The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was an important copper-mining company located in Michigan's Copper Country. From 1869 until 1909, the company paid money to shareholders amounting to $110,550,000.
History
In 1864, Edwin J. Hulbert discovered a copper-containing area that later became known as the Calumet Conglomerate, which is from the Precambrian age. The discovery was in Houghton County, Michigan, between the rich Cliff mine to the northeast and the copper mines of Portage Lake to the southwest, but far from both. Hulbert created the Hulbert Mining Company in 1864 to buy the land rights, and then established the Calumet Mine in 1865 with funding from Boston, organized by Quincy Shaw. Shaw later formed the Hecla Mining Company after buying land to the south of Calumet.
Hulbert was a major owner in both companies and managed the mines. However, he lacked the skills needed to extract, crush, and process the copper. Because of Hulbert’s lack of progress, the company sent Alexander Agassiz, the son of well-known geologist Louis Agassiz, to Michigan to manage the mine.
Under Agassiz’s skilled leadership, the Hecla Mining Company paid its first dividend in 1869, and the Calumet Mine followed in 1871. In May 1871, the two companies joined with the Portland and Scott Mining Companies to create the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, with Quincy Adams Shaw as its first president. A few months later, Shaw left the president role and joined the board of directors, while Agassiz became president, a position he held until his death.
The town of Red Jacket (now called Calumet) was built near the mine.
Calumet and Hecla grew into a major copper mining company. From 1868 through 1886, it was the top copper producer in the United States, and from 1869 through 1876, it was the top copper producer worldwide. Between 1871 and 1880, Calumet and Hecla produced more than half of all copper mined in the United States. In every year except one between 1870 and 1901, the company produced most of the copper mined in the Michigan copper district.
By 1901, James MacNaughton became the general manager. The underground mine system had 16 shafts. The company operated a large ore processing facility in Lake Linden, Michigan. The first smelter was built in Hancock, Michigan, but in 1887, the company moved its smelting operations to the new facility in Lake Linden. Later, the company built a second smelter in Buffalo, New York, which used cheap electricity from Niagara Falls to refine copper through electrolysis. The Buffalo Smelting Works was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
By 1897, the Red Jacket shaft of Calumet and Hecla reached a depth of 4,900 feet (1,500 meters), making it the deepest mine in the world. The nearby Tamarack mine became the world’s deepest mine for a time, was later bought by Calumet and Hecla, and became part of the Calumet and Hecla system. The Tamarack/Calumet and Hecla mine remained the world’s deepest until about 1915, when the Morro Velho gold mine in Brazil reached a depth of 5,824 feet (1,775 meters).
Copper production from the mines reached its highest point in 1906 at 100 million pounds (45,000 metric tons), then dropped to 67 million pounds (30,000 metric tons) by 1912 due to lower prices. Output fell further to 46 million pounds (21,000 metric tons) in 1913 during a strike, but increased again during World War I to 77 million pounds (35,000 metric tons) in 1917. This increase was partly due to the purchase of the Tamarack Mining Company in 1917. Copper prices dropped sharply after the war, and in 1921, production fell to 15 million pounds (6,800 metric tons) as the company closed the Osceola mine in 1920 and stopped mining the Calumet conglomerate in April 1921.
Copper production rose again in 1922 and continued to grow through the 1920s. Calumet and Hecla expanded by buying and merging with nearby copper mines. In 1923, the company merged with the Ahmeek, Allouez, Osceola, and Centennial mining companies. The combined company was renamed the Calumet and Hecla Consolidated Copper Company. From 1923 through World War II, the company remained the region’s leading copper producer.
The company had always dumped mill waste (called stamp sands locally) into lakes near the mills, but around 1900, it began researching ways to recover copper from the waste. Starting in 1915, Calumet and Hecla began reprocessing stamp sands at Lake Linden using a finer grind and ammonia leaching. After the process became profitable, the Tamarack mill also started reprocessing tailings. By 1949, the company had recovered 535 million pounds (243,000 metric tons) of copper from reprocessed tailings. One of the dredges used, Calumet and Hecla Dredge Number One, is now sunk in shallow water in Torch Lake.
By 1890, most people in the Copper Country lived near Calumet and Hecla in neighborhoods with company-owned housing and stores. This included the villages of Red Jacket and Laurium. Red Jacket had 3,073 residents, while Calumet Township had 12,529.
Labor issues
Historian Larry Lankton wrote that Calumet and Hecla's success brought benefits to workers. This made the company a popular employer, and it usually had access to the best workers. Lankton also noted that the company used methods like "controlling labor relations," "forcing workers," "secret influence," "armed deputies," or "mass firings" when needed.
Calumet and Hecla aimed to create good communities near its mines and mills. They believed better living conditions would help keep workers loyal and productive. Lankton wrote that in an industry known for harsh work, Michigan copper companies treated employees better than most. He said, "They were among the most fair, kind, and caring employers in the American mining industry." Some believed Calumet and Hecla set an example for other mining companies to follow.
