WJio Made the Ancient Copper Implements? 101 



"WHO MADE THE ANCIENT COPPER IMPLEMENTS. 



By Dr. P. R. Hoy, Racine. 



Elsewhere I have considered how the ancient copper im- 

 plements were fabricated. This paper will be devoted to the 

 answer of the question who made the ancient copper imple- 

 ments, that the plow and spade reveal so abundantly over 

 Wisconsin and sparingly over most of the other states and 

 Canada. 



The early explorers upon the St. Lawrence in Canada, on 

 the coast of New England, New York, Virginia, the Caro- 

 linas and Florida (among whom we will mention Cartier, 

 Alfonse, Varan zano, Raleigh, Heriot, Ribauld, Newport, Al- 

 louez, Champlain and De Soto), all concur in saying that the 

 Indians had implements and ornaments made of copper. 

 Alexander Henry, who penetrated to Lake Superior at the 

 time of the French war, assures us that the Indians obtained 

 copper here which they made into bracelets, beads, spoons 

 and other articles. (Henry's Travels p. 195.) 



Dr. Jackson, of Boston, who spent several years on Lake 

 Superior during the early period of the copper excitement, 

 told me (in the summer of 1844, which I spent in the copper 

 region) that "it was undoubtedly the Chippewas that 

 mined, and probably the French half-breeds assisted in 

 these old mines. The fresh condition of the wood work, 

 skids and ladders, and the evidence that sharp axes were 

 used in fitting the timbers is evidence that they are not of 

 great antiquity." Dr. Jackson has published since similar 

 views regarding these old mines. 



Charles Whittlesey, U. S. Geologist, in the course of the 

 geological survey of the Lake Superior district, writes: "In 

 the old works on the Minnesota location near the forks of 

 the Ontonogan river there was found at the depth of eighteen 

 feet, amass of copper weighing eleven thousand five hundred 

 and eighty-eight pounds, Avhich had been taken out of the 

 vein by the ancients. It had been raised a few feet along the 

 slope of the vein by means of wedges and cob- work made of 



