0082 The Cliff

Originally published in 1971, Don Chaput describes the first successful copper mine in Michigan, covering the Cliff's start near Eagle River in 1843, its many ownerships, and the adjacent town of Clifton. With the use of diagrams and illustrations, Chaput gives the reader a good idea of how copper was mined and processed during this time. He ends his part of the book with "the Cliff is dead". In the succeeding section of this book, the Cliff revisited", Sean Gohman, a PhD candidate in Michigan Technological University's Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program, revives the mine. He was the principle researcher in three of the five years of archeological field studies involving the Cliff and its town site, Clifton. Gohman writes of renewed mining activity, including illustrations, maps, and diagrams, while uncovering artifacts to update the Cliff mine story. The author concludes with "The new edition illustrates the idea that the story never really ends".