Photos provided by Kyle Maki Members of the Michigan National Guard 1431st Engineering Co. in Calumet conduct reconnaissance during monthly training Saturday at the Quincy Mine.

Once the bent tape measure hits the ceiling, he draws it back to get the reading: “121!”

With that piece of knowledge — 121 inches, or just over 10 feet — they come a bit closer to gaining knowledge of the darkness into which they’d charged a few minutes before.

It was part of the 1431st Engineering Co.’s reconnaissance training, conducted Saturday at the Quincy Mine.

They spent 20-minute sessions in a shaft off of Mason Street, training in mapping underground areas. 

Photos provided by Kyle Maki Members of the Michigan National Guard 1431st Engineering Co. in Calumet conduct reconnaissance during monthly training Saturday at the Quincy Mine.

“We’ve got storage rooms and work rooms, and so they’ve got to map those,” said Tom Wright, facilities manager for the Quincy Mine Hoist Association.  

In real life, that training could help them determine if equipment could fit inside a shaft for storage, or if there was room to hide military assets from the enemy, said Spc. Mike Griffin. 

“This is just a great way the Quincy Mine stepped forward to help us out, and we’re really happy about it,” he said. 

In some parts, they could do their work with the naked eye. Most of the work required night vision goggles. 

Between groups, Wright pumped fog into the shaft to make the job even harder.

Photos provided by Kyle Maki Members of the Michigan National Guard 1431st Engineering Co. in Calumet conduct reconnaissance during monthly training Saturday at the Quincy Mine.

Stepping into an unknown situation, the Guard members work off a pace count. Griffin carried a counter with him throughout; he then converted those paces to meters. 

“The other team leaders would find a doorway to a classroom, and we’d know the pace where that doorway was to start taking measurements,” he said. 

Inside the room, they’d determine the square footage. Every 100 meters, the group would pause to measure the ceiling height to determine what assets could fit inside.

At the end of the day, platoon members debriefed and compared measurements from each group to make sure they were consistent. 

Guard members train once a month, with activities focused on a mission-critical task list. They rotate between types: mobility, countermobility, reconnaissance and deployment operations. 

Photos provided by Kyle Maki Members of the Michigan National Guard 1431st Engineering Co. in Calumet conduct reconnaissance during monthly training Saturday at the Quincy Mine.

“We have to hit them on a cycle, and what goes into them can vary,” said 2nd Lt. Kyle Maki.

Past reconnaissance missions have included other spots throughout the area, such as the underpass below M-26 in Houghton. In search of another underground area to train, Maki contacted Houghton City Manager Eric Waara, who put him in contact with the Quincy Mine Hoist Association. 

Wright said making the mine available to the National Guard is part of a continued commitment to those who serve. And it’s also part of a broader mission of reaching out to the community, which has included everything from the haunted house to the Music in the Mine series.

“Providing a venue for exercises like this is important because Quincy was always part of the community,” he said. “There would be no Hancock if there was no Quincy.”

Guard members also enjoyed being in a historic atmosphere. Griffin noted the old pickaxes he saw inside. 

Photos provided by Kyle Maki Members of the Michigan National Guard 1431st Engineering Co. in Calumet conduct reconnaissance during monthly training Saturday at the Quincy Mine.

The experience made Griffin appreciate how difficult it must have been to make the shafts. 

“We go through there with so much technology, and it’s pretty easy for us to see with night vision and white light and that kind of stuff,” he said. “They were using candles back in the day. So it really brings you down to earth.”