Keweenaw National Historical Park

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Calumet, MI
Keweenaw National Historical Park

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Calumet Visitor Center
Fall Hours: Open Daily 10am-2pm
Oct 4-Dec 21, 2026. Unlike many parks, however, the U.S. Admissions and hours may vary.

Keweenaw National Historical Park was established to preserve and interpret the story of the rise, domination and decline of the region’s copper mining industry. Congress legislated that the National Park Service and the park's advisory commission partner with sites owned and operated by state and local governments, private businesses and nonprofit organizations to achieve this goal. The Keweenaw Heritage Sites program, administered by the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission, is one aspect of this partnership. Keweenaw Heritage Sites contain significant cultural and/or natural resources and make a unique contribution to the copper mining story. Embodying stories of hardship, ingenuity, struggle and success, each site allows you to explore the role mining played in people’s lives here and afar. Heritage sites operate independently of the National Park Service. Sites stretch along the length of the Keweenaw Peninsula, from Copper Harbor to south of Ontonagon. Calumet Visitor Center at the Union Building
Visitors spend anywhere from a half hour to several hours touring the facility. On display are over two hundred artifacts and objects, many on loan from local heritage organizations like the Houghton County Historical Society and the Finnish American Heritage Center. There are also hundreds of photographs to be viewed throughout the exhibits, courtesy of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections and the photo collection of Keweenaw National Historical Park. There is also a visitor information desk where park rangers will answer questions and provide further insight into the exhibits. Location: Calumet, Michigan
Parking: On both sides of Red Jacket Road, which is located on the South side of the Visitor Center. There is also accessible parking in the public parking lot behind the Visitor Center on 4th Street. The Calumet Visitor Center schedule can be found on our website: https://www.nps.gov/kewe/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Heritage Site Information:
http://www.keweenawheritagesites.com/

11/10/2026

Join in the fun throughout Calumet and Laurium this Thursday, November 12 as Main Street Calumet hosts Ladies’ Day Out! The Calumet Visitor Center and Isle Royale & Keweenaw Parks Association bookstore at 98 5th St. will be open for this event. Stop in from 10 am to 6 pm, warm up, and step into the past as you explore historic downtown Calumet!

11/06/2026

Looking for an internship? We're hiring!

The park's next Community Volunteer Ambassador (CVA) will work with park staff and partners to promote best practices in volunteerism across the Keweenaw Peninsula.
This Americorps position includes a weekly stipend with additional benefits. The 50-week internship is open to applicants under 30 and veterans under 35 years of age.

Help guide Keweenaw volunteerism into the future. Applications will be open until the position is filled – apply today! https://www.cvainternships.org/midwestregion

10/30/2026

Foggy Autumn days and nights add a haunting chill to historic company houses, playhouses, houses of worship, shaft/rockhouses...

"All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Haunted Houses"

Does a Keweenaw historic site glide through your waking thoughts on soundless feet? Wishing you a safe and spooky Halloween weekend from all of your favorite Copper Country haunts!

NPS photo.

10/26/2026

News Release

Keweenaw Heritage Grants Applications Open

CALUMET, Mich. — The Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission is accepting applications for the 2027 Keweenaw Heritage Grant Program, which provides funding to local partners for projects that preserve and share the rich natural, cultural and industrial heritage of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Eligible projects may include historic preservation, history and archeology, interpretation and education, museum collections and program sustainability initiatives.

Applicants must be a designated Keweenaw Heritage Site organization, a nonprofit organization, a local or regional government, an academic institution or a federally recognized Indian tribe. Proposed projects must be located within the legislated boundaries of Keweenaw National Historical Park, affiliated with a Keweenaw Heritage Site or located at the Cliff Mine, Torch Lake or within the community of Painesdale.

The grant program is expected to provide at least $115,000 in funding to support eligible projects. Individual grants will range from $1,000 to $15,000 and require a one-to-one match. Organizations may submit up to two applications but must rank them in order of priority at the time of submission. Funding decisions will be based on application quality, available funds and a desire to achieve a balanced distribution of grants across project types and geographic areas.

Grant applications are due by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, 2027. Application materials, eligibility requirements and program information are available at
https://go.nps.gov/HeritageGrant or by contacting the Advisory Commission directly. Applicants are encouraged to consult with NPS staff project development and the application process. Applications will be reviewed by a panel of Advisory Commission members and NPS staff. Grant awards will be announced by April 21, 2027, with funding expected to be available to successful applicants by May 7, 2027.

