1026 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



Until the report made by tlie State geologist of Michigan, Doctor 

 Douglass Houghton, in 1841, there had been no authentic or trustworthy 

 statements in regard to the copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior;' 

 but within four years from the date of that report the mineral lands 

 from the tip of Keweenaw Point to the Ontonagon Eiver were overrun 

 with prospectors, the great majority of whom left dollars where they 

 found pennies. It is in Doctor Houghton's report that the best scientific 

 account of the copper rock is to be found. " I have thus far," he says, 

 "omitted to allude particularly to. the large mass of native copper which 

 has been so long known to exist in the bed of the Ontonagon River, 

 lest, perhaps, this isolated mass might be confounded with the veins of 

 the mineral district. That this mass has once occupied a place in some 

 one of these veins is quite certain, but it is now perfectly separated 

 from its original condition and appears simply as a loose transported 

 bowlder. * * * The copper bowlder is associated with rocky matter, 

 which in all respects resembles that associated with that metal in some 

 portions of the mines before described, the rocky matter being bound 

 together with innumerable strings of metal; but a very considerable 

 portion of the whole is copper in a state of purity. While this mass of 

 native copper can not fail to excite much interest, from its great size 

 and purity, it must be borne in mind that it is a perfectly isolated mass, 

 having no connection with any other; nor does the character of the 

 country lead to the inference that veins of the metal occur in the imme- 

 diate vicinity, though the mineral district crosses the country at a dis- 

 tance of but a few miles." 



Leaving for the moment the question as to the origin of the copper 

 rock, let us follow its history. Prior to 1843 not a pound of copper had 

 been shipped commercially from Lake Superior. The billion and a half 

 jjounds which have been taken from that region have been mined since 

 that year, and more than half that product has been taken from a mine 

 discovered since the war of the rebellion ended. The Ontonagon bowl- 

 der was not regarded primarily in a commercial light; for its market 

 value as ingot copper could not have exceeded $000.^ Mr. Eldred's 

 object in transporting it to the lower lakes was to exhibit it for money 

 in the various cities of the East. It was a curiosity. As Senator Wood- 

 bridge said, it was " a splendid specimen of the mineral wealth of the 

 ' Far West.' " 



In 1841 Mr. Eldred arranged with Samuel Ashman, of Sault Ste. 

 Marie, to act as his interpreter in the purchase of the copper rock from 

 the Chippewa Indians, on whose lands it was situated. Obtaining a 

 trading license from Mr. Ord, the Government agent, the two men set 

 out for the mouth of the Ontonagon, where they met the chiefs and con- 

 cluded the purchase for $150, of which sum $45 was paid in cash at the 



1 Whittlesey, Charles, in Smithsonian Contributions, Vol. XIII. 

 ^Senate Report on Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation, 1893, I, p. 70, 

 gives the prices of copper tor sixty years. 



