A NCI ENT M INING 



Description oftfie Locality of flie Remains of Ancient Mining Operations, &c. 



In casting the eye over a map of Lake Superior, a remarkable projection, in the 

 form of an immense horn, will be observed jutting out from the south shore, and 

 curving to the northeast until it ends in an irregular point. 



This peninsula, which is called Keweenaw Point, is about eighty miles in length, 

 and at the place where it joins the main land forty-five miles in width. Through 

 the whole extent of this projection a belt of metalliferous trap formation extends. 

 differing at various points in structure, and in the character of its contents. Along 

 this belt, which is designated on the map by dotted lines, there are exhibited, through- 

 out nearly its whole extent, a disturbance of the strata, and upheavals comprising a 

 scries of bluffs, rising abruptly from the two streams, Eagle and Montreal Rivers. 



Within this belt, all the mining operations, ancient and modem, have been chiefly 

 confined. The most remarkable feature of the district is the character of its metal- 

 liferous products, which occur, not in the condition of an ore of copper, but exclu- 

 sively as native metal. This is met with in immense masses, in veins of smaller 

 size, and in rounded nodules. The cutting of the masses is a tedious and cost 1\ 

 process, and in some instances, even with all the appliances of modern art, requires 

 several months before a single mass is entirely removed from the mine. The metal 

 is sometimes almost entirely free from foreign matter, yielding when melted down 

 in the furnace from !)<) to 95 per cent, of copper. 



The first actual mining operations, within historic times, were commenced near 

 the forks of the Ontonagon, in 1761, by Alexander Henry, but under the peculiar 

 circumstances they proved entirely abortive. In 1841, Dr. Douglas Houghton made 

 a report to the Legislature of Michigan, in which the earliest definite information in 

 regard to the occurrence of native copper on Lake Superior was given to the public. 

 Shortly after this, mining operations were commenced in this region, explorers and 

 speculators flocked to it from all quarters, and in 1x4.") the shores of Keweenaw 

 Point were whitened with their tents. 



In 1846 the excitement reached its climax, after which a reaction took place, 

 and finally only half a dozen companies out of all that had been formed continued 

 the operation of mining in good earnest. 



The first public announcement, so far as we are aware, of the remains of ancient 

 mines in the copper region is that by Mr. S. O. Knapp, agent of the Minnesota 

 Mining Company, in L848. Dr. ('has. T. Jackson brought forward the subject in 

 his Geological Report to the United States Government, in 1849, and gave some 

 interesting details of what had been discovered up to that time. Further mention 

 of it was made by Messrs. Foster and Whitney, in their report in 1850, and several 

 illustrations were given. Since then our knowledge of the subject has been much 

 enlarged by the prosecution of mining operations on the very sites of the ancient 

 works. 



li must not, however, be supposed that our information is now complete. It is by 

 no means an ras\ task to discover remains buried, as those of the ancient mines ol 