10/22/2026

Play ball! Even the hockey-loving folks of the Keweenaw couldn’t resist the draw of a new national phenomenon: baseball. With the World Series starting tomorrow, it seems fitting to shine a spotlight on one of the Keweenaw’s many historic teams.

Pictured here is the 1915 Tamarack Mining Company baseball team, a team comprised of workers from the company bearing the same name. This team competed in the Copper Country League, presumably against other company teams.

At the turn of the 19th century, baseball soared in popularity for both players and fans. For players, it was an engaging game that helped fill up new-found leisure time. For fans, it was an exciting community gathering that fostered teamwork, fun, and relationship building. Many current professional sports teams and leagues can trace their roots back to company teams. Athletic events were seen as productive hobbies for workers, and participation was encouraged by workplace managers. The managers enjoyed the surplus of team spirit, no doubt!

Image via the David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan Library Digital Collections.

10/16/2026

What story does this photograph tell?

During the peak copper-mining years, people immigrated to the Keweenaw from many different countries. Their food, recipes, and traditions became an important part of the area’s history and diversity.

To celebrate World Food Day today, think about your favorite food tradition. Was a family recipe brought from another country and adapted using locally available ingredients? Did neighbors blend traditions by sharing recipes from their homelands? How were those recipes passed down to future generations?

Even when we don’t know every detail, food can help us uncover the stories and influences that shape our personal and community history.

What is your favorite food tradition and what is its history?

NPS photo

10/15/2026

NEWS RELEASE

Public Invited to Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission Meeting

CALUMET, Mich. — The National Park Service invites the public to attend the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission quarterly meeting at 1 p.m. on Oct. 20 at Keweenaw National Historical Park, 25970 Red Jacket Road in Calumet, to provide updates on park initiatives and discuss upcoming projects.

Commission members and National Park Service staff will provide updates on activities from the past quarter and discuss plans for the fall and winter. Members of the public will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments.

Established by Congress in 1992, the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission advises and assists the National Park Service in managing park resources. Citizen members appointed by the secretary of the interior help support the preservation and interpretation of resources that tell the story of copper mining on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.

For more information about these meetings, visit Keweenaw National Historical Park’s website at https://www.nps.gov/kewe/learn/management/meeting-minutes.htm.

10/15/2026

As autumn winds blow, we remember Douglass Houghton, Michigan’s first state geologist. His fieldwork in the Keweenaw Peninsula helped spark Michigan’s industrial copper-mining era. Although Houghton died this week in 1845, aged just 36 when a storm struck Lake Superior during a voyage, his geological insights continue to resonate.

In an 1840 letter published in the Daily National Intelligencer, Houghton wrote that copper ores along Lake Superior’s south shore were abundant enough to provide “an abundant supply of the metal”—while cautioning that extracting and smelting them would require significant labor and investment.

His words captured both the promise and the challenges of Michigan’s copper country.

Painting: University of Michigan, Douglass Houghton Scholars Program.
Newspaper clipping: , Daily National Intelligencer. (Washington, DC), Jan. 19 1841.

10/08/2026

Can you imagine a magma sea that could swallow the Empire State Building?

At over 1,000 feet thick, the Greenstone Flow is one of Earth’s largest lava flows. It can be seen in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. 1.1 billion years ago, lava oozed onto the surface so thickly that it took hundreds of years or more to solidify. Today, if you drive north on US-41 past Mohawk, MI you can see this formation as a bluff on your left side. Notably, the Cliff Mine, the first Keweenaw copper mine to pay dividends to its investors, was developed on a vein that ran through the Greenstone Flow.

NPS photos.

10/04/2026

This , let’s honor some of the hardest-working "miners" in Keweenaw history: the horses and mules.

During the peak of the copper boom, thousands of animals worked tirelessly above and below ground. While teams on the surface pulled massive wagons and powered horse whims to hoist ore, others spent their lives deep inside the earth.

In some mines, mules were the backbone of underground "tramming"—pulling heavy, rock-filled cars along rail tracks to the shafts. Because hoisting animals up and down was a dangerous, time-consuming task, many of these underground mules lived in subterranean stables, remaining underground for years at a time. They slept, ate, and worked in near-total darkness, guided only by the dim flicker of miners' lamps.

The next time you stand above an old shaft or walk the trails of the Keweenaw copper district, remember the immense workload of the four-legged workers who helped build this industrial landscape.

NPS images.

Address

Calumet Visitor Center, 98 Fifth Street
Calumet, MI
49913

Telephone

+19063373168

Website

http://www.nps.gov/kewe

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