The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1882-05-06
SUPERIOR!
Her Location and Surround.
ings.
Natural HA2BOR Advantages.
Mineral Wealth, Unsurpassed Lum-
bering Facilities and Agrieul-
tural Resources.


tural Resources.
Since our connection with the TIMES we
have daily received letters of inquiry re-
garding Superior and her resources and
prospects. We desire to answer all in9uir-
ers, but to do SO separately by letter would
require all Of our time or demand the en-
ployment ola special correspondent, and
then it would be incompletely done. To
meet the desires of all, therefore, we have
compiled, from such statistics as are avail
able, a brief sketch Or history Of the city
and its surroundings. The reader is no
doubt aware that the idea OF building city
here is not new one, but that from various
causes its development has been retarded.
The obstacles which have heretofore oper-
ated against the town have finally been re-
moved, however, and It's day Of prosperity
is now at hand. Heretofore we have never
had an inland outlet; now we have the
Northern Pacific railroad stretching away
to the plains of the west, and in few
months will have the Chicago, St. Paul,
Minneapolis & Omaha road giving us direct
communication with Chicago to the east
and all the great and fertile region lying to
the South and Southwest in an unbroken
chain through Southern Dakota, Nebraska
&c. As an evidence of present prosperity
it is only necessary to say that within the
past six months 100000 have been ex,
pended here in new buildings and local i'm
proyements not including the railroad build
ing. The n. p. Company is building a
/ 1 l.. Il Il.
city is repairing and charging two others
The large hotel known as the Superior
House, containing about one hundred
rooms, has been reftted and furnished and
opened to the public a new $4,000 hotel
to be built by the y. p. Company will be
erected during the season and also at least
one million bushel elevator, coal docks, &C.
The only National bank at the head of the
lake is here, and new business and dwelling
houses are springing up daily as if by
magic. Superior is the county seat Of
Douglas County, and we have an excellent
Court House, three good school houses and
three schools IN operation, three good
church buildings and another to be built
this season, all of which is given as the best
of evidence that Superior is soon to occu
py that position in the great commercial
circles nature has intended she should
occupy.
Much Of the matter given below has of
course been given to the public before in
one form or another, bat being interesting
to those who would 'know all about u.s."
and thoroughly reliable, we compile it in
It's present form to the better and more ex-
plicitly answer the many questions pro-
pounded to us.
LAKE SUPERIOR.
The statistics of measurement Of this great
lake are as follows greatest length, $50
miles greatest breadth 100 miles; mean
depth $40 feet elevation 627 feet; area IN
square miles $4,000.
The PHYSICAL features of the basin Of the
great lakes and the ST. Lawrence river, and
the influence it must exert on future moral
developments, are without parallel and his
torical precedent. 1t is an American trea-
sure-its value to be estimated less by
what it has already accomplished, than by
what it must achieve in it's progress. The
western extreme of the basin of the ST.
Lawrence has rcceivee larger share than
any other portion of our country of the
valuable addition to our national riches
arising from the industry, intelligence and
wealth of the hundreds of thousands who
have recently landed on our shores. 1t is
impossible to estimate the enormous and
continuous accumulation Of wealth having
its basis on the ample resources and natur-
al riches of this great western region over
which the star of American Empire seems
now to rest.
The completion of the ship canal around
the Falls OF st. Mary, has opened to the
lower lakes navigation of fully a thousand
miles. Our shipping now has a continuous
sweep over waters which drain more than
one hundred thousand square mile Of re-
gion Astounding in mineral and agricultural
wealth, which may be water-borne nearly
half way across the continent. Its fisheries
are exhaustless. Nature has developed its
mineral treasures upon scale as grand as
It's waters. Its copper mines are the most
extensive and productive in the world. The
whole southern shore abounds in copper in
vast veins of almost virgin metal, the ex-
tent Of which is UNEMPLOYED and incalcul-
able. It's iron mines, near the shore of the
lake, surpass those of Sweden or Russia in
extent and in the excellence of their ma.
terial 1t is predicted by acute metallur-
gists, that its silver mines, though as yet
undeveloped, will one day vie with those OF
| Mexico. The tributary rivers of this lake
are numerous, and. bringing down vol
ume of water, afford super-abundant water.
! power for manufactures the most extensive
in the world, between two of which, the
st. Louis and Nemadji-lies Superior, and
both of these streams flow through the vast
pine regions and yearly empty their trea
sure into Superior bay, right at our very
! door. The St. Louis also furnishes vast
water power, one almost unsurpassed on
this continent. \ company has just been
organized, with 4 capital of Sl,000,000 to
| improve this water power, and work on. the
! same is now progressing as fast as men
can push It. Under this head of Lake
/ Superior we may quote from an official re
( port made some years ago by Hon. c. I
/ Jackson, NJ. D., at one time United States
/ Geologist and Chemist, and later Mass
/ achusetts State Assayer:
/ Lake Superior is the largest sheet O
/ fresh water on the face of the globe, and il
/ is the most remarkable of the American
I lakes, not only from It's magnitude, but also
/ from the picturesque scenery of its borders
and in the interest and value attaching tC
| its geological features. As a mining region
/ it is one Of the most important in this
! country, and is rich in veins Of metallic cop
/ per and silver, as well as in the ores o
those metals. At the present moment i
/ may be regarded as the most valuable min
/ ing district in North America, with The ex
ception only of the geld deposites of Cali
/ fOrpia