Isle Royale Forums

oh yea I am sure itll be overgrown. I am a huge fan of the minong, so I am not worried there, really hoping we can make the journey. If not, we will be booking for 2021 as soon as we can.

Here are two pictures of the locomotive to be seen on the Siskiwit-Island Mine leg of the loop

Those are the best photos I've seen of the "locomotive"! Thanks for posting them. That looks like a standard locomotive-style boiler. It almost certainly wasn't used for an actual locomotive at the mine, but instead provided power for a stamp mill and other mine equipment. There are a decent number of these hiding in the woods around the Copper Country for the same reasons.

Here is some more detail of the “locomotive”

the locomotive-style boiler: I know this is documented elsewhere, but the pictures are so motivating it might be worth repeating here: what exactly does one need to do to find it??

torpified wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 10:19 am the locomotive-style boiler: I know this is documented elsewhere, but the pictures are so motivating it might be worth repeating here: what exactly does one need to do to find it??

I would like to know too!

I've been told it's right behind the slag pile that is very obvious and right next to the trail. I missed it because it I didn't know it was right there as I was standing next to the pile, it was raining, and I was solo and had promised myself (and my wife) that I wouldn't leave the trail. If I had known, or it wasn't raining, I would have fudged a little and climbed the slag pile ... And so I got to the lake, going downhill, thinking "how did I miss it", having been told it was fairly obvious--the piece about "behind the pile" was missing until after the trip.

Here is the location provided by Mineral Data (mindat.org). They say the GPS coordinates are 47.91667,-89.03340

The mindat website is a very good resource for mines, current and abandoned, all over as well as a huge variety of geologic points of interest at more than just Isle Royale.

Not sure but the above GPS coordinates seemed a bit too far southwest from the trail to me and probably even on the wrong side of the trail. This earlier post by JerryB states clearly the side trail heads off to the right when making your way towards Island Mine. Therefore I suspect the mindat GPS coordinates are in error.

For some reason, mindat's GPS coordinates are terrible for most Upper Peninsula mines. Not just slightly fuzzy, but often in completely wrong places. Definitely trust JerryB instead of mindat.

The GPS is off. Going uphill toward Island Mine, a hiker will see the slag hill on the right. Climb up it and the Hiker will see the boiler. I did another trip report on this,route where I described the location more precisely. I will look for it.

From a 2013 trip report by me (I think it is titled Feldtman Loop clockwise): Thursday took us downhill to Siskiwit. Along the way, we searched for the old mine, supposedly on the west side of the trail. We never found that, but we did find the old locomotive. About a third of a mile or less up the trail from the dry well, there is a fairly wide trail that branches off to the left (going downhill). From here, a hiker can see several large piles of mine tailings. The side trail is very short. Take a quick walk and climb up the mound (maybe 15 feet tall) and you will see the old locomotive. It is quite the sight and worth a diversion from the hike. Back on the trail, you will quickly come to a fenced in old well.

I hope this helps. It is certainly worth the effort to see what I now know as a boiler.

Edited by moderator: merge posts.

I was quite sure the mindat info was not locating the steam engine properly but I wanted to introduce mindat as a potential resource for people. I wonder if it is possible the actual mine location is at (or closer to) the mindat GPS coordinates? I tried to find any posting here regarding the mine's location but since a campground is named for it the search is quite hampered.

This mine was one of the few or maybe the only one on Isle Royale that used conglomerate ore. This is a low grade ore where the copper is trapped in tiny vesicles in the Basalt rock (they look like little air bubbles filled with foreign material, sometimes copper). It is more easily mined and transported but then requires a greater effort to recover and refine the ore. Stamp mills using large heavy hammers, powered by engines, are required to pound and pulverize the ore in order to mechanically release the tiny bits of copper. Running into a vein of pure copper was not a pleasant experience for miners. It had to be manually sawed into pieces as copper is so malleable an explosive charge simply bends it.

From the book Isle Royale, A Photographic History, by Thomas P. Gale & Kendra L. Gale, 1995 and 2005, published by the Isle Royale Natural History Association...

"In 1873 the Island Mining Company built a two-mile road from the north side of Siskiwit Bay to potential mine sites. About 130 people spent the winter there to work on mine shafts, a sawmill, a dock and warehouse, and other buildings to support mining. A large fire in 1874 set the operations back, and investors closed the company by the end of 1875. Others worked the mine for a few years but abandoned it by 1880."

The USGS topograhic map shows the location of two mine shafts. I believe the boiler is near the tailing piles at the eastern shaft (filled in) as indicated in the following link to AcmeMapper...

Link ---> http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=47.92250,-89.03170&z=15&t=U

The topo map also shows the location of the loading dock. After clicking on the following link, select satellite view from the layer button in the upper right hand corner of acme mapper. Then zoom in and you can make out a faint outline of the submerged dock.

Link ---> http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=47.91243,-88.98795&z=15&t=U


Edit: Added loading dock info. Cleaned up extraneous markers in the two acme mapper links. Moved the cursor slightly off the mine shaft label for better viewing.

IncaRoads:

What is the source or significance of the red markers B, E and F in your 1st link? They seem to be at the location I found in mindat.

Also, what is the source of the cursor location in your 1st link? The topo map has an embeded marker labelled "Island Mine" just a few yards to the northeast of the trail (Just where the verbal descriptions from JerryB etal have documented in close proximity and eastern relation to the trail). The map's cursor is about 400 to 500 yards to the eastnortheast of the map's mine locator.

The red markers you refer to were just extraneous markers that I was using when viewing with acme mapper. One was an old marker and some were new when I was experimenting with the mindat location data. When I made the links I didn't think those markers would be included. I thought they were local to my computer. I have edited the links and removed the red markers.

The cursor location was right on top of the easternmost mine shaft (very small box with diagonal line, top portion shaded black). I edited the link and moved the cursor slightly off the mine shaft label for better viewing.