Mineralogy Field Trip

Upper Peninsula, MI
September 23-26, 1999

Fall 1999 Mineralogy class in front of the Quincey Steam Hoist.


This is the largest steam mine hoist in the world. This great machine, invented by Bruno Nordberg and installed in 1920, could lift 10 a ton ore load at the rate of more than 1000m per minute (from Bornhorst & Rose, 1994).


Standing: Nicky Borum, Elysia Plotka, Rock Haines, Sue Wilborn, Tommy Clark, Terry Tackett, Phil Jones.
Kneeling: Kelly Ryan, Stephanie Lozon

 

Day 1. The first day was reserved for driving up to the UP.
We saw a spectacular sunset on the way. This photo was taken from the north shore of Lake Michigan.
Day 2. We made a lot of stops this day but we're somewhat photo poor here because the trip's fearless leader and resident shutterbug, Sarah, sliced her hand open and had to go to the hospital and get stitched back together. I did make it back in time to visit Jasper Knob where we looked at the famous Banded Iron Formation (BIF).
This beautifully layered rock represents some of the oldest rocks found on the Earth. BIF consists of alternating bands of specular hematite and jasper. Note the lens cap for scale.
And Dr. Hanson learned that there are certain advantages to being broken. Like getting Rock to cook dinner!
Day 3. We spent the day exploring the copper mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
This was our first of many attempts at collecting copper. We're at the abandoned mine dumps from the Baltic Mine. Some of us found small samples of native copper here. Eventually, we all collected nice specimens of copper.
We also took a tour of the Delaware Copper Mine copper which was worked between 1864 and 1880. Unfortunately, very little copper was recovered from this rock, thus a dividend was never paid to its investigators. Hardhats were required to enter the adit.
Lunch Stop. This is Eagle River Falls. These falls occur at the contact between the top of the Portage Lake Volcanics and the base of the Copper Harbor Conglomerate.
Day 4. Some of us stopped at the champion mine to collect specular hematite and other cool minerals. Some others got lost. Some of us looked for them. After finding them, we drove back to Adrian.