Download or read book Copper Country Explorer Field Guide No. 8 written by Michael Forgrave and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-04 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the Copper Empire flourished north of the Portage Valley the lands to the south continued to remain wild and remote, largely untouched by the hand of man. That would all change in 1897 with the discovery of one of the region's most productive lodes - the Baltic. Atop its copper-rich bounty would rise the soaring rock houses and sprawling surface plants of a trio of mine: the Baltic, the Trimountain, and the Champion. By 1923 all three would fall under the control of an industrial conglomerate of a size and scope rivaling even the great C&H itself - the Copper Range Company. The Copper Range Company had begun its life as a mere common carrier railroad joining Houghton with the major railroads to the south. Within three short decades, however, the company had managed to expand its reach into every major industry of the region. In short order it had taken control of virtually every mine, town, mill and railroad to be found within the wide borders of the southern range. The Copper Range had become an empire in its own right, controlling the fate of the southern range for the next half century.