The Bammert Blacksmith Shop

The latest in the Keweenaw County Historical Society's growing inventory of significant historic sites, the Bammert Blacksmith Shop is located in Phoenix, Michigan, on M-26 just north of the junction with US Highway 41.

Donated to the Society in 1998 by the grandsons of blacksmith Amos Bammert, the shop was built in the 1880s at the Cliff Mine location and moved to Phoenix in about 1906. Amos, born in 1863, operated the shop until his death in 1940. Blacksmiths were much in demand in the early days of Keweenaw copper mining, as horse-drawn carriages and wagons were the principal means of land transportation until the arrival of the Keweenaw railroad in 1907.

In addition to shoeing horses, blacksmiths could repair and make almost anything made of metal. Amos built buggies, sleighs, and wagon wheels in this shop. Many of the tools of the blacksmith trade, including the forge, were left undisturbed in the building when the business was closed. The Society has restored the building's exterior and interior, exhibiting the shop and equipment as they were at the end of the nineteenth century. Open mid-June to early October. Donation requested.