THE ONTONAGON COPPER BOWLDER. 1027 



time, and the remainder was paid in goods two years later. The party 

 then x)roceeded about 26 miles up the river, climbed the high hill 

 which intervened between the main stream and that point on the fork 

 where the rock was situated, and raised it on skids. More than this 

 they could not do; nor did they have greater success the following 

 summer. 



In 1843 Mr. Eldred started from Detroit with wheels and castings 

 for a portable railway and car ; and to protect his property rights, he 

 secured from General Walter Cunningham, the United States mineral 

 agent, a permit to occupy for mining purposes the section of land on 

 which the bowlder stood. Arriving at the rock, Mr. Eldred was sur- 

 prised and chagrined to find it in possession of a party of Wisconsin 

 miners under the direction of Colonel Hammond, who had located the 

 land under a permit made directly by the Secretary of War to Turner 

 and Snyder, and by their agent transferred to Hammond. The only 

 thing to do was to buy the rock again, and this Mr. Eldred did, paying 

 for it 81,305. 



It took a week for the party of 21 jiersons to get the rock up the 

 50-foot hill near the river; then they cat timbers and made a stout 

 wooden railway track, placed the rock on the car, and moved it with 

 capstan and chains as houses are moved. For four miles and a half, 

 over hills 600 feet high, through valleys and deep ravines; through 

 thick forests where the path had to be cut; through tangled under- 

 brush, the home of pestiferous mosquitoes, this railway was laid and 

 the copper bowlder was transported; and when at last the rock was 

 lowered to the main stream, nature smiled on the labors of the work- 

 men by sending a freshet to carry their heavily laden boat over the 

 lower rapids and down to the lake.' 



While arranging transportation to Sault Ste. Marie, Mr. Eldred was 

 confronted by an order from the Secretary of War to General Cun- 

 ningham directing him to seize the copper rock for transportation to 

 Washington. "The persons claiming the rock have no right to it," 

 says Secretary Porter, "but justice and equity would require that they 

 be amx)ly compensated for the trouble and expense of its removal from 

 its position on the Ontonagon to the lake ; and for this purpose Gen- 

 eral C. will examine into their accounts and allow them the costs, 

 compensating them fully and fairly therefor, the sum, however, not to 

 exceed $700. * * * if they set up a claim for the ownership of the 

 article itself, that is not admitted or recognized, and their redress, if 

 they have any," will be by an application to Congress."^ 



' Jones's letter in New York Herald. I have carefnlly examined the statements 

 made by Mr. Alfred Meads in the Ontonagon Miner of June 22, 1895, assigning to 

 James Kirk Paul, the founder of the town of Ontonagon, the credit of bringing 

 down the rock. Undoubtedly Captain Paul was in the x^f^rty, but the proof is con- 

 clusive that all work was done under the direction of Mr. Eldred. 



2 War Department MSS. Letters Cunningham to Porter, August 28, 1843; Maynadier 

 to Porter, September 27, 1843, and Porter's indorsement. 



