Tour Options

We offer several options for touring the Quincy Mine Site: Surface Tour only, Surface Tour with Tram Ride, and Full Tour.

All tours include a visit to our museum, a video-tour of the No. 2 Shaft-Rock House and a guided tour of the enormous and complex Nordberg team-powered hoist engine and the building it is in.

On our Full Tour you will ride on our cog-rail tram car down the hill to the mine entrance and then ride by tractor-pulled wagon into the mine, seven levels underground. A ride on our tram car (without going underground into the mine) is an optional addtion to the Surface Tour.

You should allow about an hour for the surface tour and an hour and a half to two hours for the full tour. Here are some of the things you will experience.

No. 2 Shaft House

The No. 2 Shaft (and Rock) House was completed in 1908 and was used until 1931. This part of our tour is self-guided. A video runs continuously in this towering structure and explains the role the shaft and rock house played in mining operations. You will see historical film footage of men riding to work in the man cars. You will see man cars and other equipment that was used when the mine was operating. Man, rock and de-watering cars remain in situ on the shafthouse rails.
Museum

The Museum is located in the 1894 No. 2 Hoist Building. The Museum exhibits include mineralogical exhibits on loan from the Seaman Mineralogical Museum, including a 17-ton solid copper boulder that was raised recently from Lake Superior and a video explaining how the copper deposits in northern Michigan were formed.
Nordberg Steam Hoist

One of our tour guides will take you through the large 1918 hoist building that adjoins the Museum (the 1894 hoist building). Here you will see the Nordberg Steam Hoist, the world's largest steam-powered hoist engine. Completed in 1920, this hoist made it possible for the Quincy Mining Company to extend its No. 2 Shaft 92 levels underground, an inclined distance of nearly two miles. Besides being the world's largest steam-powered hoist, this Nordberg Hoist had some unusual design features which your guide will show you. The building itself is also interesting. It was one of the first very large reinforced concrete buildings ever built. Nearly five stories high, it has no interior supporting columns.

Cog Rail Tram

The Cog Rail Tram car will take you down the steep hill that overlooks the Portage Lake Lift Bridge that joins the cities of Hancock and Houghton. This tramway was built to be able to take you safely down this very steep hill. On the way down the hill, a guide will explain how the car works and why that makes it so safe. The ride is like a slow-motion roller-coaster and the views are spectacular!

Underground in the Quincy Mine

When you get off the cog rail tram your underground guide will drive you through the adit (horizontal mine entrance) nearly one-half mile straight into the side of the hill. The adit is approximately 15 feet high and 15 feet wide. On the way to the No. 5 shaft you will see early mine cars on rails and how they functioned. At the No. 5 shaft you will see the large opening (stope) developed in the late 1850's and into the Civil War, the water filling the lower levels of the mine, demonstrations of manual and pneumatic drilling equipment, and learn of the rigors of work in this immense man-made labyrinth.