Mine: Amygdaloid Mine, Delaware, MI

Connecticut Mine → Amygdaloid Mine → Became

Operated for 18 years.

From: 1860

Owned by: 

Produced: Copper Ore

Method: Underground shafts (6)

Railroad connection:

Stamp Mill/Smelter:

Until: 1878.

Lifetime Production: 1,541,180 pounds.

Notes

The Amygdaloid Mining Company worked six shafts on three fissure veins that included the Drexel and Connecticut mines. The company opened in 1860 and early returns looked favorable for copper and silver. In June 1862, a major fire destroyed almost all of the surface buildings. By June 1863, the mine site was rebuilt and produced around 110,000 pounds of copper. An 1865 Company Report mentions that around 3,600 tons of stamp rock was present and that three shafts (Denckla, Womrath, and Haddock) were being worked. Drifting was conducted on the Drexel and Oliver veins, and five winzes were sunk. While much work was conducted, very little copper was produced. By 1874, the company stopped mining and handed the workings over to tributers who worked the mines for another four years before leaving in 1878. Total copper production was recorded at 1,541,180 pounds. [MINDAT]

Time Line

1860. This mine, formally known as the Connecticut, is now in the charge of its new Superintendent Mr. Davis, late of the Toltec mine. {DFP-1860-0828]

1860. The engine house of the Amygdaloid mine caught fire a few days since, in some way unknown, and burned down but they managed to protect the engine from material damage, and it was again in operation when our informant left Monday. [Ontonagon Miner-DFP-1860-1005]

1860. The stamp mill is being overhauled preparatory to working this fall or winter. One battery of Gates' patent stamps are to be put up on trial in connection with the old Cornish stamps. [DFP-1860-1009]

1860. November. The Amygdaloid mine force numbers about 60 men, of which 28 are miners. The lode is producing well at various points where it is being mined, and when the new stamping machinery - the last of which left here on the Illinois during the present week - shall go into operation the mine will be in proper shape for rapid development. [DFP-1860-1114]

1863. A new engine and shart-house, with a copper-house adjacent thereto, calculated to facilitate the hoisting and handling of mineral from the eastern or old Connecticut vein, are of recent construction and add much to the real as well as apparent value of the mine plant. The railway thence to the stamp mill, some 800 feet long, works admirably, with the gradation being such that loaded car down hauls the empty one up, with ease and celerity. The full capacity is, we believe, about 10 tons of rock per hour, the amount required by the mill being some 80 tons were day. Many of the dwellings are new, and were erected for convenience rather than show. [DFP-1863-0324]

1863. June. In Keweenaw county, we regret to learn that the destruction of property by fire has been very great. The wind drove the fire from the woods into the village at the Amygdaloid mine, and the stamp mill, saw mill, railroad and some twenty-five other buildings were burned. The houses were mostly occupied by miners and so rapidly did the fire come upon them, many families lost nearly everything that they had. The loss of the stamp mill at the Amygdaloid must fall heavily upon that company. The mill, we learn, was insured. [Ontonagon Miner/DFP-1863-0629]

1863. October. The ties and stringers for 2,200 feet of railway for the transportation of rock for the new stamp mill were taken from the woods, the road-bed leveled, ties and sleepers laid, the rails spiked down, and the road running in hour days from its commencement. The stone walls of their stamp mill, 100' x 140' - 14 feet high on the south side and 22 feet on the north, with a stone boi8ler house 34' x 40' are nearing completion. The first ground for the foundations was broken the last day of July. [DFP-1863-1006]