Author Kathleen Heideman pens The Caving Grounds

2025-08-10

The Caving Grounds excavates the rubble of Negaunee, a small town in Upper Michigan hollowed by a century of mining. Sponsored by Moravian Sons Distillery, Doc Chavent and Author Lauren Perssons The extraction of hematite caused underground collapses and sinkholes; undermined neighborhoods were deemed unstable; homes, churches and even cemeteries were moved, and dangerous areas fenced. Thankfully, a guide will emerge: Rusty. "The 'pick and hammer' was h...

The Caving Grounds excavates the rubble of Negaunee, a small town in Upper Michigan hollowed by a century of mining.

Sponsored by Moravian Sons Distillery, Doc Chavent and Author Lauren Perssons

The extraction of hematite caused underground collapses and sinkholes; undermined neighborhoods were deemed unstable; homes, churches and even cemeteries were moved, and dangerous areas fenced. Thankfully, a guide will emerge: Rusty.

"The 'pick and hammer' was historically used in cartography to indicate the location of a mine. It emerges from my love of maps, which I reference in several of the poems, and the sheer abundance of those mine symbols on old UP Michigan maps: hundreds of historic mines in the Marquette Iron Range alone," Heideman said about the symbol on the cover.

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