however, was that the Adventure would live up to its name; just operating it would be an adventure, because this mine, unlike the Cliff or the National, did not have a regular copper bearing lode. Rather, it appeared, and reappeared, in pockets, or bunches. It was difficult to know where to sink shafts in such a mine. In 1855, the management gave up trying to locate a vein or a lode and came up with a system of mining that was new to the Lake Superior district: the mine would be worked by tribute. In May of that year, the agent was instructed to allow the men to work at designated points, and pay them between one hundred and one hundred, twenty dollars per ton for all ore they could produce, providing that ore was at least fifty percent mineral in content. The men were to find the copper themselves, and the company would provide a blacksmith to sharpen and repair tools. Copper production for 1855 was 63,253 pounds of refined copper under the tribute system. In 1856, production more than doubled, totaling 146,363 pounds of refined copper.

The annual report for 1858 reveals that the company directors had mixed emotions over this tribute system. While they felt that the one hundred, fifty dollars per month was an exorbitant amount for miners in a district where monthly contracts averaged thirty-nine dollars, they had to concede that the miners were not obligated to follow regular working hours, and could work longer shifts, and also they were sharing a common interest with stockholders, maximum mineral production. Still, a number of men were retained under the old contract system, primarily in opening and preparing other parts of the mine for the tribute miners.

As with any mine on the frontier, it gave rise to a neighboring village. The first residence to appear in area was a log house built by Daniel Cavina in 1850, the same year the Maple Grove post office opened, which served other local mines. In 1855, the Adventure company platted out the village of Maple Grove, the same year the Eagle Hotel was built and opened for business. Clement March, a Yankee from Greenland, New Hampshire, was instrumental in the Adventure’s early land requisitions, had the township named Greenland when it was organized in 1853. The post office’s name was changed to the Greenland Post Office, and the village was renamed from Maple Grove to Greenland, but the cemetery retained the name “Maple Grove Cemetery.” The village was also served by a plank road that had been built by the company, running from the mine to the Ontonagon River.

As the town grew, so did the mine. In 1858, the company purchased the old Merchant’s Mining Company, and equipped its 1855 water powered stamp mill with a steam engine. In 1870, the Hussey-Howe group was facing the end of its empire days. The Cliff mine closed in 1870, the National mine also closed, and in that year, they sold the Adventure Mining Company to a group headed by Thomas F. Mason, whose group owned the Ridge Mine in Ontonagon County, and also the Quincy Mining Company at Portage Lake. The Quincy was now a very rich mine, and Mason believed he had learned a thing or two about mining. He re-organized the Adventure Mining Company, did away with the contract system, and cut the work force from fifty-five tribute miners, to twelve contract workers. Mason was humbled however, when this did not work as planned; within a few years, the mine was again being worked under the tribute system.

In 1898, under the Quincy Mining Company management, the Adventure acquired the old Knowlton and Hilton mines, and reorganized as the Adventure Consolidated Mining Company. The Adventure never did manage to pay off. It closed in 1917, and ended its years as a mining company. But it still was not finished, however. In 1972, Jack and Margaret Neph purchased the old mine and opened it for tours, operating it until the mid-1980s. Their son John, and his wife, began tours in the 1990s, and closed the mine in 2003. Today, Matt Portfleet owns the Adventure mine, and has created a number of tour packages that allow visitors to see firsthand a nineteenth century mine.

The village of Greenland is still there, as is the Maple Grove Cemetery, which is still used. The town, and its cemetery, is a strong tribute to the strong will of a town to survive, long after the original source of support disappeared.

Editor’s note:?Graham Jaehnig has a master’s degree in English/ creative writing with a focus on nonfiction from Southern New Hampshire University and a B.A. in history from Michigan Technological University.