The Delaware Mine

The Delaware Mine. A Promise of Prosperity Unfulfilled. , The Delaware mine was a failure, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Spurred on by the great success of the nearby Cliff and Central mines, the Northwest Company, the Pennsylvania Mining Company, the Delaware Mining Company, the Conglomerate Mining Company, and others all worked this location during the latter half of the 1800s. They invested heavily in the mine infrastructure and blasted their way to a depth of nearly 1,400 feet. Still they failed. Like the Phoenix mine, the Delaware was a frustrating property. Its native copper fissure veins and conglomerate lodes promised more than they delivered. Mining them cost investors more money than they made., Delaware's population reached 1,150 in the late 1870s. Its mining operations ranked among Keweenaw County's largest and most modern, boasting two hundred or more structures. Today only a few houses remain. Since 1977, Delaware Mine Tours, located amid the mine ruins, has allowed visitors to experience a bit of mining history as they walk into the first level of the mine, 100 feet below ground., Photos courtesy Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, J.T. Reeder Collection., Horace Greeley's Keweenaw Connection , As a rule, there are many easier ways of gaining gold than digging it from the earth... , , Horace Greeley, 1868, Recollections of a Busy Life, Influential newspaper editor Horace Greeley followed his famous advice, "Go west, young man," to Delaware in 1847-48 as an investor in the mine. "An old backwoodsman named Bailey" had discovered a vein of copper and offered Greeley stock in a proposed mining company. Greeley's three-year involvement in the mine included convincing others to invest. Unfortunately for the investors, Bailey's find wasn't at the Cliff or Central locations. Those mines each returned more than $2 million on investments of about $100,000. Greeley fared no better in politics, losing several elections, including the 1872 presidential race against Ulysses S. Grant. Of some consolation, perhaps, nearby Mt. Horace Greeley is named for him.