MTU Archives Stevens Copper Handbook of 1900 described, in more or less detail, the steam hoist and boiler setup at the Robbins Vein. Twenty-nine years after the equipment had been installed, Harry Reeder photographed the remains of the power plant, which by then, consisted of the narrow winding drum, with hoist cable still wound around it, along with the remains of the boiler that powered the hoist.

What the War Department began calling the Lake Superior Copper Mining District in 1843, graduated from a wilderness to the Northwest Frontier to one of the most modern and advanced industrial regions in the United States in less than 50 years. Mining activity had also proven to be quite dynamic. Activity had begun in 1844 in the Keweenaw Point district, which became Keweenaw County in 1861, then shifted to the Ontonagon River district, or Ontonagon County, then again to the Portage Lake district, central and northern Houghton County and southern Keweenaw County. By the turn of the 20th century, it would expand again, with newly organized companies such as the Baltic, in 1897, the Mohawk Mining Company in 1898, Trimountain Mining Company in 1899 and the Champion in 1900. Eastern investors also purchased groups of old, abandoned mines and organized new ventures such as the Isle Royale Consolidated Mining Company, and the Mass Consolidated Mining Company in 1899, the Michigan Mining Co., also in 1899, all of which were anxious to become major copper producing ventures.

In Ontonagon County, the Michigan Mining Company consisted of properties formerly owned by Minesota, Rockland, and Superior Mining companies. The former Mass Mining Company was absorbed into the Mass Consolidated Mining Company, which also included the Ridge, Mass, Ogima, Merrimac, and Hazard mines. The company also purchased the Evergreen Bluff Mining Company in 1911. In Houghton County, the 1899 organization of the Isle Royale Consolidated Copper Company was a merger of the old Isle Royal, Huron, Grand Portage, Frue, and Dodge Mines.

Much of the renewed interest in reopening long-abandoned mines was due to technological advances in steam power, rock drilling, hoisting and mineral concentrating. Many companies starting up during the late 1890s did not have to purchase brand new custom-made machinery from manufacturers; used stamps, air compressors and hoists could be purchased from local companies that had upgraded to newer or larger equipment, or from companies that had stopped mining. In other instances, such as the Phoenix Consolidated Copper Company (1900), old machinery laying around the properties were reconditioned and reused.

Steam engine technology had come a long way since the Pittsburgh and Boston Mining Company installed its first pumping and hoisting engine at the Cliff Mine in 1850. The Annual Report of the P&B Co. for 1850, published in Jan. 1851, stated:

“The power employed (at the shaft) was the ordinary ‘whim,’ propelled by horses, until late in September of last year, when it was displaced by a steam engine of great power, and which it is supposed will be adequate to exigences of the mine for many years to come.”

The cost of the engine, excluding shipping and erecting it, totaled $6,459, or $$234,950.68 in 2022 currency.

The Annual Report of the company for 1851, published in January, 1852, reported rebuilding the stamp mill, which included a new engine. The cost of the engine for the mill was listed at $8,406, about $305,760 today.

The 1853 edition of Mining Magazine stated that at the Cliff Mine, the work of pumping the mine, and raising the ore and rock is performed by a steam engine, while another “large lever-beam engine, of upright form and of great power,” operated the stamp mill.

During the same year, the Mining Magazine reported, the National Mine, in Ontonagon, which was owned by the same directors of the P&B Co., was operating two horse whims. The two mines, at opposite ends of the copper range, suggest a region in technological transition.

The Minesota Mine, in Ontonagon County, by 1861, had converted to steam. The Annual Report for that year stated:

“Our machinery consists of four steam engines for hoisting from the mine, one steam pumping engine and engine for stamping, sawing, and grinding.”

The same report went on to state that a “new horse capstan” (which) had been added at one of its shafts, making three in use. While the report showed no purchases of coal for boilers, it did state that improvement for the year included “the opening of new wood-roads to the lands on the south half of the location…”

The Phoenix Consolidated Copper Company in 1900 set about re-opening the Robbins or West Vein of the property and while the company did use steam engines, it did not purchase new equipment.

“A large amount of old machinery was on the ground,” reported Stevens’ Copper Handbook for 1900, “and a considerable number of old structures, including three stamp mills, afforded good building material.”

The Handbook reported that boilers and a hoist from the old St. Claire mill, had been moved and set up at the Robbins Vein shaft, an air compressor and timber had been salvaged from the old Phoenix mill, along with pumps from the old Phoenix mine.

“The only new machinery bought has been the power drills and a No. 7 Cameron pump,” the Handbook stated.

At the Robbins, the report stated, there is “one horizontal boiler and one hoist of the vertical type,” The New Catechism of the Steam Engine suggests this type of setup was typical of portable hoisting engines at the time, and generally consisted an engine and upright boiler, combined on one frame. The hoisting rope, the book stated, is wound upon a drum, which is driven by the engine shaft through friction cones and could be “thrown in out” (engaged or disengaged) at will. This, along with photographic evidence, suggests that the hoisting engine at the Robbins Vein was a second-motion friction gear engine, typical of mines in the Lake Superior copper district that were too deep or too productive for the use of horse whims, but not large enough to require a larger, stationary engine.

By 1905, the Phoenix was abandoned by its stockholders and as in other locations, the company simply shut off the boilers, locked all the doors, and walked away, leaving everything in place that was of little value.