DELAWARE
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DELAWARE |
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NAME: Delaware COUNTY: Keweenaw ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: 200+ inches of snow in winter --has had 400 inches --cool summers BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer |
COMMENTS:
A copper mining town of the 1840's- 60's. No permanent residents. Some buildings still standing. Mine is openin the summers for tours. US 41 runs through the town. REMAINS: Some houses. |
| Delaware, located about 38mi north of Houghton, was settled in the mid-1840s, and was one of the first copper mining sites on the Keweenaw Peninsula. The company which created the town also provided housing, stores, schools, and land for the post office and churches, and constructed a port for its ores at Eagle Harbor. Its population was only about 100 in 1849, the year its post office opened, but by the 1870s, it had a population of over 1,150. Due to falling copper prices and mine problems (including water), the mine was no longer economic by the 1880s; by the early 1890s the population had dropped to only 25 persons, and the post office closed in 1912. The houses along US41 which make up most of Delaware's remains are examples of the "company housing" of the era. During the late Spring and early Fall, part of the Delaware Copper Mine is open for guided tours (which take the visitor more than 1,400 feet below the surface). Submitted by Kurt Wenner. |
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