Advisory Commission Meeting 07/12/2023

 

Keweenaw National Historical Park
Headquarters, Calumet
July 12, 2023

Present: Commissioners

• Karin Cooper, Houghton County (Secretary)

• Gerald Juntunen, at-large (Vice President)

• Dan Jamison, at-large (Treasurer)

• Thomas Helppi, Calumet Township

• Andrew Ranville, Village of Calumet

Absent:

• John Sullivan, Franking and Quincy Townships

• Glenn Anderson, State of Michigan (President)

Present: Executive Director

• Sean Gohman

Present: National Park Service (NPS)

• Wendy Davis, Superintendent

• John Arnold, Historical Architect

• Amber Kraft, Interp & Education Lead

Present: Guests

• Brian Hirvela, Calumet Art Center

• Lindsay Hiltunen, Michigan Tech Archives

• Wesley Hyslop, Michigan Tech

• Jean Ellis, Keweenaw Heritage Center

• Brad Barnett, Visit Keweenaw

Decisions and Announcements

• This year’s Keweenaw Heritage Grant program awarded $125,963.39 in grants to 15 applicants.

• Painesdale Mine & Shaft, Inc. was welcomed as the newest member to the Keweenaw Heritage Sites program.

A.1. Call to Order

A regular meeting of the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission was opened at 1:04 p.m., Wednesday, July 12^th, 2023.

A.2. Introductions

See attendees above.

A.3. Approval of Agenda for April 12th, 2023

Motion made by Cooper and seconded by Ranville. Motion carried unanimously. (5/0).

A.4. Approval of Minutes of January 17th, 2023

Motion made by Cooper and seconded by Helppi. Motion carried unanimously. (5/0).

B.1. Superintendent’s Report

1. A new curatorial lead, Anne Llewelyn , will be joining the park later this month. Anne comes from Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve.
2. Abandoned Mineral Lands funding via the Inflation Reduction Act, will be coming to the park in the coming years to address a multitude of safety needs both inside and outside of the park’s boundaries. Funding will address selected needs as well as fund a project manager position.
   • Funding is not in the park’s hands as of yet, so no word on when this position (or others might be available). Stay tuned for more.
3. The Governor’s Award for Historic Presentation was awarded to the park, the commission, Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance, Calumet’s Downtown Development Authority, the Village of Calumet, and Main Street Calumet for the Bring Back Calumet initiative.
   • Superintendent Davis was on hand in person to receive the award, and brought it out ot show those in attendance.
4. Visitors Center is open 7 days a week and offering two guided ranger tours a day.

Questions for the Superintendent

1. Brad Barnett, Visit Keweenaw, asked if any of the AML funding would be applied to interpretation. John Arnold, Historical Architect with the park, informed Barett that this money is just for specific safing targets at this time
   

