DO RURAL MICHIGAN 



also recovers much copper from the refuse deposits of 

 the old stamp mills, subjected to a secondary process 

 which has proven very successful in regaining addi- 

 tional quantities of copper. 



Little copper is consumed locally, although various 

 schemes for its use in local manufactures have been 

 projected. Most of the metal goes out of the country 

 by water to the eastern consuming centers and to 

 Europe. Alexander Henry, the first to attempt cop- 

 per mining operations in the region, predicted the 

 failure of such attempts through the remoteness of 

 the market and the insuperable difficulty of export- 

 ing the product. The opening of the artificial water- 

 way at Sault Ste. Marie (1855) and into Portage 

 Lake (18G0 and 1873), with the completion of sev- 

 eral lines of railway into the copper district, has 

 falsified these predictions^ and more than one billion 

 pounds of copper have been produced in the area 

 since the inauguration of mining seventy-five years 

 ago. The labor was performed at first chiefly by 

 experienced miners from Cornwall, Avho still con- 

 stitute a distinctive and interesting human element 

 in the local population. Later came Finns, and 

 more recently Slavs and Italians. The directing 

 personnel is largely of New England stock, and much 

 New England capital has been absorbed in the cop- 

 per country. Boston has always figured largely in 

 the industry on the side of finance and market opera- 

 tions. Together with old established mines, the 

 district comprises mines in the stage of initial de- 

 velopment, where excavation has not yet been begv 



