CALUMET MINERS
In the frozen heart of Michigan’s Copper Country, the Calumet Miners (often called the Calumet Wolverines or Calumet-Laurium Miners in their early years) were one of the most feared senior amateur hockey teams of the pre-NHL era. From roughly 1902 to the early 1920s, they dominated the rugged Upper Peninsula leagues and regularly took on touring professional squads.
Powered by hard-rock miners who played with the same ferocity they brought to the shafts, the team featured future NHL pioneers like “Big George” Geroux and the crafty forward Fred “Cyclone” Cyclone” Taylor during his brief stopover in 1906–07. Their home rink, the magnificent Palestra (later renamed the Calumet Colosseum, still standing today and the oldest continuously used ice arena in North America), rocked with capacity crowds of 3,000–4,000 roaring fans packed shoulder-to-shoulder in fur coats and miner’s caps.
The Miners won the American championship in 1904–05, claimed the MacNaughton Cup multiple times as Upper Michigan champions, and in 1910–11 went undefeated against all comers in a celebrated “world championship” season. Even after professional leagues began siphoning talent, Calumet kept producing tough, fast teams well into the 1920s, leaving a legacy as the pride of the Keweenaw and one of the greatest amateur dynasties hockey has ever seen.
