Passengers, Packages and Copper: The Steamer Pewabic and the Growth of Lake Superior’s Mining Industry

Summary

America’s first mining boom occurred in the 1840s on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Pure copper lay ripe for picking along its shores, but until the construction of Saint Mary’s Canal in 1855, high freight costs kept the region from growing. Keweenaw’s social and economic isolation required a special craft that could profitably facilitate both the passenger and copper industries. “Lake Huron’s Death Ship”, Pewabic, was one propeller that embodied the zeitgeist of post-Civil War Great Lakes. This paper details Pewabic’s various identities afloat and post-wrecking while contextualizing passenger/package propeller’s importance in nineteenth century Great Lakes history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Steamboat Archaeology in North America   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-44,05