Meet the Toxic Sand Vacuum | Torch Lake, Michigan 

My wife's grandfather operated that dredge. He also ran a boat that had a air pump hooked to a diver who cleaned the intake pipe at Calumet water works.

As a Michigander and former MTU student, it makes me happy seeing The Dredge again. Its a haunt for many students and while not the safest, was always an interesting climb. While the environmental impact may not be the best and the situation is definitely complicated, it definitely has a communal aspect to it for at minimum a lot of students of the area.

Not the Michigan Torch Lake I was expecting when I clicked on the video, but the story completely tracks for that part of Michigan! Well worth the watch!

A couple small corrections, courtesy of the good folks of the Keweenaw! - Pronunciation correction: I misread "Hecla" as "Helca" just about every time I looked at the word, so I transposed two of the letters. - At 4:51, the reclamation plan ruins are... well, clear in the opposite direction that I'm gesturing. The map I used could have been better! Thanks to everyone who helps keep me as accurate as possible! Being able to hire a fact-checker is high on my goals list.

Wow! I live in Houghton, a five minute drive south from there and it is downright trippy that somebody mentioned the Keweenaw, no less my neighborhood! It's great to hear somebody talking about the rich history of the Copper Country.

I'm blown away you don't have more subscribers. You have an amazing personality, and have a great story telling voice. Glad I stumbled upon this video.

Alexis, My grandfather worked for Quick from 1907 to ~1963 when he retired. Visiting him was a thrill because he was a wealth of information, and shared with me a lot of info at my very young age until he had a stroke. He had a number good friends who work there before mining operations stopped, they would drop in after he passed in 1972. I learned a lot from them about the processes and one of them arranged for me to talk to people at the Quincy office in town where i was handed a bunch of boxes of material relating to the mining operation. While I learned as much as I could, life got in the way of continuing any research and MTU had received most of the Information from Quincy. One of the things I learned about was the use of a few chemicals in metal recovery, one of them was mercury (I don't remember how it was used) but the waste was dumped in Torch Lake and the Canal. I remember visiting where they had large pans that would be heated with tailings and stamp sand in them using mercury mixed in with other chemicals (this was shut down by the time I saw it). Another was Arsenic which was used in a slurry made of tailings in drums which after recovery of copper the used mixture was also dumped into the lakes. So you know, they knew exactly how the process you describe worked. It was figured out before the recovery started, there were a number of chemists who worked on reclamation of copper and silver (a lot of silver came out of the mines up there) and recovery was talked about in the journals before 1905.

I found my way here from Tom Scott's newsletter. I'm glad I did. I lived in the lower peninsula of Michigan growing up and had no idea how the copper mining up north worked. Thank you for helping me learn more!

Hi Alexa. I am a metallurgist in the Great Lakes region. This video significantly increased my understanding of the local Superfund challenges and of hydrometallurgy overall. Thank you!

Wow! I never knew Michigan had two Torch Lakes. I spent summers at Torch Lake in Bellaire, in the norther lower peninsula. This is a neat surprise and piece of trivia I can share with my family in the Les Chenaux Islands in the U.P. I bet they too, know little to nothing about this Torch Lake. Thanks for the video.

I’ve explored this thing more times than I can remember, never knew about the copper flotation and reclamation. Thanks for doing all of this research and putting together such wonderful videos! I am incredibly thankful to finally learn about so many of the things that have been in my life for so long. Also your animations were absolutely impeccable :D

I'm from NE MN and drove past the dredge while visiting a friend in Eagle Harbor last summer. Like the UP, northeastern Minnesota has gone through several changes, first mining high grade iron ore until it was depleted. We then began mining lower and lower grades of ore. We too use ball and rod mills to liberate the ore from the ore-bearing rock. Your presentation was lively, fact-packed, and fun. Thanks so much for sharing your time, talents and enthusiasm.

RU-vid recommended me this, and it was such a well-made, interesting video! I'm gonna watch all of your others and subscribe, thanks for doing what you do!

Thats another amazing story about your UP copper mining history. Back in the 1980's my father worked on a more modern dedge. They were stationed on the Mississippi River, and usually worked on sediment removal in private harbors, but sometimes worked in conjunction with the US ARMY Core of Engineers, to remove sediment in the main river channel to help with the "Tow Boat" traffic.

