MTU Archives/Copper Country Historical Collection

This research subunit of the Van Pelt Library is first and foremost a facility for scholarly research, but it's also a treasure trove for history-minded visitors and researchers of many kinds.
Summer is its busiest season, because of the legions of people with Copper Country roots researching their family histories through immigration records, Polk directories, histories of local communities, newspaper microfilms, employment records of the area's two largest mining companies (Quincy, Calumet & Hecla), and more.

Property owners enjoy tracking down information about their places and photos of the vicinity. Also of special interest is the map collection. Railroad history is another attraction for amateur historians. As the official repository for state archives of the western Upper Peninsula, the Archives also houses occasional official records donated from a much wider area.

The Archives has created two remarkable online resources to serve distant users and to reduce some of the wear and tear on the collections. The "Keweenaw Digital Archives," a searchable web-based image server, includes over 9,000 images from the archives, with more in the future. It's at digarch.lib.mtu.edu. Photographs or digital files can be ordered from historic photos, both from the online archive and from the entire collection, for a reasonable cost (with some use restrictions).

Secondly, "An Interior Ellis Island" is a fascinating, rather detailed look at immigrants and ethnicity in Michigan's Copper Country, with multi-page essays and some photos about the Chinese, Cornish, Croatians, Finns, French-Canadians, Germans, Irish, Italians, Native Americans, Poles, and Slovenes (ethnicity.lib.mtu.edu).
Before visiting the actual Archives, it's best to read online about "using the archives" to make the most of your visit.

Visit the online guide to the collections at www.lib.mtu.edu , then choose "archives."

On the Archives site, "about the collections" includes descriptive essays on subjects such as a short, clear history of the Quincy Mining Company, for instance, and a description of the lives and diaries of Daniel Brockway and his wife, true pioneers of the Keweenaw. The "online exhibits" include an interesting article on the Bosch Brewing Company of Lake Linden. (—2010)

From U.S. 41, look for the two-story glass bay window of the new addition to the Van Pelt Library in the center of campus. Metered parking is between the library and the highway, also by the MUB student union. Free summer parking by the Rozsa Center at east edge of campus. The library entrance faces the pedestrian campus, not the parking. (906) 487-2505. Hours: Mon-Fri 10-5, (10-4 on Fridays in summer). Please call to confirm hours. Wheelchair accessible.

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