Retiree: Mining brought good life. Revival would help young Michigan families

• A retired miner says the industry brought good-paying jobs to the Upper Peninsula
• Since the mining bust decades ago, populations have plummeted and unemployment is high
• Newer mines have learned from the past, won’t make same environmental mistakes, miner says

John Doyle has fond memories of his two decades working at the White Pine copper mine, a job he loved so much that “sometimes I couldn’t wait to go to work.”

He relished in the camaraderie with his 3,000 coworkers, and the work modifying equipment for research projects at the Ontonagon County mine.

Good wages helped his family afford a boat for summers on Lake Superior, a hunting camp for the fall and ski weekends in the Porcupine Mountains.

Between the mine and his wife Pat’s job at the local hospital, “we did extremely well,” Doyle said.

“But you know, things change.”

Related:

• Mining rush brings hope, dread to Upper Peninsula, amid historic energy shift
• Mining is back in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Here’s how it works
• Activist: Don’t repeat history. Mines won’t save Upper Peninsula or climate

Now 85, Doyle has spent his retirement watching with dismay as a lack of opportunities prompts today’s young families to leave the Western Upper Peninsula in droves. 

White Pine closed in 1997, triggering decades of decline marked by shrinking populations, high unemployment and other business closures. Ontonagon County’s population has fallen from 9,000 to about 5,900 people since 1990.

It was already a tough place for working folks. And since the Ontonagon hospital closed in April, Doyle said, it’s become a tough place for retirees, too.

If a new mine can help revive the local economy, he’s all for it.

“If they could start it and have it stable for a few years,” he said, “that would be nice.”

While he’s realistic about the potential for economic growth — modern mining requires fewer workers — Doyle said even a few hundred jobs would be a big deal for the western UP. 

Backers of the proposed Copperwood mine in Gogebic County say it would create 380 direct jobs during an 11-year mine life. They also hope to revive mining at White Pine, figuring there’s about two decades-worth of copper left.

Doyle doesn’t agree with those who fear new mines will sully the environment and harm the outdoor tourism economy. 

While he acknowledges the UP’s struggle to clean up pollution from past mines, he doesn’t think modern companies should be penalized for their predecessors’ sins.

“People don’t realize that problems like that started back in the 1890s,” he said. From what he saw working at White Pine, “things were pretty tight.”

Besides, Doyle said he sees few other ways to bring family-wage jobs back to the region. 

Tourism pay tends to be lower and jobs are often seasonal. There’s always the possibility of remote workers drawn to the UP’s natural beauty. But those jobs are limited, too. 

And other than valuable minerals, Doyle can’t figure out what would draw a major employer to set up shop in the western UP, when they could instead go closer to the region’s economic hubs.

“We’re kind of at the end of the road here,” he said.