OTHER REHOURCEii OF MICHIGAN 99 



gate 80 per cent was gold, the mining operations 

 were eventually abandoned, and the property today 

 has little surface indications of the mining activity 

 that once obtained there.^ Yet there are some even 

 now who insist that the mine will eventually be re- 

 opened and will richly repay the confidence which 

 has been placed in it. Evidences of the presence 

 of gold were found throughout a considerable area 

 adjacent to this mine, and not a few other efforts 

 to recover the metal wore undertaken, in some in- 

 stances with very encouraging results. From one 

 of these short-lived mines, some $7,000 of gold were 

 taken out in a few months, but the vein soon dwindled 

 to inadequate proportions. In the Dead Eiver dis- 

 trict and even within the city of Marquette, aurifer- 

 ous deposits were uncovered near the surface, but 

 for vears interest in gold mining in Michio;an has 

 remained dormant. 



Persons of a speculative turn of mind may some- 

 times wonder what the industrial development of 

 Michigan Avould be like if, with its enormous wealth 

 of luetallic minerals, an adequate supply of coal ex- 

 isted within the State. Southwest from Saginaw 

 Bay an extensive area productive of coal reaches as 

 far as Jackscn and Calhoun counties, but the vein 

 is normally thin, and, except in the territory close 

 to Saginaw Bay, has been of no great economic im- 

 portance. As far back as the territorial period, out- 

 crops of coal were observed and very early its re- 

 moval was undertaken. Thus it was mined near 

 ^Ihid., 1S!)!», p. 291). 