B. 2. Executive Director’s Report

1. Heritage grants: the commission awarded 15 organizations grants totally nearly $126,000 this May for a variety of projects dedicated to the story of copper here in the Keweenaw.
   • Projects ranged from heating system restoration work at the Calumet Theatre, to collections management work at the Copper Range Historical Museum, to repairs to the historic oil house at the Quincy Mine, to accessibility improvements at the Norwegian Lutheran Church here in Calumet, to exhibit development at Fort Wilkins Historic State Park to celebrate 100 years as a state park.
2. The Commission and historical park hosted our annual Spring Heritage Sites meeting here at park headquarters at the start of last month. 15 heritage sites were represented at the meeting. The late date meant we were unable to host representatives from our two state park partners: Porcupine Mountains and Fort Wilkins, as they are quite busy with summer visitors.
   • Attendees reported on their organization’s activities over the last 6 months as well as plans for this summer. Keweenaw NHP Interp and Education lead, Amber Kraft, also gave a workshop on the concept of Multiple Intelegences.
     • This concept centers on the many ways that we absorb and understand knowledge. Some learn best through music. Others through visualization, exploration, storytelling, etc. Through this approach, exhibits and educational programming can be designed to cover as many literacies as possible, thereby reaching the widest possible audience in the most effective way.
   1. During the meeting it was announced that Painesdale Mine & Shaft, Inc. will be accepted into the Keweenaw Heritage Sites program. This organization has made incredible strides over the last few years in cleaning up the landscape around their property, adding interpretive signage on the grounds, and offering engaging and unique visitor experiences south of the Lift Bridge. Their efforts are to be commended and it’s with great pleasure to include them as the 22^nd heritage site partner.
      • As a heritage site, Painesdale Mine & Shaft are eligible for technical assistance from Keweenaw NHP, receive priority advantages in the Keweenaw Heritage Grant program and are now part of the network of historic preservation, interpretation, and education that the Heritage Sites program has been for nearly two decades now.
3. Work at the Quincy Smelter is currently underway to stabilize the dockside warehouse building. Bulging exterior support walls are being shored up while access areas (both for humans and vermin) are being sealed up with in some cases windows being installed to allow for natural light into the space. Materials are being collected and moved to areas of the building that will not impact its structural integrity. Pigeon waste has been cleaned up to allow for safer accessibility and preservation of the building’s fabric.
   • A short presentation on 3D documentation of the dockside warehouse was given by Wes Hyslop of Michigan Tech. Wes is a member of the university’s surveying club, and they recently came to the smelter to document the interior and exterior of the warehouse prior to the work mentioned above commencing. This work provides baseline data for the structure as it stood prior to stabilization, and allows for virtual touring of the building as well. The club looks forward to returning to the warehouse to re-document and compare how the structure looks now as opposed to a few months ago.
4. A short slide presentation on my recent trip to Plymouth, MA to attend the Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference was given prior to the formal start of the meeting in order to save time.
5. A public meeting was held last month to inform property owners of amendments/revisions to the two National Historic Landmarks that help inform the boundaries of Keweenaw National Historical Park. A meeting of local government officials was also held.
   • The Calumet Historic District and Quincy Mining District were both designated National Historic Landmarks in 1989, and many changes have occurred on both of those landscapes over the last 30-plus years. These proposed revisions help clarify these designations as reflected on the landscape today.
   • Both amendments will be reviewed (and hopefully adopted) this fall by the National Historic Landmark Committee.
6. The Commission is helping to fund a summer intern from University of Wisconsin Eau Claire to work for Keweenaw NHP in historical research.
   • Silas Neville will be looking into identifying previously unknown or unheard voices and individuals who lived and worked here in the Keweenaw, thus expanding our collective understanding of this area’s past, and improving the park’s ability to reach the widest range of visitors with the widest range of stories. I don’t have all the details just yet, but we’ll be hearing more about Silas’ work in the future.
7. As an update to a pledge the Commission made to the Houghton County Landbank and Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance back in January, a check of $5,000 was delivered to the Land Bank to help meet the matching requirements for a grant they received to help stabilize the Herman Flats property at 102 6^th Street in Calumet.
   • The work will include creating a protective mortar cap on top of the sandstone walls, select tuck pointing, documentation and removal of the remaining roof members, exterior brush removal and finally securing the building. While this basic work will not make the building habitable, it will provide desperately needed stabilization that will preserve it for future redevelopment.
8. Continuing the theme of building stabilization, the Commission and Keweenaw NHP recently consulted with our heritage site partner, Coppertown Mining Museum, to look at the historic C&H Pattern Storage building just south of the museum. The roof needs replacement first and foremost, while the interior shelving also will need to be reinstalled at some point so the patterns held inside can be properly taken care of.
   • This is all preliminary at this stage, with no finalized plans in place to address this need. But this is a great example of the needs we have here inside and outside of the park’s boundaries, and the kind of collaborative, and often creative, work the commission and park do together.

B.3. Requests to Commission and Financial Reports

Motion to approve billing in the amount of $155,243.45 and payroll and tax in the amount of $17,361.96 was moved by Cooper and seconded by Ranville. Motion carried unanimously. (5/0)

B.4. Commissioner Reports

A. Ranville, speaking on behalf of the Village of Calumet noted that the grant application made to the Citizen’s Institute for Rural Design to put on a workshop related to design in terms of wayfinding, branding, etc. (mentioned in the previous meeting) was not accepted. Grantees are allowed to apply year after year until they are awarded, so they will attempt again.

C.1. Comments from legislators or legislative staff

None

C.2. Comments from Keweenaw Heritage Site representatives

1. Jean Ellis, Keweenaw Heritage Center: they are moving into the fundraising for the replacement and repair of St. Anne’s Church’s roof, last touched in 1966 (at minimum).
   • This is also the last summer to view the exhibit on display devoted to the stories of women in the Copper Country.
2. Lindsay Hiltunen, Michigan Tech Archives: Research at the archives is still by appointment. Over 50 researchers came through the doors last month, averaging 3 hours per stay.
   • The Joseph Singer collection of stock certificates now has a finding aid.
   • Hiltunen has been re-appointed to the Michigan Archival Association.

C.3. Comments from the public

1. Brian Hirvela, Calumet Art Center, read the following:The Mission of the Calumet Art Center, Inc. is to create a safe learning environment where art, culture and history inspire and challenge people of the Keweenaw. Calumet Art Center creates a rare integration of human creativity and scholarship that strengthens an appreciation of historic and cultural values and encourages varied modes of unique expression. On September 1st 2023 Calumet Art Center will officially begin it's transition journey to become a future Heritage Site within the Keweenaw National Historical Park.
   • Various designated areas of our art center will be permanently staged to share stories and cultural experiences from the great copper mining era in the Keweenaw. The stories will be told from the point of view of a copper miner and family and a mining captain and family. Local mining art and artifacts will be featured.
   • Calumet Art Center being housed within a historic church built in the 1800s presents the rare and unique opportunity to feature our historic pipe organ and a recently donated harpsichord into some of the stories.
   • On Friday August 4th the Calumet Art Center will participate in the first Friday event and would like to extend an invitation to Keweenaw National Historical Park employees, family and friends to come to our art center to enjoy and experience the wonderful art! Light refreshments will be provided.

D. Motion to Adjourn

Moved by Ranville and seconded by Jamison at 2:15 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. (5/0).

Next meeting will be held Tuesday, October 10th at 1:00pm at Keweenaw NHP Headquarters.