Quincy Mine

Just north of Hancock [1], the mammoth shaft house of the Quincy Mine (906/482-3101, www.quincymine.com [2], 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. daily in summer, hours vary in fall/winter, $15 adults, $8 children 6–12) dominates the skyline. The Quincy ranked as one of the world’s richest copper mines in the late 1800s, producing over a billion pounds of copper. Today, a few of its buildings still stand, and the land beneath it remains stitched with the shafts which stretched more than a mile-and-a-half deep—92 levels!—and two miles wide.

From the hoist house, the tour starts with a rather dramatic ride in a glass-enclosed tram down the side of a steep hill. Views of Houghton and Hancock are terrific as the tram descends to an entrance to the mine, an adit at Level 7. A tractor carries you a couple thousand feet into the mine, where guides demonstrate mining techniques and give you a feel for what it was like to work deep inside the earth, in a drippy, damp environment with only hand tools and candles.