So crazy to see someone talk about something I live less than 10 miles away from! If you ever end up visiting again, consider a video on the 1913 Miner's strike, which includes a disaster that Woodie Guthrie wrote a song about, called "1913 Massacre".

If you really want to dig into the history of the Keweenaw and copper mining. read "From Cradle to Grave" by Larry Lankton. It covers the social and industrial life in the district. It's one of my favorite books and a pleasurable read. Amazon has it. I'm just an average history nerd.

Another example of why you are rapidly moving up to be one of my favorite RU-vidrs. Really interesting subjects, solid research, great presentation skills, bubbly enthusiasm, and such a beautiful smile!

I'm so glad I found another channel like this. Will definitely binge watch your older videos later.

Lived in Hubble as a kid, my dad works in the Quincy Copper mine until it closed. We then moved to Ontonagon where I later worked in the White Pine Copper Mine until it closed. Many families followed the mines over the years as they one by one shut down.

Mining engineer here. Nice job on the video. By the early 1900s, with copper flotation it was pretty easy to get 80% or more recovery of the copper so the dredging and reprocessing of the stamp sands would have been economically viable and ecologically beneficial. Your presentation of flotation was particularly good. We need people with your skills in our industry.

My Dad took us to Torch Lake on a few occasions as road trips as kids when visiting my Grandmother who lived in Laurium. He took us to many lakes with Lac la Belle and Bete Grise being his favorite.

LP Torch Lake is known as the Caribbean of Michigan due to it's crystal clear waters, what a difference between the two torch lakes!

to clarify my comment, the mining company mentioned was Calumet and “HEC-la,” not “HEL-ca.” Also “Torch Lake, Michigan” is a town in lower Michigan. Torch Lake in this video is simply a lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan bordered by several small towns.

So someone became rich and left the mess for us to cleanup. So rich that there grandchildren's children are still reaping the benefit. And we get the bill.

Just discovered this channel, and want to say that you've definitely earned a subscription from me. One of my favorite RU-vidrs is Tom Scott, as he educates on really random things that you would never know about unless for his videos. I feel like you'll be another source of random interesting information for me, and I hope millions of other people like and subscribe because of it.

I'm glad this was in a newsletter... I enjoy stuff on history, old engineering and waterways so this video was just right and entertaining too.

We drove past that site on our way to Copper Hopper but didn’t think to stop. Now that I know the history, we’ll definitely need to stop for a picture next time. Thank you!

This is why corporations should be required to clean up their mess.

I was really impressed by this video. A great example of how skill can elevate a video. Presentation and energy was great. The informative visual aid was simplistic and effective. Maybe the best was the editing. I feel it was perfect. Bravo, and well done.

This is incredible. Thank you....and yeah, it's HECK-la. But this is just so fascinating! WOW!

I went to MTU for a couple years in the early 90's. It was really cool to watch this. Thank you!

25 years ago, it was possible to go inside the dredge and look around. Not particularly safe (or legal) to do so then, but it was really cool to look at. When the EPA superfund restoration work took place to stabilize the stamp sand and minimize further runoff into Torch Lake, fencing was put up that closed off access to it. I would love to see KNHP attempt to preserve it as it helps tell the story of the mining operations there.

In 1972 I lived in Hubbell at the corner of Guck and Duncan . We were on the dredge numerous times and in the many mining buildings in the area. It’s to bad all the railroads and buildings were destroyed, it could have been a fantastic museum . The dredge had recently sunk and inside was a roll top desk with a logbook and paperwork. There was also tools and clothing , like workers went home for the day and never came back. I still have one of the rubber coated iron balls from the ball mill !

So exciting! Both my uncle and my father worked in the Quincy reclamation plant. My uncle lived in one of the tiny company houses there, with his wife and 3 children. My father only worked there for a brief time, somewhere around maybe 1963 or so. He brought me to work one day and gave me a tour of the place and told me how it worked, and you were right-on! He showed me the ball mills (and the big iron balls that did the crushing). He told me about the pine oil (the entire building smelled of it) and the flotation tanks. There were also huge shaker tables, as I recall. I love those dredges (I say "those" because I remember when both of them were visible). I see it as history, not junk. I guess everything goes through a junk phase before it becomes history if manages to survive. BTW, you will also find dredges like those up in Alaska.

