One of my favorite destinations in the state of Michigan is the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Technological University. Michigan Tech and the Seaman Mineral Museum are located in the city of Houghton, MI. Located on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Houghton is approximately a seven hour drive from Mid-Michigan.
The Seaman Mineral Museum is named after Arthur Edward Seaman, the museum's first curator. Seaman was the head of the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at the Michigan College of Mines (now known as Michigan Technological University) and became curator of the museum upon retiring from teaching. His personal mineral collection was donated to the museum upon his death.
The Seaman Mineral Museum is the official mineral museum of the State of Michigan and contains the finest collection of Michigan minerals in the world. A large portion of the museum is dedicated to copper and iron ores that can be found in the western Upper Peninsula. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Michigan was the copper capital of the world with an estimated 11 billion pounds of copper being mined. Much of this history is preserved as part of the Keweenaw National Historical Park.
