Painesdale is an unincorporated community in Houghton County

Houghton County, Michigan

-National protected areas:* Keweenaw National Historical Park * Ottawa National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 36,016 people, 13,793 households, and 8,137 families residing in the county. The population density was 36 people per square mile . There were 17,748 housing...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Painesdale is located in Adams Township

Adams Township, Houghton County, Michigan

Adams Township is a civil township of Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 2,747.-Communities:...

 along M-26

M-26 (Michigan highway)

M-26 is a state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan, running from two miles east of Rockland to its junction with US Highway 41 in Copper Harbor. It generally runs southwest-to-northeast in the western half or Michigan's Upper Peninsula...

, 2.5 miles (4 km) southwest of South Range

South Range, Michigan

South Range is a village in Adams Township, Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is bordered on the east by the unincorporated community of Baltic. It is about five miles southwest of Houghton on M-26. The population was 727 at the 2000 census...

. Painesdale has a post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 with ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 49955.

History

Painesdale was built by the Champion Mining Company between 1899 and 1917, and named after the Boston businessman William A. Paine

William A. Paine

William Alfred Paine was an American businessman who co-founded the stock brokerage firm, Paine Webber....

, who was associated with many mines as well as the Paine Webber

Paine Webber

Paine Webber and Company was an American stock brokerage and asset management firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS AG in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. Operating with two employees, they leased premises at 48...

 brokerage. Painesdale was located near the copper load, and the company designed the town following theories of efficient planning.

Champion's copper mine

Copper mining in Michigan

While it originated thousands of years earlier, copper mining in Michigan became an important industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its rise marked the start of copper mining as a major industry in the United States.-Geology:...

 was an important producer from 1900 to 1930, and continued sporadic production until the late 1960s. Painesdale experienced labor strikes in 1904 and 1913, the latter

Copper Country Strike of 1913–1914

The Copper Country Strike of 1913–1914 was a major strike affecting all copper mines in the Copper Country of Michigan. The strike, organized by the Western Federation of Miners, was the first unionized strike within the Copper Country. It was called to achieve goals of shorter work days, higher...

 being long remembered for its violence.

In 1993, the town was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

. The designation applies to the area encompassing Painesdale streets and the Champion Mine.

Description

Painesdale contains rows of identical saltbox workers' houses as well as managers' houses that were more individualized. A single shaft house from the Champion Mine is still in the lower part of town, surrounded by other substantial mine buildings.