Apparently there are TWO (2) "Torch Lakes" in Michigan. One in the Upper Peninsula (UP) & one in the Lower Peninsula (LP) in Antrim County near Traverse City. (Nearest Towns are Kewadin & Elk Rapids). The one in question here is the one in the UP.

I've climbed all over and inside the Quincy Dredge numerous times as I was a student at Michigan Technological University which is nearby and that's what many Tech students did and likely still do. In fact one year, my entire fraternity sat on the snorkel and got our picture taken. I'm glad it's not been cut up for scrap because it's really interesting to drive by (it's visible from the road) and see it's listing sunken hulk sitting there.

What a great video, taking a random topic like copper mining and making it sound so interesting, people often either dumb down the topic to its basics or make it way too hard to understand, you have the perfect mixture of making an informative video that anyone can understand and keeping it fun and engaging with your editing and cool graphics, really glad Tom Scott recommended it, can't wait to see more :)

Might be interesting to do a video on the petroglyphs off of Mandan road. Not much is known about them or their authenticity, but either way they are neat.

duuude you sound like you could totally be a host for educational media! something like scishow or something. your presentation is really good!

"... as he stomped through the mud. But Paul Bunyan had a hole in his pocket, and his pennies fell out and into the puddles left in his bootprints. Babe, his blue ox, following along behind, ground the pennies into tiny pieces with his hooves. And that's how these lakes became EPA Superfund sites."

Oh wow, I just realized that when I was a kid, my dad (who had been a coal miner in the late 30's in West Virginia) took me to the Quincey Mine- I just looked and they still give tours of the mine.

Even though is dangerous, I feel almost an urge to climb on it and explore around hahaha xD

Today copper is over $4.00 a pound, is there any stamp sand left in that lake?

I lived in Lake Linden in my twenties, even though I’m a troll 😅, and drove by that dredge every single day for a few years without knowing its story. I also never set foot on torch lake because of its reputation for being filthy and polluted. I love it up there so much and it makes me so sad when I’m up there seeing the mess that mining left behind! Thanks for sharing the story!

I've driven past that monstrosity so many times delivering gas and fuel to Lake Linden and have always wondered what it was used for, you did a terrific job of explaining this thing

My girlfriend and I visit this from grand haven Michigan last summer. We went inside and climbed around inside for a while. Very interesting town. Thanks for this information.

Interesting video! That is an old placer (pronounced "PLA-cer" with a short "a") gold dredge repurposed to copper tailings recovery. Ball mills and copper-flotation circuits are still used world-wide to process low-grade copper ores. I imagine there is still quite a bit of copper left in the lake sand that could be recovered and repurposed. The ultimate sustainable recycling project you might say!

One thing about mother nature, it always tends to heal itself. The time of man is a short time in the time of earth.

Interesting video as always. Just so you know the pine oil copper flotation process is still in use here in Arizona (copper capital of the US) and you can see it (and smell it) at work at the Mission open pit mine tour south of Tucson.

A really fast and easy way to date large old equipment like this, even at a distance, is to look at the connections. Welding wasn't invented until WW2, so everything from that point on was welded construction, but before that, it was all flatiron and rivets. that's why it's so heavily skeletonized. they had to allow for more flex and connections were not as secure, so that's how they kept the weight down. It's a really useful thing to remember, because sometimes you'll just be driving around and see some power transmission towers, or a random tank, and it's riveted construction, so you instantly know it's at least 80 years old

I used to ride bicycle in that area, 60s, early 70s, before fences, EPAs. Lots of great explore. You, are ExploreodoraExtraOrdinaire, and have been Detectifying up a storm! Bravo!

Alexis, just love your enthusiasm about your discoveries. You make your videos so entertaining. Being a nurd myself about history, your presentation keeps me watching. Your day trips around Tourch Lake is something I used to do all over the state, just to discover anything of the past. Keep up your Great work. You should look into the Clinton River by Yates Cidar Mill. Lots to discover. We used to skinny dip in the river back in the early 60's. OldManDan

Should checkout all the old foundations and cemetery on Cliff Drive in Keweenaw County. Eerie as can be

I go to Houghton twice a year for work. I can’t wait to check this out!

