ANCIENT MINING ON THE SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



The evidences of ancient mining operations within the mineral region of Lake 

 Superior were first brought to public notice in the winter of 1847-8. Although the 

 Jesuit fathers frequently mention the existence of copper, and even use the term m int s, 

 it is clear, from the general tenor of their narratives, that they neither saw nor knew 

 of any actual mining in the technical sense of that word. They announced as early 

 as the year 1636 the presence of native copper, and refer to it as having been taken 

 from the "mines." This was prior to the time when they had themselves visited 

 the Great Lake, and their information was derived from Indians. At the same 

 time they speak with equal certainty of mines of gold, rubies, and steel ; but it must 

 be borne in remembrance that the French word is not equivalent to our English 

 mines, but may be more correctly rendered veins or deposits of metals or ores. 



In the "Relacions" for 1659-60, after missions had been established on Lake 

 Superior, the region is reported to be "enriched in all its borders by mines of lead 

 almost pure and of copper all refined in pieces as large as the fist, and great rocks 

 which have whole veins of torquoise." It is probable that these accounts are 

 second hand and such as the Chippeways gave when they exhibited to the fathers 

 specimens of native metal in the shape of water-worn pieces and small boulders. 



Boucher, in the "Histoire veritable," &c, in 16-10, asserts that "there are in this 

 region, mines of copper, tin, antimony, and lead." He speaks of a great island 

 fifty leagues in circumference, which is doubtless the one now called Michipicoten, 

 where "there is a very beautiful mine of copper." Copper was also found in other 

 places in large masses "all refined;" in one instance an ingot of copper was discovered 

 which weighed more than 800 pounds, and from which the Indians cut oft' pieces 

 with their axes after having softened it by fire. All this information Boucher 

 obtained from some French traders, and not from his own observation. Such is the 

 tenor of the historical accounts from the time of Lagarde in 1636 to Charlevoix in 



1721. 



Detached and water-worn lumps of copper have been found in great numbers in 



the gravel, clay, and loose materials that cover the rocks, from the days of the 



Catholic fathers to this time, not only in the mineral region but over a large space 



to (lie southward of it. All these pieces were originally from veins, but have 



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