Edwin J. Hulbert was working in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula as a surveyor in 1858 when he came across an outcropping of copper in the area of what is now known as the village of Calumet. With limited capital at his disposal, he sought the financial backing of investors from Boston, eventually attracting the support of Quincy A. Shaw. For a brief time, E.J. Hulbert managed the Calumet Mine for Shaw and his partners, but he was replaced in 1866 by Shaw's brother-in-law, Alexander Agassiz. Frederick Mackenzie established a daily version of the newspaper Copper Country Evening News in 1891. It appears that his correspondence with Hulbert pre-dates his involvement with the newspaper, but that letters from E.J. Hulbert were published as letters to the editor in later editions of that newspaper. Hulbert retired to Rome, Italy, and drew a small pension from Calumet & Hecla for the rest of his life. His letters, though difficult to decipher, reveal details about the early operations of the mine, his life, and information about the copper mining industry in Upper Michigan. In his later years, his letters reflect bitterness over having been bought out and removed from C&H investors headed by Shaw.