About

The Copper Range Company, which was established in 1899, operated copper mines in Houghton and Ontonagon Counties. It merged with the Louisiana Land and Exploration Company in 1977. The collection contains records concerning a number of mines and mills owned by the Copper Range Company, but most of the records in this collection document the Champion Mine in Painesdale, Michigan, which was run by the Champion Copper Company, a subsidiary of the Copper Range Mining Company. The Champion Mine operated from 1899 to 1967.

The original physical collection is jointly maintained by Painesdale Mine and Shaft, the Copper Range Historical Society, and Adams Township. The collection includes blueprints and diagrams of the mines themselves as well as structures built by the company and machines used in the mines, ledgers documenting the output of Champion Mine and the number of drill bits sharpened by employees, labor tally sheets showing how many hours individual employees worked, workman's compensation records that record fatality and injury claims against the Copper Range Company for 1921, financial records including invoices, payroll records, paychecks, overtime logs, and paycheck deductions for Champion Mine, Champion Mill, and the Copper Range Company, product guides for pipes and casings, and a history of the Copper Range Company, "Half a Century on the South Range," written in 1954 by Harry T. Mercer, who was the oldest employee of the Copper Range Company at the time.

For more information on the Copper Range Company's history, see this incredibly detailed history from the Michigan Tech Archives.

Many of the maps and plans were created by the Nordberg Manufacturing Company. For more information about the company, see this article by Erik Nordberg.

See the full finding aid here.