The mining history of Negaunee, Michigan, is written across its landscape—both in the deep pits and caving grounds and in the lives shaped by its industry. For one poet, this history became a powerful metaphor, evolving into a decades-long project of research, storytelling, and verse.
Kathleen Heideman explores what happens when the ground collapses under a small town with her new book of poetry "The Caving Grounds." “I started this set of poems with heartache,” Heideman explained. “But I quickly realized that the story of Negaunee’s mining past, of lives existing both at the surface and underground, was far more compelling.” The collapse of a personal relationship initially drew her to the imagery of the caving grounds—an unstable landscape echoing emotional turmoil. Yet, as she delved deeper into mining history, the project became more than a metaphor.
Heideman's research spanned thirty years, uncovering a complex history of iron ore extraction. “Most people today only talk about a dozen mines, but there were over 200 in the region,” she noted. “Many of them connected underground, and some mining techniques, like block caving, were designed to let the earth collapse.”
Yet, books and archives only told part of the story. Real insight came from the people who lived it—miners and their families, whose stories painted a vivid picture of life and loss in the caving grounds. “I interviewed wives who lost husbands to lung disease, families mourning children who fell into abandoned pits. These stories, passed down through generations, needed to be heard.”
Listen to Kurt Hauswirth's full conversation with poet Kathleen Heideman:
Two interviews stood out as transformative. One was with Tsu-Ming Han, a Cleveland-Cliffs researcher who discovered one of the world’s oldest visible fossils within the Empire Mine. “Here we were, talking about a history barely 175 years old, and he’s showing me evidence of life from 2.1 billion years ago.”
The other was with Ernest "Ernie" Ronn, a respected labor union representative and former miner. His memoir, Fifty-Two Steps Underground, recounted life in the mines with striking detail. “He told me how, after a long shift, miners were so covered in red ore that only their eyes were recognizable. Underground, they all looked the same.”
These stories, along with many others, coalesced into the character of Rusty, the poet’s fictional guide through the mining past—a trickster, a storyteller, a figure both unreliable and deeply rooted in truth.
When asked why poetry was the chosen medium for this history, Heideman responded, “Poetry allows fragments to come together in a way that traditional narrative doesn’t. Mining has fractured this landscape. The history itself is non-linear. Poetry lets me smooth those fragments into something whole.”
Through verse, Heideman weaves together the voices of miners, families, and a land shaped by iron and labor. “Every time I visit the caving grounds, I see how memory and history are still shifting, just like the earth beneath Negaunee.”
"The Caving Grounds" is published by Modern History Press as part of the Yooper Poetry Series.
Heideman’s book launch reading of The Caving Grounds will take place on Tuesday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette, MI, followed by a book signing. The reading kicks off the Library’s Great Lakes Poetry Festival. The event is free and open to the public.
Find Kathleen Heideman's work online at orebody.com.
