The Keweenaw Peninsula and the area that would become the Copper Country was home to the Ojibwe people prior to European settlement. By the 1842 Treaty of La Pointe, which took effect in 1843, the Ojibwe officially ceded the western Upper Peninsula including the Keweenaw to the United States.
Copper Harbor was host to the first mineral land agency throughout the entire Lake Superior District. Captain Walter Cunningham was appointed by the United States Department of War to act as a Special Agent to the area. As soon as wayfinding was established in the spring of 1843, Cunningham had come to the area and opened his office, which was thereafter named the "Government House". It was positioned on Porter's Island, a small rocky island just opposite of present-day downtown Copper Harbor.
The Pittsburgh and Boston Copper Harbor Mining Company, formed by John Hayes of Cleveland, Ohio, began excavating some pits near Hayes Point in Copper Harbor in 1844. It was a small development at first, but its mine was modern for its time, and the company struck it rich in 1845. The Pittsburgh and Boston mine operations were some of the first in the state of Michigan.
A few years later, the Central Mine, Cliff Mine, and others were opened and became successful. However, by 1870 the copper resources in the community had been largely worked out.