The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Thursday, June 28, 2007 Print Article | Close Window Book looks at Copper Country research By JANE NORDBERG, DMG Writer HANCOCK — Not all of Copper Country history is about mining or the long-distant past, and a new book helps to prove that. “New Perspectives on Michigan’s Copper Country” grew out of research presented at the “Michigan’s Copper Country: History, People and Place,” symposium held as part of the Copper Country Homecoming in July of 2004. “We realized that there was so much good research that was surfacing for the first time in the symposium,” said Michigan Tech University professor Kim Hoagland, one of the book’s co-editors. “It was important work and we wanted to get it out.” Included essays range from early milling technology experimentation to Finnish farm buildings, to a review of the coroner’s inquest after the Italian Hall tragedy of 1913. Linguist Kate Remlinger’s research into the various Copper Country dialects is included, as is Hoagland’s look at company housing through the eyes of a Croatian family during the murders in Seeberville. Research into a more recent period is also highlighted. Tom Scanlan’s brief history of the Calumet Air Force Station includes excerpts of oral histories with the men who served there, and Aaron Shapiro looks at how the Copper Country has presented itself as a vacation destination since World War II. “One of the more exciting aspects of this volume is that it includes work on the post-copper period, which has been a long-neglected area of study here,” she said. “We wanted to focus on brand new work that has been unexplored territory and bring it to the public.” The authors are as wide-ranging as their topics, Hoagland added. “There are some academics, history buffs, long-time residents, some people writing with first-hand experience, graduate students, a very wide range,” she said. Some of the authors have been recipients of a Friends of the Library Travel Grant awarded for research done at the MTU Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections. “It’s not just local people who care about this area’s history. There are people outside this area doing work on the Copper Country, too,” she said. “We wanted to pull some of them in.” Printed locally, the volume is published by the Quincy Mine Hoist Association as part of its mission to encourage research and publication on local history. “We publish books that are historically accurate and that we feel are appealing to the general public,” said QMHA Publications Committee Chair Theresa Spence. Some of the association’s most popular volumes are Angus Murdoch’s “Boom Copper,” now in its 13th edition, and “Old Reliable,” by Charles Hyde and Larry Lankton. Spence and Hoagland both said the “New Perspectives” volume was a good fit for the QMHA publications mission because it bridged the gap between scholarly research and mass appeal. “It’s scholarly enough to be reliable so others can build on this work, but the articles are written in a very accessible manner, and the illustrations are great,” Hoagland said. “It’s something anyone interested in Copper Country history would enjoy.” Spence said the volume was the last in a trilogy of success for local history. “Good things also come in threes,” she said. “The (Copper Country) Homecoming was a wonderful thing, the symposium held as part of that was also wonderful, and now we’re taking the next step of making that unique research available to the public. It’s an incredibly good opportunity for the community.” “New Perspectives on Copper Country History” sells for $19.95 at the Quincy Mine Hoist gift shop, which is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Jane Nordberg can be reached at jnordberg@mininggazette.com