The Quincy Mining Company was founded in 1846 to mine native copper deposits on property near Hancock, Michigan. During the course of the next one hundred and fifty years, the company produced 1.5 billion pounds of refined copper and issued $30 million in shareholder dividends. Its ability to consistently produce copper and stock dividends garnered it the nickname “Old Reliable” and spread its fame throughout the mining world. Before closing on May 6, 1967, the Quincy reclamation plant recovered nearly one hundred million pounds of refined copper during its twenty-two years of operation. The Quincy smelting works continued scrap and custom work until the end of 1970. Although the company held the belief that copper prices might allow a profitable return to underground mining, and carried out exploratory work from time to time in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the mine has never reopened. Quincy stock ceased to be publicly traded in 1981 and the company has not been required to publish annual reports since that time. Various parts of the company’s Michigan property were sold or transferred to local entities (including the MTU Ventures Group and the Quincy Mine Hoist Association, a non-profit organization created to preserve and interpret Quincy’s history and the No. 2 Nordberg mine hoist). The Quincy Mining Company continued as a property investment corporation with offices on Madison Avenue and property holdings in the New York city area.