The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-05-07
From the Milwaukee News,1

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A rrespondent-whose statement has
since been withdrawing from one of the
mining settlements on the shores of Lake
Superior. says that the remains Of consid-
cradle number of ancient copper mines have
lately been discovered on Isle Royal, in
Thunder Bay, on the northern border of the
lake, which exhibit undoubted evidence of
having been worked by a race o! men long
since extinct, and of whom we possess no
knowledge save that left behind by such
traces as are now being brought TO view
Shafts of considerable depth, filled and
checked with the accumulated debris of
ages, have been opened, and in penetrating
to depth of sixty feet, tools of wonderful
workmanship have been discovered, together
with charcoal remains, which mark the
point where skilled artisans formed, from
copper, tools whose temper and durability
would astonish the ingenius makers of the
present day. Hammers and chises seem to
have been the principal implements for
working the mine, which, together with the
IRE, reduced the ore to a CONDITION which
rendered it's removal IL detail easily accom-
plished. Finely tempered knife blades have
been picked out of the pit, and granite ham
mers OF such size as to require strength OF
40 ordinary man to WELD successfully.
These discoveries, wonderful as they are,
90 not stand alone, nor do they present any
new facts in relation to the people who
formerly Inhabited this continent They
simply go to strengthen the evidence that,
centuries before the written history OF
America, powerful and civilized communI..
ties occupied every portion of Its domain,
who disappearing, left behind them proof
of their progress in the arts and sciencesi and
their indubtable skill in architecture. For
three thousand miles along the valleys of
our great western rivers traces of towns and
cities occur at intervals, together with the
remains of large fortified encampments.
which show, from taeir position and ar.
rangement, that their builder were no mean
adopts in the art Of warfare. Vast tumuli.
with dead buried in sitting posture and at
their feet shells unknown to this continent
exist by the hundred in the Ohio and Miss
issippi valleys. In the dense Yucstan for
est there are ruins of temples and palaces.
resembling In solidtv of cons ruction, mas
siveness OF materials, general design and
execution, the ancient remains of the old
Egyptian dynasties. Yet neither in Western
America nor In Yucatan exists the faintest
tradition as to that mysterious race which
has left behind it the inperishable record of
It's genius and civilization We can do moth
ing but conjecture. Pursue our inyestiga-
lions as we may, we are still led back to the
starting point, with no more definite knovl-
edge than when we set out. The thread Ia
lost, never to be recovered.
l. is singular fact that, thus far. there
has never been discovered upon any of the
ruins or In connection with the tools and
war implements mentioned, any mark, letter,
or trace, Whereon any clue, either to the ORR.
g'n' customs or language of this mysterious
race, might be caught or gathered up. In
Europe the gradual process of DEVELOPMENT
from a halt savage state to the high culture
OF the present day. may be traced, stage nv
stage. and every distinct era marked by a
definite date. But. here the links that bonnd
one generation to another have been abrupt-
~ severed, and the mound builders OF the
ONO, the architects OF Copan and Palenoue
and the copper workers on the shores Of
Lake superior alike lie, beyond the reach
OF the historian and the speculations of the
arcnaeologist. The relies they have left be-
hind them only serve to excite the coniec.
Cures OF the curious and the Investigations
OF the scientific. Possibly, in some vet nm.
discovered ruin or tomb. the key may be
found to the problem which now puzzlas tho
world; but then it is only a possibility
Tn re Is little doubt that the mystery vii,
remain mystery 7ntil the great day when
0ne sea gives up list dead and the past be
stretched before US like a scroll.