Calumet and Hecla Mining Companies Media Collection

Collection — Box: 1-18

Identifier: MS-004

Staff Only

Collection Scope and Content Summary

Media collection, circa 1954-circa 1961, of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. Includes audio and moving image recordings documenting copper mining and manufacturing, the Osceola unwatering project, union/labor relations, community events, safety awareness and work procedures, and agriculture.

Dates

Circa 1954-Circa 1961

Access

Available for use in the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections.

Historical note

The Calumet and Hecla Consolidated Copper Company was the most successful corporation to have mined native copper in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Through nearly a century of mining activity, the company produced in excess of 4.5 billion pounds of refined copper and issued over $200 million in shareholder dividends. Unlike many of its competitors along the Keweenaw Peninsula, Calumet and Hecla successfully expanded its operations over several separate mineral bodies, developed capital-intensive ancillary industrial facilities, explored diversified non-mining enterprises, and remained a significant mining corporation at the national and international level well past the district’s most productive era.