Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-01-13
t He HER AID
PREHISTORIC WISCONSIN.
Relics Of the Stone and Copper Age-Priml-
tive MetsIlurgy.

Prof. j. d. Butler, Of Madison,
the following to the
Madison Democrat
Ten mysterious boxes arrived here
yesterday morning, and are on
deposit with the Historical Society.
Some of them were so heavy as 80
require four porters apiece TO carry
them up the capitol stairs.
These cases were filled with relics
of the stone age, numbering more
than 5000. Some are of the pa}Gco>
1.-the period-that il, implements OF
war and peace,-tormed only by
chipping. and hence rough. Others
are ne0 tithic and finely polished,
drilled with holes and sockets, or
finished with smooth groves. This
treasure is believed to be pre-eminent
in its kind. Another may perhaps
be found as large, but one so perfect,
SO various in articles, in materials,
and in styles of workmanship, i. will
be hard to discover.
One purpose of this notice ls to
learn where in the State other similar
legacies have been garnered. that
they may be compared with now 10,
our Capitoline museum, and that
their merits in comparison with it
may be determined The writer
therefore invites correspondence with
all persons who are acquainted with
other specimens of the handiwork OF
aboriginal Wisconsin,.
Bus in the lowest deep q lower
deep still opens. Among the curiosi-
ties just now entrusted to the Histori-
cal Society, the most curious arc not
of stone, but of copper. These artic-
les are viewed by arohaoologists as
the work, not OF Indians, but OF a
race far more ancient, whether we
call them mound builders, or know
not what to call them These frac-
tons cut out of our most distant
past, brought safe into the present
and set down before our ey es, amount
to one hundred and fourteen. They
have been found by four years
search extending through twelve
counties and leaving no corner OF
them untouched Such implements
are rare. Very few have been heard
of after inquiries among the oldest in :
babitants in Madison, Milwaukee,
Whitewater Baraboo, Lisbon, Niece
dab, Hartford, etc, and it is therefore
all the more earnestly desired by the
writer of this article that postals
may be sent to him 10 Madison by
all farmers who have plowed up such
copper memorials Of our prehistoric
and pre- Indian era. Let no more
such letters in the alphabet of orr
animals be sold to pedlars for old
copper let them be garnered in our
Capitol.
Some varieties in the Historical
Society's deposit are knives, axes,
chiseIs, rollers, drills, but especially
spear-heads, some to be stuck in
shafts, but more with sockets for
shafts.
Some were evidently hammered.
Others seem as evidently to have
been cast in a mold. Mold marks APP
pear probable to eye and hand.
AS we think Of the matter, it will
not seem surprising if Wisconsin
shall turn cut to be the richest OF
all states, and even countries, in
primitive metallurgy. A hundred
pre- historic mines have been traced
on the south Of Lake Superior In
what other locality can so many be
shown? Native copper in drift.
boulder9 has also been detected all
over the State, in larger or more fire.
quent masses than elsewhere. An
cient mining Of copper consisted in
building fires on rocks, throwing
water on them while heated, till the
stone crumbled, and copper veins
were thus extricated. But these
fires must have sometimes melted
tho copper, which fuses at heat O.
1896 Fahrenboit, or nearly thou
sand degrees less than iron The
miners, seeing the melted copper
taking the shape OF rock or sane
crevices, must have learned TO make
crevices, that the metal might run il
those forms which pleases them best
Behold the genesis OF smelling
A kite drew bridge over Niagara
and SMELL clue has made many ;
labyrinth plain path. So, study
of trifies light as air has often deriv
ed from them combinations strong a,
proofs from Holy Writ, regarding The
dark backw ward and abyss OF time
And it always will.