Early Man in 'Sortheasfcrn Minnesota -- Shnifz. 71> 



On this route the principal town or stopping place was at 

 White Oak Point as ancient mounds and fragments of pottery 

 attest. Another important route from Lake Superior was up 

 Pigeon river to its source; thence across the height of land down 

 the valley of Rainy lake and I'iver to the Lake of the Woods. 



There were other lines of travel of minor importance leading 

 into that country, hut I have described enough of them to show 

 that the country was occupied. The inhabitants were a mining 

 people, and in order to get the products of their mines to the great 

 populous centers they had to improve the rivers enumerated above^ 

 so far as to accommodate their light draft boats. This they have 

 done, and in such a manner as to reduce the transport to the 

 shortest possible distance. Slight dams were built to flood shoals 

 and jetties to direct the water from bank to bank, so as to secure a 

 sufficient depth to float their craft. I am not aware of any relics 

 or works to indicate that they used beasts of burden or any mode 

 of land transportation save packing on men's backs. 



The St Louis river falls about 600 feet from the mouth 

 of the Cloquet river to Fond du Lac, at the level of Lake 

 Superior. The distance by the stream is about 24 miles. This 

 section of the river is exceedingly rough. There are some reasons^ 

 for believing that at Pine Island, 3 miles above Knife falls, the 

 rapids are artificial or partially so — on the Grrand rapids 5 miles 

 above and at their head, a dike of bowlders of enormous size, so 

 compactly placed and sloping doAvn stream at such an angle as to 

 revert the force of the highest floods. This dam floods the stream 

 4 miles to the mouth of the Cloquet river. About 4 miles, just 

 below the mouth of this last stream a dam composed of heavy 

 rocks, all rounded bowlders is thrown at right angles across the 

 river of sufficient height (about 7 feet) to flood the stream above 

 for 12 miles. Throughout this whole distance the scarcit}^ of bowl- 

 ders in the stream and on the banks would indicate that they had 

 all been removed and placed in that dam. 



Two more of these dams occur in Town 51, Ranges 18 and 19, 

 and farther up river at a point 3-| miles above Whiteflsh, at Swan 

 river rapids and at Cedar rapids. But the most marked impi-ove- 

 ments are on the Embarras river above Esquegamo lake. This 

 stream is the most northerly branch of the St. Louis river. It 

 makes a cut through the Mesabi mountains which rise, in Town 

 59, Range 15, to a height above the valley on each s-de of the 



