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Transcribed and submitted by Rachel Fuller
for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Western Historical Company, Chicago - 1883
A. T. Andreas, Proprietor

        [342]

                              COPPER FALLS
                              ------------

        Copper Falls is about three miles southwest of Eagle Harbor, and
     adjoins the Ash Bed (Petherick), which together form the settlement.
     There are about sixty houses, two boarding houses and one store at the
     location.
        Death of Seven Miners. - The only serious drawback to mining is the
     unstable character of much of the hanging walls. A great deal of tim-
     bering is required to sustain them, and even then very many of them
     fall, sometimes in great bodies, crushing the timbers and all beneath
     them. One wonders that the workmen do not get killed working beneath
     these ponderous rocks that seem liable to fall at any moment, but they
     do not. When working beneath a roof that gives indications of falling
     it is carefully watched. The men insert wedges in the seams or cracks,
     and observe the progress of loosening which takes place. Besides, when
     about ready to fall, there is generally a preliminary movement and
     slight noise, which men working in danger are quick to observe and
     thus to make their escape. The most lamentable instance of a fall of
     this kind in any of the copper mines, occurred at the Copper Falls in
     1874, when seven men were crushed beneath an extensive fall of the
     roof, and before their bodies could be recovered from the ruins, they
     were so badly eaten by the rats as to be almost unrecognizable. Rats
     infest the copper mines, and they are of great value, acting as
     scavengers - removing all the refuse and filth which, otherwise
     accumulating, would be unendurable.

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