Across the copper country rail provided important infrastructure. Allowing copper mined in the region to leave, and for new people to settle into the Keweenaw Peninsula. The final train crossed the Portage Lake lift bridge and Portage Canal in 1982. But visitors and residents can still see how trains impacted the region today. In lake linden the Houghton County Historical Society is home to #3 steam engine that once transported material from lake linden to places such as Chicago or Detroit.
They didn’t have enough material that had copper in it to keep the steam stamps open that were here. So they took them all down, and then put in, equipment to reprocess the sand they had dumped into the lake. So they invented, a great big water vacuum. And that is the dredge, pictured here. And it basically sucked sand up and pumped it back on shore. All From the dredge itself. – George West, President, Houghton County Historical Society
The Calumet Hecla Mining Company would then reprocess sands. Eventually C & H sold out to Universal Oil Products. Today the Houghton County Historical Society maintains the site processing once occurred on. Preserving some of the operation’s original equipment too. On Saturdays the Houghton County Historical Society starts up the number three steam engine. The museum is open from noon until 4 pm Monday through Sunday.
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