Michigan's Copper Country in Early Photos

BY B. E. TYLER
L.O.C.—77-71925 S.B.N.—0-912382-21-X
Reprinted 1977 By
BLACK LETTER PRESS Grand Rapids, Michigan
Art Work by Robert Nelson
History, with all of its ramifications, is a complex subject. Often, students pursue it with only the written word in hand, in an attempt to gain a deeper, and more meaningful understanding of it. This is usually the case because other means of historical relation are not available, or completely nonexistent. The strict narration of facts is not a sufficient means alone for broadening one’s knowledge of the past.
Whenever the written word can be complemented with other media, for example, worthwhile actual photographs, a more complete understanding of the past is experienced. Literally, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the student can gain, for himself, a more penetrating insight into his subject which words alone cannot always provide him.
In publishing Michigan’s Copper Country In Early Photos , a pictorial account of the Copper Country around 1900, the Black Letter Press has made a more complete understanding of the region possible by supplementing its written histories with the varied collection of photographs. The area’s setting, its people, and their work are portrayed. Originally, the book was published as, Souvenir of the Copper Country Upper Peninsula of Michigan . Copies of this original work are extremely scarce today.
In his introduction to the original publication, B.E. Tyler, the publisher, states that the Copper Country is a place of natural beauty, with the mining of copper from the bowels of the earth as the district’s major industry. This was written in 1903, and the pictures presented in the volume’s pages offer supportive evidence to his words. However, time has moved on, and much has both changed and remained the same in the Copper Country.
Tyler mentions a picture of the Cliff Mining Camp, and relates that the work has been abandoned, but, “almost every house that was ever erected there is standing.” This is no longer true. All structures have been dismantled, and all that remains of the once proud and fabulous Cliff mine are a few poor rock piles.