Quincy Mine, Keweenaw National Historic Park, Hancock, Michigan This one small peninsula, in the northern reaches of Michigan, is the primary source of copper that fueled the electrification of the United States, and indeed, the world. Over 14 billion pounds of copper was mined from basalt seams in the earth in multiple mines scattered around this 75 mile wide spit of land that juts into Lake Superior. Native Americans originally found the copper here and, discovering it could be hammered and molded into both tools and pretty ornaments, traded both raw and finished copper as far south as Alabama and north into Canada. Large amounts of it were found and became important parts of the Hopewell culture of Southern Ohio and the Ohio River Valley. The copper was so pure that a 7000 pound boulder of
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