236 



made upon the waters of the Bad or Mauvaise River, a stream with 

 numerous branches, draining the country from the Montreal to the 

 •headwaters of the Chippeway and St. Croix Rivers. 



Historically considered, the exploration of this region commenced 

 in the year 1840, when Dr. Houghton, as a commissioner of the State 

 of Michigan, accompanied Capt. Cram of the United States Topo- 

 graphical Engineers, who was then surveying the Menominee and 

 Montreal Rivers. 



In 1840 and 1841 Dr. Houghton examined the rocks on both these 

 streams, and the country between their sources. I am in possession 

 of a transcript of his field notes during these explorations. In 1845-6 

 I made examinations along the range across the Montreal to the 

 westward, as far as the main branch of Bad River. 



Up to this time the public lands in this part of Wisconsin had not 

 been surveyed. The fourth principal meridian was extended north- 

 ward through Wisconsin to Lake Superior in 1848. Dr. A. Randall, 

 one of the assistants of Dr. Owen upon the survey of the Chippeway 

 Land District, in reference to mines and minerals, accompanied the 

 linear surveyors along this line. In Town 44 north Dr. R. discovered 

 an outcrop of magnetic iron ore, and brought in a specimen. The 

 next season, as a member of Dr. Owen's corps, I made an exploration 

 on the western branches of Bad River, crossing southerly to the head 

 waters of the Chippeway. Near Lac des Anglais, and thence easterly 

 across the middle or main fork of the Bad River, I found cliffs and 

 bluffs of silicious magnetite. The results of this examination may be 

 seen in the final Report of Dr. Owen, published at Washington in the 

 year 1850. 



In the Chippeway language the name for iron is pewabik ; and I 

 thought it proper to designate the mountains, where this metal exists 

 in quantities that surprise all observers, as the " Pewabik Range." 

 The compositor, however, transformed it to PenoJcie, a word which be- 

 longs to no language, but which is now too well fastened upon the 

 range by usage to be changed. 



Soon after the publication of Dr. Owen's Report, the excitement of 

 1845-6 in i-eference to copper was repeated in reference to iron. The 

 government was at last induced to make surveys of the region. Pre- 

 emptors followed the surveyors, erecting their rude cabins on each 

 quarter section between the meridian and Lac des Anglais, a distance 

 of eighteen or twenty miles. The iron belt is generally less than one- 

 fourth of a mile in width, regularly stratified, dipping to the north- 

 west conformable to the formations, and having its outcrop along the 

 summit of the second or southerly range. Viewing this mountain re- 

 gion from La Pointe, or from the open lake, it has the appearance of 

 a single crest. Its outline against the sky in a clear day is very dis- 



