Re: Quincy and Torch Lake

The Q&TL left a remarkable legacy after it closed in 1945. The entire railroad asset was left intact along with the mine and mill complex until about the mid-1970s.

But the larger context is the whole “Copper County” in the Michigan Keweenaw Peninsula. It is mostly wild and rugged country with near mountainous terrain, and the forest is full of abandoned railroad grades and ruins of mines and mills that go back to pre-1850. It is a land of extreme history. The deep rock copper mining there was done mostly with inclined shafts that followed the inclined dip of the lode. A smaller number of them were vertical. The famous Red Jacket shaft was vertical and over a mile deep.

Here is an excellent website by a person who has dedicated a great amount of effort and passion to documenting the industrial history of the Copper Country.

[www.coppercountryexplorer.com]