Come explore the Upper Peninsula. The Atlantic Mine Stamp Mill Ruins date back to 1892. The Mill closed in 1912 and was associated with Atlantic Mine (copper), and this site was serviced by Atlantic and Lake Superior Railroad on a 9 mile long track . be here a lon
"Atlantic Stamp Mill Operation
The Atlantic Mining Company had already been in operation for 23 years before it built its mill
at Redridge. They operated a s
tamp mill on the shores of Portage Lake near Cole's Creek for
years beforehand. Problems arose when the War Department of the federal government told the
company that they must either stop dumping the tailings from the stamping process into the
Portage, or
erect bulkheads to prevent the tailings from filling in the shipping channel. The
company estimated that a new mill along Lake Superior would cost up to $100,000
(1)
, but
decided
that the increased output they would get out of the new mill, and elimination of the legal
hassles associated with the Portage site that the expense would be worth it.
Work on the Atlantic Mill was begun as early as 1892 when the land was purchased and a path
for a railroad to the
site
(6)
from the mine was mapped out. (Another diagram of the site derived
from a 1908 Sa
nborn map may be seen
here
.) In 1893 Atlantic finished the railroad to the site
(the covered drive is this Atlantic and Lake Superior Railroad), cleared and prepared the area for
construction, put up 4 log houses, a barn, rock bins and started the timber dam which will be
discussed in another chapter. It is interesting to note that a telephone line was run from one of the
new houses back to the mine office at this time for a cost of $413.44
(2)
. This seems to indicate
very progressive thinking on the part of the company since the telephone had been invented only
about 5 years earlier. In 1894 the mill was almost completely
finished and most of it's equipment
installed. In the report to the stockholders for 1894, the directors included this statement:....."
(
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Nearby don't miss the Redridge Dam, it is one of only 3 steel dams built in the United States