Grand Rapids morning telegram., 1885-02-12
A LOST NINE
Anticipating Big Silver Strike IN
the Far Nortn.
The story . Milwaukee Mss Teiis-Unsold
Treasures Waiting ia the Bow
sls of the Earth For the
Laeky Finder.
fsiilwankee Wisconsin,


snarine interests is large invester
ia Lake Superior mining properties.
It was bis good luck 10 bs one OF the men
wh0 heIe Calumet and Hecla stock before
the A zassiz psoc.ss for reducing copper
ore was discovered, which discovery in-
creased the value OF copper mine stocks
i've hundred fold, and made Calumet and
Hscla The greatest wealth producing
shafts ever dug into mother earth. Suc-
cess in this and like ventures has made
Mr.. Leopold a warm, not TO say san
gaine, believer in the mineral possibilities
OF the Northwest, and there are few pros
pecting schemes on the North shore To
which he has not been a cPntributor.
In conversation with a reporter day or
TWO ago. he told the following fascinating
story: Cooper Is undoubtedly good
thing. No man who was lucky enough TO
get into some or the Michigan mines on the
| ground aoor can gainsay that, but silver is
better thing. for all that, and as sure as
my name is Leopold, some time or other
there will be one of the biggest strikes OF
silver made on the north shore OF Lake SUI
| perior ever made in America. 1t will out
| 10 the Rocky Mountain finds, just as our
copper gets away with the Arizona mines
Or course, you know that where copper oc-
ours, silver is likely TO be also found, and
that this is more than theory the frequent
( discovery OF silver in Northern Michigan,
and especially ON the north Shore, proves.
! You know there is an island on Lake
Superior called S!lvsr Island, on which
silver is very proftably mkied. Did you
never hear the story OF the lost Silver
| Miner"
Never" said the reporter.
"Well it is good enough TO print" said
| Mr.. Leopold. 1T is current tradition at
Ontonagon. Hancock, Houghton, and espe-
ciaiiy at Duluth, and while you can hear
1t "a good many ways, have looked into il
very often. and believe you will find this
IS ABOUT the truth of 1t. About sixty
years ago all OF the country north OF
! Duluth was a wilderness. There were a
few Hudson Bay Company's posts scat
tered about the rivers and lakes up there,
and the rest of that part of British Amer
ica was the home of rowing Indians and
nobody else. The story was current then
that somewhere down along the northern
shore OF the lake there was a mine where
virgin silver was to be found in Jumps. One
day party of Indians--this is the cold
|
books printed years ago-one day party
OF Indians came into port on LAX. .Winni-
eg TO trade, but instead of furs they had
solid ingots OF silver. Every one of the
party were provided with bricks worth
hundreds of dollars. You may be-
lisve this caused sensation. 1t
proved that the rumOrs current so
long had some foundation. The Indians
were strangers at the post. They belonged
to a different tribe from any ever seen
there before, and they pointed out vaguely
IN southeasterly direction, when asked
whence they had come. OF course they
had the usual carouse, and at last they
loaded up with guns, calicoes, beads and
whisky and started for home. Two
Frenchmen. who were at the post, tracked
them across the wilderness, ,shadowng them
like pair OF detectives, and after going
about 100 miles further than from St. Louis
o Chicago-through Incredible hardships
md sufferings, they at last tracked them O
earth. According to the story the home of
these Indians was in the range of hills be-
tween Crooked Lake and Superior, south
of Pigeon River, in what is now the State
of Minnesota They did more than this,
they found the Indian mine, and its wealth
was beyond all the stories told Of it, In q
grOtto of rotten rock the virgin silver was
to be seen veining the sides in every direc-
zion. The two men marked down the po-
sition of the mine as closely "a could be,
taking n number of land marks, so
that there could be no mistake. The mine
stood at the head of long serpentne
ravne which trended southeast Then
they loaded up with all the silver they
could carry and star ted back All this
time the Indians knew nothing of their
visits. Well, they toiled along for days
aud days. borne down by the weight of
metal and at last one OF them sckened
and died on the road. Winter was coming z
or and the remaining explorer struggled
onward after burying his companion, and
now and then stopping and cacheing some
Of the silver. until at last he got back 70
the post. The work and the exposure
were too much for him, however, and in
couple of days he, too, sickened and died
tie gave the most explicit instructions &c
his companions at the rost "a TO how the
mine was to be reached. and you may be-
lieve that the search made the next sum-
mer was an exhaustive one. The body OF
sne other explorer was found, as was slsc
the silver hidden on the road. but the mine
tself was not come upon There is an old
Canadian that everybody calls Leon, who
is occasionally to be seen in Duluth. where
he comes 90 buy stores. who IL the son of
one of the men that we're at the
post when the survivor OF the two
first finders got back. This
Leon has done nothing all his life but hunt
for that mine. He has got Old papers de-
scribing is location "a closely as possible,
bat he has never found it. although there
il not a ravine in those hills that Il has
not examined. He will keep up the hunt
until he dies. OF course. and he may ind it
stranger things have happened"
s'Do vou believe the storys'
Certainly I do. It may be exagger-