Abandoned Gold & Silver Mine Near Lake Gogebic, Michigan

I suppose if most of us had the time and inclination, we would go deep in the Upper Peninsula woods in search of history...and there is plenty of it. Ghost towns and abandoned mines top the list of U.P. exploration.

This time around, it’s a look at an old gold and silver mine, hidden back in the forest near Lake Gogebic.

Aside from the many undiscovered and abandoned mines are test pits that don’t go very deep. The test pits would usually show if it was worth the effort to keep blasting for gold, silver, or copper. This particular shaft is believed to be from the mid-1880s.

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When coming across an old cave like this, one would think it would have been taken over by a bear or some other wild animal as a den...many times that is not the case. Inside this pit are telltale holes where drilling took place for placing dynamite; blast crevices are also evident of blasting.

The explorers in the video below say this was once called the Galina Mine, with a miners’ camp nearby. In 1887 the mine was acquired by Edward Cops and from then on it was called the Cops Mine.  In 1890 the mine was leased to another company and that is when most information was not forthcoming.

With no exact location to divulge, we can safely say the mine is located near Cops Tower Road.