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1950 Calumet And Hecla
Consolidated Copper Company |
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Stock Code CHC1950 |
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Certificate dated 2nd November 1950 for 100 shares of capital stock
of $5 each in this Michigan-based copper mining company, which was
incorporated in 1923.
Issued to Hornblower & Weeks, with the
printed signatures of E R Lovell, President and R D Nicholas, Company
Secretary. Ornate brown border with an imprint of the company's
corporate seal. Vignette of three Native Americans by a campfire.
Certificate size is 20 cm
high x 30 cm wide.
About This Company |
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Framed Certificate Price : £70.00
Certificate Only Price : £25.00 |
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About This
Company
The Calumet and Helca Consolidated Copper Company, which
traces its founding to 1864, was the most successful corporation to have
mined native copper on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Through nearly a century
of mining activity, the company produced in excess of 4.5 billion pounds of
refined copper and issued over $200 million in shareholder dividends. Unlike
many of its competitors along the Keweenaw Peninsula, Calumet and Hecla
successfully expanded its operations over several separate mineral bodies,
developed capital-intensive ancillary industrial facilities, explored
diversified non-mining enterprises, and remained a significant mining
corporation at the national and international levels well past the
district's most productive era. Not only did the company control the
workings of the mines, it also exercised control over community development
and the lives of the workers' families. Calumet and Hecla was known,
however, as the fairest and most enlightened employer in the American copper
industry.
Most early Michigan copper mining ventures
exploited fissure and mass deposits of native copper, mainly in Keweenaw and
Ontonagon counties. Exploitation of the larger amygdaloid and conglomerate
deposits, near what are now the communities of Hancock and Calumet, was
delayed due to the larger capital investments required to profitably mine
these lower grade ore bodies, the copper in which was more finely
disseminated throughout the rock. Edwin J. Hulbert identified several
promising properties while surveying a state road through the Calumet area
in the mid-1850s. He proceeded to purchase several tracts of land from the
St. Mary's Mineral Land Company and began to explore the property's mineral
wealth, shipping samples to the East Coast in hopes of attracting investors.
Several Boston-based investors showed interest, and two new mining
companies, the Calumet Mining Company and the Hecla Mining Company, were
organized in September 1864 to mine the promising ore deposits. Through the
purchase of additional lands, the two companies controlled the larger
portion of the Calumet conglomerate, the richest copper ore body in the
district. Hulbert was unable to manage the mine site, however, and the
jointly owned companies sent Alexander Agassiz to replace him in 1866.
Agassiz resolved several problems, and the two companies paid their first
dividends in 1869/1870. Changes in state law made it possible to merge the
two companies in 1870, and the combined company's assets gave it a
commanding position in the industry.
Calumet and Hecla invested tremendous amounts of capital
in its Michigan operations. Underground workings extended for several miles
along the Calumet conglomerate and the Kearsarge amygdaloid, with shaft
houses, rockbreaking facilities, and steam-powered machinery in place at the
surface. Milling facilities, as well as foundries, saw mills, smelting
facilities, and rail and ship transport departments, provided complete
control of the copper-making process. Company employment peaked at over
6,000 in 1917. The company provided houses, farms, parks, bath houses, a
library, and community buildings to its workers, and had significant
involvement with local schools, churches, and municipalities.
Source: www.archives.gov |
