Copper Country Explorer Field Guide No.3

The Quincy Smelting Works is the last of the last, a lone remnant of a vast industrial landscape that once lined the Portage Waterway for miles. Like her shoreline brethren, the Quincy complex existed solely to serve its copper masters, and when the copper empire died she died along with it. As time marched forward the sprawling industrial ruins around her were sacrificed to the region’s new master – tourism. The shoreline on which smelters, foundries, warehouses, and coal docks once stood were transformed to parks, boardwalks, and rows of townhouses. But through it all the Quincy smelter remained. Though battered and bruised and showing her age, the old gal continues to remind us all of the copper country’s rich industrial heritage that still can be found along its shores.