Keweenaw National Historical Park

Keweenaw National Historical Park
Park Headquarters
Keweenaw National Historical Park is located in Michigan
Keweenaw National Historical Park
Keweenaw National Historical Park is located in the United States
Keweenaw National Historical Park
LocationUpper Peninsula, Michigan, United States
Nearest cityCalumet, Michigan
Coordinates47°09′23″N 88°33′49″W / 47.15639°N 88.56361°W / 47.15639; -88.56361
Area1,869 acres (756 ha)
VisitationNot available (2005)
Websitewww.nps.gov/kewe
NRHP reference No.01000108[1]
Designated NHPOctober 27, 1992

Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a federal-local cooperative park made up of two primary units, the Calumet Unit and the Quincy Unit, and almost two dozen cooperating "Heritage Sites" located on federal, state, and privately owned land in and around the Keweenaw Peninsula. The National Park Service owns approximately 1,700 acres (690 ha) in the Calumet and Quincy Units. Units are located in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties.

The Congressional legislation establishing the Park stated, among other things, that:

(1) The oldest and largest lava flow known on Earth is located on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. This volcanic activity produced the only place on Earth where large scale economically recoverable 97 percent pure native copper is found.

(2) The Keweenaw Peninsula is the only site in the country where prehistoric aboriginal mining of copper occurred. Artifacts made from this copper by these ancient Indians were traded as far south as present day Alabama.[2]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office: Public Law 102-543 (Oct. 27, 1992); 106 STAT. 3569 Archived 2017-03-06 at the Wayback Machine (Keweenaw National Historical Park Establishment Act, PDF), retrieved 05/03/17.