Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Stabilizing mining-industry smokestacks that still stand at abandoned sites across the Copper Country are among a list of projects being pursued by the Keweenaw National Historical Park. Others, such as the smokestack at the Quincy Mining Company’s No. 5 boiler house, have been knocked over as a safety measure out of fear of falling on someone.

CALUMET TOWNSHIP — Among the projects planned by the Keweenaw National Historical Park and the KNHP Advisory Commission are identifying and prioritizing abandoned mine sites for safety purposes, as well as historic preservation.

During the Advisory Commission’s regular quarterly meeting on Tuesday, KNHP Supervisor Wyndeth Davis said the projects involve the Abandoned Mine Lands Program under U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The projects will work on improving the safety of the area’s mine landscapes, and the projects fall under two categories.

“Things that you can fall into and things can fall on you Davis said, “are the two groups of things that have really received the highest attention from the Abandoned Mine Lands fund source.”

The first priority is hazard reduction and second one is historic preservation, which Davis said fit well with the KNHP profile quite well.

One of the projects will be working to identify and prioritize smokestacks of former mining-related facilities. While many are still standing, Davis said, many others have been taken down out of safety concerns.

Rather than knocking remaining stacks over, the goal is to identify them and prioritize them based on historic site value. The next step is to stabilize them to make them to make them safe, while at the same time preserving them, so that they continue to be hallmarks of the community in which they are important, said Davis.

KNHP is also looking at historic preservation across the region in what Davis said are variety of very carefully prioritized actions that will help to identify and close mine shafts that in decades past, were closed by essentially filling them with everything from junk vehicles and similar refuse until the shafts became jammed. At other sites, old railroad rails were laid across abandoned shafts and iron grates were laid atop the rails, then a fence was stretched around them.

At the same time, said Davis, KNHP is also looking at historic structures on the landscape that would benefit from stabilization. Prioritizing those is another aspect of the projects.

“You know that the park has a mission and a purpose,” Davis said, “and that purpose has helped the Commission and the Park work together to identify high-priority resources for preservation and that’s where we’ll start in terms of what we’ll be working with.”

While it is accepted that not everything can be preserved, she said, the KNHP and the Advisory Commission will continue to work with its partners, cooperating heritage sites, neighbors and local governments to preserve as much as possible.

“And to make the landscape safer for everyone, including all of you, including our partners, our staff and our visitors.”

The Keweenaw NHP Advisory Commission, paneled by citizens appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, represents the public and works collaboratively with the National Park Service to advise and assist with managing the resources of Keweenaw National Historical Park. Agendas and minutes are available upon request to the Executive Director, Sean Gohman,

The seven-member commission is mandated to operate in support of the varied activities of Keweenaw National Historical Park, while acting as a conduit between the park and its neighboring communities. The commission members are drawn from organizations that are relevant to the park’s preservation and interpretation efforts.