I was just recommended to check out your channel and am so happy with what I have found, it looks like you have done really great work and I can't wait to watch this channel take off!

Ms. Dahl, my mom is from Dearborn, she's never told me anything about MIchigan. Your my tutor and teacher about MIchigan, so I trust you not to steer me too far wrong. You seem to be a delightful and intelligent young Woman, and if I was learning about a State, of my heritage I would be charmed with you as a teacher. So I'll be looking forward to seeing your videos, and what I can learn of them. 😊🎉😊🎉

Just to clear up confusion, there is a torch lake in the lower peninsula of Michigan in addition to the torch lake in the upper peninsula.

I live in the area and see that dredge every day. I always wondered how those things actually work. Never thought I'd see a YT vid on it!

The area behind you at 4:51 contains two stamp mill buildings, a coal dock and coal silo, a boiler building (no longer standing) and a smoke stack. The reclamation plant was behind Mason just across from Forseman rd.

This reminds me a lot of Britannia Creek near my home city of Vancouver, B.C. The area was mined for copper from 1888 until 1974 when Britannia Mine, in it's heyday the biggest copper producer in the British Empire, shut down and was abandoned. Rainwater was caught the open pit at the top of the mountain and flowed through roughly 80 kilometers of tunnels, where it mixed with the copper sulfate in the rocks, became highly acidic, leached heavy metals out of the rocks, and flowed directly into Britannia Creek. Before it was cleaned up in the early 2000's, Britannia Creek was considered the most polluted waterway in the entire Western Hemisphere, with a PH level of 3.5 (nearly that of vinegar) and an estimated 450 kilograms (roughly a thousand pounds) of copper was flowing into Howe Sound (the bay the creek drains into) daily. In the 90's, Howe Sound was a complete ecological dead zone, with crystal clear water. When the Department of Fisheries and Oceans put chum salmon in cages off the coast in the early 90's, all died within 48 hours, as opposed to a 100% survival rate in the control group in the next bay over. Thankfully due to a herculean effort by the Canadian Ministry of the Environment, acid mine runoff into Howe Sound has been reduced by 99% as of last year due to the installation of plugs in all low-level tunnel portals and a truely monsterous water purification plant that the water of Britannia Creek is filtered through prior to release into the Sound.

Very well done video, glad I found your channel. Will definitely sub for more cool content! (I also love the paintings you have behind you)

"flotation" remains one of the most economical and used separation technologies in the mining industry today. From coal cleaning plants to metal recovery operations which include lithium, when the "specific gravity" of the sought substance can be recognized, it can be floated in solutions or even in water agitated to assume a specific gravity of something other than 1.0. For example, Coal wash plants are generally operated at specific gravities from 1.55 to 1.65.

As a Lower peninsula resident I found this to be really interesting, well done! You should do more videos like this, stick with Michigan or beyond, I'd watch them. ☺👍

It's pronounced Calumet (you got that right) and Hecla (Heck - la).

"When I hear Copper cry, there be ARSENIC nearby!"

The U.P. of Michigan has an endless variety of places to explore, and you can easily see two of the Great Lakes in the span of about an hour. What's incredible to consider, is the documentation that people were mining Copper there, before the time of Christ!

I’m in Chicago and really want to road trip to Keweenaw

I put this on my “must see” list on my trip to the Keewanaw in early May based on this video. I’ve learned and explored so much about that area based on your awesome videos. Can’t wait to go back and explore more stuff!

This was great. I think I may become addicted to this channel

I live like 10miles down the road and have climbed on that dredge so many times

Michigan has two lakes named Torch Lake. This one and a larger one in the lower peninsula near Grand Traverse Bay.

Great video. Good job with the history. Nice to see more RU-vid members taking interest in things connected to our numerous bodies of water in my home state of Michigan.

I've all my life been over every inch of Torch..never saw a dredge or even heard of such a thing..Torch has always had pristine bottom and water.. My grandparents never mentioned it either

That machine looked like a blender 3d modeled artwork in a way that I can't explain, and the emotion it induces is closest to nostalgia, even though I only took up 3d modeling around November last year.

