From June 12-15, VAF members will venture “North of the Northwoods” to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Known as the “Copper Country,” this three-county area on the southern shore of Lake Superior features buildings and landscapes that tell stories of copper mining boom and bust, immigration, urban growth, industrial labor, as well as post-industrial patterns of recovery, reinvention, and re-interpretation.
Early arrivals to Houghton can participate in an Underground Mine Tour led by the Quincy Mine Association. There will be a $20 cost and the tour is limited to the first 26 people to sign up.
Thursday’s bus tour follows the diverse architectural legacies of Michigan’s copper mining industry including the industrial and urban landscapes of Calumet.
Friday, attendees will select one of two all day tours.
Farm to Kitchen: Rural, Indigenous, and Urban Places
This tour’s focus is sustainability—both cultural and environmental—explored through changing relationships between people and the landscapes south of Houghton.
or
Keweenaw County: From Frontier Ports to Northwoods Resorts
Venture to the northernmost point in Michigan – the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula — to explore the remnants of the region’s earliest mining communities and see how they were consciously transformed into leisure landscapes in the 1920s-60s.
Conference attendees will stay in Houghton, Michigan on the beautiful Portage Waterway and attend paper sessions at Michigan Technological University. Everyone will do the same tour on Thursday to explore the story of copper mining, and then choose between two tour options on Friday. Tour attendees will all enjoy time on Lake Superior’s shores.
Vernacular Architecture Forum - Keweenaw 2024 (vafweb.org)
