Meet the Toxic Sand Vacuum | Torch Lake, Michigan

100 years ago, people started sucking toxic sand out of a lake. They weren't trying to clean up the environment, but they WERE on a quest to find copper — and it went shockingly well. Here's how they pulled it off, and the rusty legacy they left behind.

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Music:
"Already There" by Josh Woodward. Free download: joshwoodward.com

Key Sources on the Torch Lake Dredge, its engineering, stamp sand, copper flotation/reclamation chemistry, and copper mining in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula:
https://books.google.com/books?id=ER8...
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/de...
https://www.michiganseagrant.org/wp-c...
http://chemistry.elmhurst.edu/vchembo...
Historical Photos: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mi0...

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