Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1882-04-29
NORTHERN TRIBUNE.
LAKE SUPERIOR ANCIENrS.
Interesting incidents Concerning tn
Prehistoric Works of the Mines.

Interesting Incidents Concerning the
Prehistoric Works of the Mines.
From Harper's Magazine for May.
The Lake Superior mines have the adj
vantage of producing metal free from
any alloy OF anthony or nickle or ar
senic. In many Of the mines great
masses of native metal are found so
large that they must be cut in pieces
with chisels.
All the more important mines are sit
uated on the ancient workings Of a pre-
historic race. They seem TO have been
ignorant of the fact that copper could be
melted, for they left behind them the
fragments too small to use and the
masses to heavy to lift. Every day they
subjected it to temperature nearly
high enough, without making dis
cOvery which would have lifted tn m
out of the stone age into the bronze age,
and perhaps have enabled them to sur
yive the struggle in which they perish
ed. They must have been very numer-
Gus, and have reached the point of devel-
9pment where they were capable of or
ganiZing industry.
In Isle ROyale, near the MinOng mine,
their pits, eXcavated to depth Of from
ten TO twenty feet in the solid rock cover
an area Of from three to four hundred
feet wide and more than mile and a
half in length, The labor expended here
cannot have been much short of that Ill
yOlved in building q pyramid. IslelRoyale
is ten miles from the nearest land, and
is incapable of producing food, so that
all supplies except fish must have been
brought from distant points. Their eX
cavatiOnS could of course never go be-
low the point at which water would ac-
cumulate. Their hammers, frequently
to the number Of several thousand, are
found in heaps where they were evident
ly placed at the end of the season. AS no
graves or evidences of habitatiOns are
found, we can hardly doubt that the an
cient miners lived south of the great
lakes, aud made yearly jOurneyings with
fleets of canoes to the copper mines. The
aggregate amount of the metal which
they carried off must have been very
great, and it has, believe been general
ly thought that the copper implements
of the ancient MeXicans came from this
source. M. Charnay in recent number
of the North American, seems to think
that the MeXicans reduced copper from
its ores. A chemical analysis of their
hatchets would solve the question, for
Lake Superior copper is so free from al
Toys as to be unmistakable.
The superintendent of the old CaledO-
mia mine in OntOnagOn county kindly
took lie to the top of cliff where three
"tributers working not for
wages but for share of the product
had cleared out one of the ancient pits
in the outcrOp of the vein. They had
brought out guam ity of copper, and had
I.r IA t.I Il
weigh certainly not less than seven tons.
Many battered stone hammers lay
around the mouth Of the pit. The active
little Englishmen, belonging to race
of hereditary miners perhaps as old as
the mOund-builders themselves, had
come around the world from the east to
finish the task Of the departed Asiatic
race who reached here from the west at
a time to which no date can be assign
ed. Not far away another party had cut
down dead cedar to make props for
their tunnel. AS they were putting the
log In position, from its center dropped
small but perfectly formed stone ham
mer which had never been used. 1t was
made from stone found, believe, only
on the north shore of the lake. This tree
was not far from $50 years old but as
cedar is almost indestructible i'm this
climate it may have been dead several
hundred years. The axeman said that
he had found several hammers in the
center of cedars. 1t would seem barely
possible that this hammer had been
placed in a cleft Of tree, when it was
sapling, that the wood might grow
around the groove and serve as handle.
At all events, this one. which l have,
was certainly placed where it was
about 80 inches from the grOund-by
human hands, undoubtedly by the an
cient miner himself, when the tree was
a twig.