The Women of the Copper Country

  The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell

If you've read any of Mary Doria Russell's books you'll know she does her research and because she does, she brings you right along into the world she is sharing with you.   When I saw her new book is set in my home state and in a city I've visited and frankly, been confused about, I was very anxious to read The Women of the Copper Country.

Copper country is the upper peninsula of Michigan, specifically the Keweenaw Peninsula, a smallish spit of land that juts out into Lake Superior but a bit of land that held an insanely rich vein of copper. Miners are brought in from Wales, Scotland, the Slovakian countries, miners who know how to mine. Miners who don't or can't speak for themselves.

This book is a David and Goliath story. Anna Klobuchar Clements is a six foot four inch wonder in Calumet, Michigan. But she's not the giant - she's David.  Annie has lived there her whole life and  watched the men go down the hole and scrape out copper and sometimes climb back out and when they don't she's watched their sons, one after another go down the hole to continue the work so the family can eat.

We know of miner injustices, big mining companies who keep their workers hungry, cold, poor and indebted.  Annie saw the injustices, too, and she didn't like them. She watched this system her whole life and knows what is fair and what isn't.  Maybe it's because of her physical size that she made people take notice when she talked.  Maybe it was her kindness in finding ways to help the wives and mothers try to make their homes better places.  Maybe it was her unhappy marriage.  Maybe it was just that she was the right person at the right time to organize the women.  Organizing the women, demonstrating, collecting clothing for a free clothing bank, food, money, having the right people back you, attracting the attention of the Press, it all seemed like she was walking through a blizzard's strong winds alone but she continued until people DID notice.  She led a strike against the largest mining corporation in the world with 10,000 people marching behind her. She led the strike for an entire winter (and let me tell you, winters in the Upper Peninsula are legendary) and then had to make a decision of how far she could go, how much the miners could tolerate, and of course, how long to survive.

This book answered some of the questions I have when I go to Calumet and see the empty beautiful buildings in the city, see the history of the Keweenaw Peninsula written on sign boards of abandoned mines,  and the sad condition of miner's homes still standing up against the homes of former mine  executives.  Some things are obvious, the mines are gone except for tourist attractions, the town failed because the mines are gone, but there are people still hanging on in those houses and the town is hanging on by its fingernails but now when I go there I will take more time.  They deserve my time and attention.