I driven by that a few dozen times when I've been up there. Thanks for the info.

Great video! I frequently find myself researching old and or abandoned industrial sites which mostly confuses other people. It was really great to see you dig into all the details!

My daughter lives just a few miles from Torch Lake, I have been there many times. I have seen the dredge up close as I once was involved in gold panning and dredging. I never knew the history of this drudge and found this video very interesting. I purchased my 1926 Model T and my wife's 1929 Franklin in Mason, a town on its southern end.

My family and I have vacationed in the upper peninsula of Michigan since before I was born. I'm 71 now, so I've seen some of this stuff in action and in decay over the years. Your vLog is the best, simplest explanation of this process I've ever heard. Thanks for such a concise, on site explanation. A couple of years after the dredge was abandoned we were able access it and go into it while snowmobiling. Because of the angle it sits at it was like being in an amusement park fun house.

ive never seen someone so entergetic about a dredge

Girl!!! Thank you for being interested in history that is still being created .... daily! ❣💝❣👍👍👍👍

Very nice to randomly stumble across you making history videos about the UP, visit the Keeweenaw every year, I've climbed on this dredge

Great video! Love the energy, and your editing is excellent. And as an Ohioan, it's wonderful to discover a channel like this that focuses on science and history in the midwest.

I remember swimming in Torch lake in 1983. Only to see a Time magazine article about Sauger fish with cancerous tumors. Oh well, I guess we survived....

I can't believe how interesting this turned out to be, great presentation. Very educational. I like your style.

Had watched the video on Keweenaw copper/largest lava flow and subscribed as it was so interesting and well done. Just watched this video, and loved how the two vidoes correlate. Great job!

Very cool video. I find it kind of funny how the EPA came here and had to cover all the stamp sand (or cancer sand as I call it) because it could make people sick, yet the two County Road Commissions throw it all over in the winter. I was happy when the Dollar Bay site ran out of usable sand and instead of using a form of screened sand they moved to the Gay Sands and continue to use it. Calumet and Ripley garages order 5000 yards each for each winter. Also, as a side note, my grandfather worked on the dredge that sank in the middle of the canal. My aunt has a newspaper clipping about that dredge the day it sank and it has a picture of my grandpa "at the controls" in the article.

That picture of miners at 3:34 is priceless. You can see the boss carries a watch and nice hat. You can see there is some drama. A couple guys don't really want to sit beside each other. I find this picture awesome. I'm starting to think that curiosity is a huge part of problem solving and intelligence. I believe you have that "curiosity" bug.

Got bumped here from Tom Scott's weekly email. I love this type of video. Super informative, not trying to be a bit part, and a bit of history I wouldn't have learned otherwise. You definitely earned this sub.

I had no idea there was more than one Torch Lake in Michigan. I knew about the Torch Lake in Antrim County, but I had no clue about the Torch Lake on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Putting that fascinating tidbit aside, learning a little about the copper mining industry in my home state was very interesting.

Thanks for Tom Scott for mentioning your video!! Love how you communicate!! Looking forward to watch more science!!!

My father Glenn Sr. work in the Quincy Mine when he was a teenager.

And in 2023 you're filming this with a cellphone / camera that has a battery with 80% cobalt. Do a video on cobalt mining pumpkin

The U.P. has so many cool abandoned places like this, King Lake campground for the longest time had an abandoned train that stretched for miles around the forest, I think it has finally been removed though

Perfect video! Thanks Tom Scott, for the recommendation!

So simple and elegant you say you don't have a clue

Thank you for explaining it in a way that describes the process and the history behind it yet doesn’t shame us all for the wrongs of our ancestors. It’s important to know why things were the way they were so we can keep the good ways and discard the bad.

That creepy rolling fog in the opening shot is so perfect. Or did you set off a smoke bomb many yards away??

Great job telling the story of the dredge cipper mining in the midwest...we had bucket dredging in the west....never heard of or saw large commercial suction dredging...thank you. Shoe in SW Oregon.

Great story. Interesting that torch lake is still one of the clearest lakes around. I am not sure but I don't think the iron structure hurts anything other than being an eyesore.

I been moving back to Houghton Michigan in the summer