Nature

Once a barren industrial landscape, the Quincy Unit is now heavily wooded.

NPS Photo

For over a century, Copper Country mines altered the natural landscape. Entire forests were clear-cut with the lumber used for building homes and shoring underground. Poor-rock piles grew as mines became deeper. Waste stamp sand moved shorelines.

As the mines have now closed, the landscape continues to evolve as nature reclaims its land. Some industrial buildings and communities are now ruins or only found on historical maps. Rock piles have disappeared as they are ground up for use on snowy winter roads. Stamp sand beaches have been covered with vegetation. Every year nature grows further, sometimes making preserving this history more and more difficult.