One of the best-preserved copper smelters in the United States

The Quincy Smelter, also known as the Quincy Smelting Works, is a former copper smelter located on the north side of the Keweenaw Waterway in Ripley, Michigan. Built in 1898 by the Quincy Mining Company, it operated from 1898 to 1931 and again from 1948 to 1971. The facility was constructed on the stamp sands of the old Pewabic mill, with the shoreline dredged and pilings inserted for loading docks. By the end of 1898, over a dozen buildings had been constructed, including the reverberatory furnace and cupola furnace buildings.

As a contributing property of the Quincy Mining Company Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District, the site is recognized as the best-preserved copper smelter in the United States. It was part of a Superfund site from 1986 to 2013, during which it was listed as an Area of Concern. The smelter is also located within the boundaries of the Keweenaw National Historical Park and was designated an ASM Historical Landmark in 2016.

Public tours of the smelter began as early as 2009. In the first years, visitors could not go inside the smelter buildings because of contamination and structure instability. The site features two docks: a 350-foot shipping wharf for copper and a 250-foot wharf used for coal deliveries. Most of the smelter buildings are built of Jacobsville Sandstone, standing as a remnant of the area's industrial era.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons