Paper short abstract:

In this paper, the relationship between a national park in a postindustrial area of the US and its constituent museums is explored for how they represent an intersectional story of labor history and industrial heritage. Who tells this story and how? Whose stories are not represented and why?

Paper long abstract:

Founded in 1992, the Keweenaw National Historical Park (KNHP) centers on the industrial heritage of the remote “Copper Country” in northern Michigan, USA. An 1840s copper rush made the area among the world’s top copper producers for nearly a century. This rush also established a stable long-term local population representing indigenous, ethnic, and interethnic community. A protracted labor strike in 1913 resulted in workers being blacklisted, most notably Finns who nonetheless remain the region’s largest ethnic group. Abandonment of the region by mining corporations in the 1960s led to increased development of tourism. Unlike most US national parks, the KNHP is a partnership consisting of a federally-managed unit along with 21 cooperating heritage sites that are maintained by state government, universities, private business owners, and nonprofit organizations. These sites include archives, mining complexes, house and farm museums, churches, a military fort, and several local historical society museums. Each group, then, adds to the “Copper Story” based on its own interpretations of the artifacts and materials at hand and the history they represent. While this unique approach fosters wide community participation, it also depends on what dominant voices tell about labor, gender, ethnicity, class, religion, regionalism, and ultimately, the present. In this paper, I will explore narratives presented by the KNHP and heritage sites to reveal what the shared understandings and divergent tales of the “Copper Story” are, as well as the glaring silences that are present and how they affect what is known of this area’s industrial heritage.