| Challenge Accepted: A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America in Michigan''s Copper Country Subjects: Finnish Americans -- Michigan -- Hancock -- History; Immigrants -- Michigan -- Hancock -- History; Finnish Americans -- Michigan -- Hancock -- Social life and customs; Finnish Americans -- Michigan -- Hancock -- Social conditions; Working class -- Michiga; The copper mines of Michigan's Copper Country, in the Upper Peninsula, were active for 150 years, from 1845 until 1995. Many of the mine workers attempted to unionize, in order to obtain better working conditions, wages, and hours. Gary Kaunonen is currently in Michigan Technological University's Ph.D. program in Rhetoric and Technical Communication. Both of his grandfathers worked in the mines of the Mesabi Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota, and, before becoming an academic, Kaunonen, himself, charged blast furnaces and operated a bull-ladle in an iron foundry. |