Last updated: November 26, 2024
Place
Painesdale Mine and Shaft
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
42634 2nd St (Shaft House Road), Painesdale, MI 49955
Significance:
Keweenaw NHP Heritage Site
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
3 listed
Cellular Signal, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto
Painesdale Mine & Shaft offers guided tours of the Champion #4 Shaft-rockhouse – the oldest remaining shaft-rockhouse on the Keweenaw. Tours also include the Hoist House with its historic mine hoist, and the Captain's Office with exhibits that include business records, photographs, and blueprints.
The Copper Range Company operated the Champion #4 for copper production from 1902 until 1967. Once the mine closed, Copper Range turned the mine site over to the Adams Township Water Department to provide water to the surrounding region. By the mid-1990s, when the mine structures were no longer needed by the water department, the entire site was transferred to Painesdale Mine and Shaft for preservation and to share the history of the mine with visitors.
A guided tour of the Champion #4 offers a unique opportunity to learn about shaft-rockhouse operations. The upper-level tour explores the mostly intact rock house with its sorting mechanisms, rock crushers, and steam engine. Come explore the Champion #4 to experience a site largely frozen in time - just how the workers left it in the final days of operation.
By preserving and restoring the Champion #4 Shaft-Rockhouse, Painesdale Mine & Shaft, Inc. hopes to continue using it as a museum so that future generations can experience the sights, sounds, smells, and the feel of mining as it once was. Along with the #4 Shaft House, there remains numerous industrial buildings, railway equipment, and private homes related to the mining area. PM&S Inc. hopes to someday identify these structures so that the full story of what life was like in Painesdale can be told.
The Keweenaw Heritage Sites are official partners of Keweenaw National Historical Park, but are privately owned. Each site interprets and preserves an important aspect of the area's copper mining history and provides a unique visitor experience. Please contact individual sites for more information.
#5 in The Keweenaw Guide park newspaper.
The Copper Range Company operated the Champion #4 for copper production from 1902 until 1967. Once the mine closed, Copper Range turned the mine site over to the Adams Township Water Department to provide water to the surrounding region. By the mid-1990s, when the mine structures were no longer needed by the water department, the entire site was transferred to Painesdale Mine and Shaft for preservation and to share the history of the mine with visitors.
A guided tour of the Champion #4 offers a unique opportunity to learn about shaft-rockhouse operations. The upper-level tour explores the mostly intact rock house with its sorting mechanisms, rock crushers, and steam engine. Come explore the Champion #4 to experience a site largely frozen in time - just how the workers left it in the final days of operation.
By preserving and restoring the Champion #4 Shaft-Rockhouse, Painesdale Mine & Shaft, Inc. hopes to continue using it as a museum so that future generations can experience the sights, sounds, smells, and the feel of mining as it once was. Along with the #4 Shaft House, there remains numerous industrial buildings, railway equipment, and private homes related to the mining area. PM&S Inc. hopes to someday identify these structures so that the full story of what life was like in Painesdale can be told.
The Keweenaw Heritage Sites are official partners of Keweenaw National Historical Park, but are privately owned. Each site interprets and preserves an important aspect of the area's copper mining history and provides a unique visitor experience. Please contact individual sites for more information.
#5 in The Keweenaw Guide park newspaper.
- Fees: $10 Rock House Tours; Free Surface Level Tours; Private Tours can be arranged in advance.
- Operating Season: Tours offered on Saturdays from May through October. Grounds are open for walking year-round during daylight hours.
- Tour Hours: 12 pm - 4 pm on Saturdays.
- Phone: 906-369-5358.
- Online: www.painesdalemineshaft.com
- Email: painesdalemine@gmail.com