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CLIFTON -- You never know what might be hiding under a little sand.  That's why a team of Michigan Tech professors and students has spent the past few weeks excavating the former Cliff Mine site, and so far they've been happily surprised with the ruins they've unearthed.

"We’ve been able to show the different work areas, different procedures and different parts of the building,” says Director of Graduate Studies in Archaeology, Timothy Scarlett.  “We can literally see where people walked between machines.  It's really quite fantastic."

Each new element they dig up is carefully measured, drawn and photographed.  Their efforts are not only important for identifying the structures, but also for understanding what allowed the Cliff Mine to become the first to achieve commercial success in the copper industry.  The mine produced more than 38 million pounds of refined copper between 1845 and 1870.

The most substantial remains are part of a stamp mill building.

"Hopefully we can take that information and look at what was going on 100 years ago,” says project archaeologist, Sean Gohman.  “Then we can make comparisons and look at the differences and the transformation of this industry from its beginning until the turn of the century."

At the end of the month, the group will actually refill the ruins with sand to help preserve the wood.  But before they do that, everyone is invited to come and see what they've uncovered.  Public tours will be held during the remaining weekends in June.