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[Reprinted from the American Anthropologist, Vol. 5, No. 3, July-Sept., 1903.] 
TRACES OF ABORIGINAL OPERATIONS IN AN IRON 
MINE NEAR LESLIE, MISSOURI 
By W. H. HOLMES 
Early in April, 1903, a communication was received by the 
Bureau of American Ethnology from Dr S. W. Cox, of Cuba, 
Missouri, stating that evidences of ancient mining operations had 
been discovered in an iron mine operated by him near Leslie, Frank¬ 
lin county. This report was confirmed by Mr D. I. Bushnell and 
other St Louis archeologists, and the present writer, who is espe¬ 
cially interested in the quarrying and mining industries of the abor¬ 
igines, repaired at once to Leslie to make a study of the interesting 
phenomena. 
It was found that the miners had encountered a body of iron 
ore, of unknown depth and horizontal extent, lying immediately 
beneath the surface of the soil on a gentle slope reaching down to 
the banks of Big creek, a branch of Bourbois river, and that they 
had removed the ore from a space about a hundred feet wide, one 
hundred and fifty feet long, and to a depth at the deepest part of 
between fifteen and twenty feet. In beginning the work traces of 
ancient excavations were observed, penetrating the soil which cov¬ 
ered the surface of the ore body to a depth of from one to five 
feet; and as the work progressed it was found that the ore had been 
tairly honeycombed by the ancient people, the passage-ways extend¬ 
ing even below the present floor of the mine. There were many 
partially filled galleries, generally narrow and sinuous; but now 
and then larger openings appeared, two of these being of sufficient 
dimensions to accommodate standing workmen. 
In the debris of the old excavations many rude stone implements 
were encountered, and upward of a thousand of these had been 
gathered by the miners into a heap on the margin of the mine. 
These sledges are exceedingly rude, consisting of hard masses of 
stone or hematite weighing from one to five pounds, and roughly 
grooved, or notched, for the attachment of withe handles. The 
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