During the day, the Quincy Smelting Works buildings across the bridge are interesting and visible relics from the local industries that thrived around the UP. The smokestack and preserved architecture add an extra sense of history to the banks of the Portage as you walk through downtown Houghton and peer across the river. By night, however, the old machinery and cold brick turn into the perfect haunt for a spooky and seasonal haunted house. As part of their annual Halloween experience, the Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) here at Tech capitalized on the setting by putting on a haunted smelter tour for anybody in the community to attend.
The annual fall event is the culmination of a lot of work from the students and staff in the VPA, together with the guidelines set by the National Park Service (NPS) and Quincy Mine Hoist Association, to put on the haunted smelter tour each year.
Clayton Gomez, the Chief of Interpretation at Quincy Mine, is in charge of the historical information and research associated with the tours offered, and was available at the site for comment. “This has become kind of a hallmark event to close out our season at the end of the year. I think the public really looks forward to it, I think our communities really look forward to it, and it really proves how much of an asset Michigan Tech Students are to us. Not just in terms of the engineering and geology and the things you would typically associate with the mines, but also with community and cultural events as well,” said Gomez.
Tara Estrada is a theatre and entertainment technology major who specializes in lighting and costumes, and played a huge role in designing the visual aspects of the show in conjunction with the digital media, electrics, and projection teams, which is also made up primarily of students in classes for their specific roles.
“This is a class project for the majority of our students, whether it’s their final project as seniors or if it’s a continuous education credit for our freshman through seniors,” said Estrada. “So there’s different levels. When you start out as a freshman or sophomore you’ll be doing more general crew things. But you’ll have tasks given to you, whereas once you’re in your junior and senior year you can then be a part of the design leadership teams, and then you’d be making some of the more pertinent decisions of the room designs or themes that are going into the event.”
The time constraints and rules surrounding historical buildings like the smelter site are something the crew has to take into consideration, as they have to preplan and build everything that they want to have brought in the week of the event. Even with the cold and rainy weather that the Keweenaw saw last week, the work starts early and ends late for most of the people involved.
“We’re out there as much as possible so we can make the most of the space and the time that they’ve given us to be out there. We’re out pretty late just getting everything ready for the night’s show. It’s definitely a collaboration between all of our groups, students and designers, to put this on.” said Estrada, “Everyone plays a huge role in bringing this to life, and it is a testimony to what we can do as a full program.”
The unified feeling is shared by the staff who oversee the event, with Kent Cyr, Technical Director for the VPA, saying “Theatre is collaborative. When we’re out here, yes they’re students, but we’re peers. We have to be. We’ve got to get it all done, we have lots to do, and we have to protect each other,” before adding, “The students are doing fantastic. They’ve done a great job,” and rushed off to confer with some of the scare actors.
