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Along the road (M-26) from Houlton, Michigan to Duluth, Minnesota, there are several communities settled by Finnish immigrants. The first of these is Atlantic Mine, the focus of this category.

Named for the Atlantic Mining Company, which was controlled by the Copper Range Consolidated Company, created in 1872 through a merger of the South Pewabic Mining Company and the Adams Mining Company.

The mine operated until 1906, and the settlement that grew up around it had an opera house, a hospital, and Finnish Lutheran, Catholic, and Methodist churches, largely dependent on the mining industry, which produced six million pounds of copper a year. The Jerome Bezotte Hotel was a gathering place for wealthy businessmen and financiers.

Between 1904 and 1906, a series of fires brought about the closure of the mine. Although mining operations were reopened in 1908, they never regained their former prosperity, as the Baltic and South Range mines had surpassed them.

Finnish immigrants began coming to the area to work in the mines in 1872, although a noticeable settlement didn't come about until the 1880s. Early settlers include Kalle Keiske and his wife, Kaisa Rinkari, Joonas and Valpuri Keranen, Matti and Elsa Maria Kinnunen, and Andrew and Sofia Kallio. When they first arrived, they were employed as woodsmen, clearing the forest away from the mine and village site. They also built the first homes in the area.

It was said of the Finnish communities in Michigan that if there were a general store and two meat markets, there were twice as many saloons. Two of the saloons in Atlantic Mine were owned by Finns, Peter Lahti and Olli Turkki.

The settlement became a village, and a post office was established there on May 8, 1876, with Cornelius D. Murphy as the first postmaster.

In 1911, the lands and personal property of Atlantic Mine were conveyed to the Copper Range Company, which eventually suspended its mining operations, abandoning the mines, although it is estimated that about six million tons of copper remains in the mine.

Atlantic Mine is 3.3 miles southwest of Houghton, along M-26, and northeast of Mill Mine Junction, South Range, and Champion Mine.

As an unincorporated community Atlantic Mine has no clearly defined boundaries, but the settlement area is mostly in northeastern Adams Township, with a portion of it edging into Portage Township. It is on the Keweenaw Peninsula, in the northern Upper Peninsula. Today, it has a population of fewer than a hundred residents, residing in a mixture of newer and older homes.

The focus of this category is on Atlantic Mine, Michigan. Websites featuring the community or any businesses, churches, organizations, attractions, or events within the community are appropriate for this category.

 

 

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