In 1868, Calumet and Hecla built the first industrial hospital in the United States. In 1877, the company started an aid fund for sick or injured workers. Participation was voluntary, and each worker gave 50 cents per week, which the company matched. Some writers say Calumet and Hecla was the first American company to create such a fund. Other Michigan copper companies had similar funds, but only Calumet and Hecla matched employee contributions.
The company provided doctors, hospitals, clubhouses with bowling alleys, and libraries with books in 20 languages for workers and their families. It also helped build schools and churches in the community. When selling goods to employees, the company used its power to offer coal, firewood, and electricity at low prices.
Outside the Copper Country, Calumet and Hecla's treatment of workers was praised. A writer for Harper's Magazine visited many mines in 1882 and praised Calumet and Hecla's policies. In 1898, a Michigan official said, "No mining company treats its workers better than Calumet and Hecla." In 1916, the Arizona Bureau of Mines wrote that Calumet and Hecla cared more about workers' welfare than any other mining company in the country.
However, Calumet and Hecla's labor policies, like those of other Copper Country companies, relied heavily on paternalism. Supporters of the company did not deny this and saw it as a form of "enlightened capitalism." Paternalism was most visible in company housing. Calumet and Hecla built hundreds of homes for married workers at low rents. Employees could also build about 1,000 homes on rented company land, but the company could force them to leave quickly. Whether living in company housing or their own homes on rented land, workers depended on the company's favor for housing. This system caused jealousy among workers who did not receive special treatment. Unlike some other companies, Calumet and Hecla did not evict workers during the 1913–1914 strike.
In July 1913, the Western Federation of Miners organized a strike against all mines in the Michigan Copper Country. Strikers blocked mine entrances to stop others from working. All Calumet and Hecla mines closed during the strike, even though workers had mixed opinions about it. The union demanded an 8-hour workday, $3 daily wages, an end to using a one-person drill, and recognition as workers' representatives.
At the time of the strike, Calumet and Hecla paid higher wages than other Copper Country mines but lower wages than Butte, Montana's unionized mines. The company claimed it considered reducing work hours to 8 hours and said lower wages were balanced by cheaper living costs in Michigan compared to Butte.
A US Department of Labor report noted that Calumet and Hecla workers were more satisfied than others, so fewer joined the strike. More Calumet and Hecla workers returned to work after the National Guard arrived to protect strikebreakers.
The mines reopened under National Guard protection, and many workers returned. The companies adopted an 8-hour workday but refused to set a $3 daily wage, keep the one-person drill, or hire union members.
On Christmas Eve 1913, the Western Federation of Miners held a party for strikers and their families at the Italian Benevolent Society hall in Calumet. When someone shouted "fire" (there was no fire), 73 people, mostly children, were crushed trying to escape. This event became known as the Italian Hall Disaster. Lankton wrote that the union became bankrupt and angry after union leaders stopped paying benefits to strikers. In 1914, 2,500 strikers voted to end the strike. The strike officially ended on Easter Sunday, 1914.
Calumet and Hecla workers were not unionized again until 1943, when the company agreed to a contract with the CIO-affiliated International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers.
The end of copper mining
During the Great Depression, the company tried to survive the economic problems by using its saved money to keep producing copper. However, the company had to cut costs, reduce operations, and lower employment from 4,900 in 1928–1929 to 1,300 in 1933. During World War II, employment never went above 2,250. By 1939, operations related to copper extraction had ended, after producing 3.275 billion pounds of copper. During the war, the company sold 25,000 tons of iron and steel from old mining machines.
After World War II, the company started exploring other minerals. In 1947, geologists from Calumet and Hecla drilled into a large deposit of lead and zinc ore in Lafayette County, southern Wisconsin. The ore contained minerals such as galena, sphalerite, calcite, and marcasite. The mine, named the Calumet and Hecla mine, opened in 1949. In 1954, Calumet and Hecla sold the mine to the Eagle-Picher Company.
In 1965, Calumet and Hecla opened the Kingston mine, the first new native copper mine in over 30 years. By 1967, the company operated six mines in the region. However, by this time, the company could not even produce enough copper for its own needs. Universal Oil Products (U.O.P.) bought Calumet and Hecla in April 1968. In August 1968, more than 1,000 employees went on strike. As Lankton notes, "On April 9, 1969, UOP told the strikers their jobs were ending. They had no jobs to wait for, no jobs to return to." The pumps were turned off, and the mine shafts filled with water, while UOP sold off the mining and manufacturing equipment.
Popular culture
Folksinger Woody Guthrie wrote and sang "1913 Massacre," a song about the Italian Hall disaster. His son, Arlo Guthrie, also recorded the song.
Gallery
- Smelting facilities around 1906 in Lake Linden, Michigan
- Mine stamp mills in Lake Linden, Michigan
- Calumet and Hecla stamp mill in Lake Linden, Michigan
- Copper sample from the old mine. Height: 15 centimeters
- Alexander Agassiz (leader of Calumet and Hecla)
- Pneumatic drill (a tool that uses air pressure to drill into rock)