VAF Keweenaw 2024 Conference Schedule

Tentative/working schedule, times still subject to change.

Wednesday, June 12^th 

Board Meeting

8:30 am - 4:00 pm 

Houghton Carnegie Library

105 Huron Street

Registration

12:30 - 4:00 pm 

6:00 - 10:00 pm

Hampton Inn Houghton 

820 Shelden Avenue

Early Arrival Events 

4:00 - 6:00 pm Quincy Mine Hoist Association Underground Mine Tours (capped at 26 and registration of $20)

Join the director of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association who is arranging a special underground tour especially for VAF members. Get a full tour of the 1918 steam hoist building, ride the cog rail, enter the mine through an adit on the 7th level, and experience the underground landscape of historic copper mining. This is your only chance to get underground!

6:30-7:30 pm Drop in Cocktails at UPEA Architects and Engineers  

100 Portage Street

Dinner on Your Own

Thursday, June 13^th - Mine Towns: Technology, Paternalism & Memory - All Participants

Breakfast on your own

6:00 - 9:00 am Registration, Hampton Inn Houghton

Buses load from front of Hampton Inn Houghton. All tours include lunch and heavy appetizers in the evening.

Lunch at the Calumet Theatre and a cocktail reception with local Cornish pasties at the Quincy Mine Hoist are included.

8:30 am

8:45 am

9:00 am

11:15 am - 12:00 pm

Keynote address, Kim Hoagland

Recognition of Ambassador, Access and Simpson Presenter Awards

Open to the Public

12:00 - 12:30 pm

Lunch for VAF Conference Registrants

4:30 - 6 pm

Cocktails and pasties at Quincy Mine Hoist

Dinner on your own

Friday, June 14^th 

Keweenaw County: From Frontier Ports to Northwoods Resorts Bus Tour

or

Farm to Kitchen: Rural, Indigenous, and Urban Places

Breakfast on your own

6:00 - 9:00 am Registration, Hampton Inn Houghton

Lunch and dinner provided on Bus tours

Saturday, June 15^th - Paper Sessions, Poster & Book Exhibits, President's Plenary Lunch and Banquet

Day events will be held at the Memorial Union Building (MUB) on the Michigan Technological University Campus

1400 Townsend Drive

7:00 am - 3:00 pm Memorial Union Building - Registration

8:00 am - Book Exhibit Opens

8:15 - 11:45 - Paper Sessions

12:00 - 1:00 pm - President's Plenary & Box Lunch

1:00 - 2:00 pm - Poster Sessions

2:00 - 4:00 pm - Paper Sessions

5:00 - 6:00 pm - Buildings and Landscapes Meeting

5:00 - 6:00 pm - VAF Chapter Meetings

Happy Hour, Closing Banquet and Annual Meeting will be held at the Bonfire in the Historic Continental Fire Hall.

408 East Montezuma

6:00 - 7:00 pm Happy Hour

7:00 - 9:00 pm Banquet

8:00 pm VAF Annual Meeting; Bishir, Buchanan &Cummings Awards; and  & Preview of Delaware 2025

Sunday, June 16^th 

Recommended Sunday Activity:

If you are extending your stay into Sunday, take advantage of special tours being offered at the Quincy Smelter, the only extant copper smelter in the country which is only open to the public occasionally. The friends group will be offering tours that weekend every hour on the hour as part of the local BridgeFest celebration. Learn more on the BridgeFest website. 

Contact Michelle Jones, VAF Conference Coordinator with questions about the conference at conference@vafweb.org.