98 RURAL MICTIIGAN 



tains in the western part of the Upper Peninsula 

 has yielded small amounts of silver for years, and 

 in the early seventies of the last century, a number 

 of mines were opened in the vicinity of Ontanogan 

 River, an outlet of Lage Gogebic into Lake Superior; 

 but the elaborate expectations of the promoters were 

 not fully realized. In recent years much of the 

 product of Michigan silver accrues from refining 

 operations connected with the copper industry. 



It was inevitable that a region rich in mineral 

 resources should attract the attention of the gold- 

 seeker. Tlie presence of this precious metal was 

 discerned in the quartz, but the State Geologist, in 

 his report for 1885, is doubtless correct in giving 

 credit to the Ropes Gold Mine for the first syste- 

 matic effort at gold mining in upper Michigan. The 

 gold-bearing serpentine is located some six miles 

 northwest from Ishpeming, and here gold Avas dis- 

 covered in 1881. Regular mining began in 1882. 

 A stamp mill and concentration plant were erected, 

 and the bullion found its way eventually to the 

 United States mint. The product was a combina- 

 tion of gold and silver in the ratio (1885) of about 

 2 to 5. Some rich rock was discovered. In one 

 instance seventeen pounds of rock yielded $103 of 

 gold.^ The gold content of the rock was variable 

 in amount, being described as "pockety," and al- 

 though in the fifteen years in which this mine was 

 worked, gold and silver to the value of approxi- 

 mately $650,000 was removed, of which in the aggre- 

 ^"Mineral Statistics," Mich., 1885, p. 159. 



