The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-06-18
GRAVE OF HENRY HUDSON.
An Old Fort Which May be His Burial
Place.

Investigations That VIII be Watched
With Great Interest by
Many.
In these columns a few weeks back
was given an account of the discovery
OF an old fort in the pine forests OF
Michigan, having upon its ruins proof
positive, in the shape of giant hem
locks more than two centuries and
half old, that the fort had been built
and destroyed years before La Sale,
the first white man known to have set
foot upon Michigan soil, penetrated to
that region. Since the article which APP
peared in the Pail Mall Gazette" was
written, many interesting particulars
of the discovery have reached England,
and it is now likely that some of the
geographical section of the British as
ISOLATION, which this year holds its
meetings in Toronto, Ontario, no great
distance, as distance goes in America,
from Lake City, will visit the site Of the
AOIl anu MAKE d EdIClu III GAdIlllndNlOIi
The remains of the fort are some
eight miles from Lake City, which is
situated almost exactly midway be-
tween Lakes Huron and Michigan, on
a line drawn from OscOda, famous for
its pine timber and Manistee, on the
shores of Lake Michigan. \ few miles
away is Lake HOughton, on whose
shores the mighty Ottawa tribe of red
Indians had their headquarters. For
scores of miles in every direction
stretch the pine woods which for years
past have supplied the greater part of
America with timber. IN the immedi-
ate neighborhood of Lake City the for
est is we'll nigh impenetrable, and DR..
Erwin, under whose charge the re-
searches have been carried on, had to
penetrate through a labyrinth of cedar
underbrush and fallen trees before he
came to the banks of the Mosquito
Greek. In the angle of land formed by
the junction of the Mosquito Creek and
Clam River DR.. Erwin and his party,
having followed the directions of an old
hunter named Big Hunger" came up
on the ruins. These consisted of a cir
Gle of breastWorks, embracing close up
on half an acre, the mounds formed of
the earth excavated to make moat,
which had evidently been flooded from
Mosquito Creek. In the center of the
ground inclosed by these breast works
under the leaves and decay of centur-
les, was found bed of charcoal and
ashes, giving the appearance of being
the remains of a blockhouse or wood
en- fort, burned probably in the storm
ing of the breastworks. Excavations
brought to light two skeletons, and
what are more likely to prove valuable
for the clearing up of the mystery of
the fort, number of scraps of iron, to
all appearances parts of helmets, and
one broken cutlass These fragments
have been forwarded to the Smithsonian
Institution at Washington, to be ex-
amined by experts.
1t was a legend heard from the local
Indians that led DR.. Erwin to hit upon
the possibility of this old fort being the
grave of Henry Hudson. In ancient
days the dark forests of the upper pen
insula of Michigan, between Lakes
Michigan and Huron were people by
the Ottawas, a tribe that produced the
greatest of all war chiefs, Pontiac.
Across Lake Huron, now the Province
VI N'AtetA ~, NCIC the IunliIlS GROUNDS
of the Hurons, a warlike and numerous
tribe, famous for all time as the es-
pecial foe of the Iroquois. Civilization
has swallowed Iroquois and Huron, but
still in the vast forests of Michigan are
to be found small encampments of the
Ottawas, living much as their forefa-
theirs did, gorging all summer and
starving all winter. The many streams
that thirl the woods are rich in fish,
the small lakes are the paradise of the
waterfowl, and bears in great numbers
pick the berries from the tangled brier,
and deer eat the fresh tops of burgeon-
ing branches. An Indian can live in
these wilds in all his aboriginal soli-
tude for the land once cleared of it's
heavy timber is to all intents and pur-
poses worthless, and is allowed to re-
lapse into a forest, ten small trees TAX
ing the place of the one great one sent
down the river for lumber. In the
neighborhOOd of Lake City lives John
ChingWash, an old Ottawa Indian and
his account of a legend of his tribe led
those that are investigating the history
of the fort to connect it with the fate
of Henry Hudson. The Indians tale is
this:
Many years ago the Ottawa nation
whose village was upon the shores of
Houghton Lake, a beautiful sheet of
water midway between Lakes Huron
and Michigan, owned the whole of the
peninsula as their hunting ground
Their hereditary enemy was the Huron
tribe, and wars and raids We're of fire.
quent occurrence between the two. One
day band of the Ottawas' braves
brought in a party of white men, the
first palefacess the Ottawas had ever
ever heard Of The braves had come
upon the white men to the north of
Lake Superior, and easily captured
them. When the palefaces reached
Houghton Lake the Indians, full of curl
osity, treated them as guests, only TAX
ing care that the strange people did
not make away. They quickly learned
to love the leader of the whites, whom
they called "Stargazer," from his
method of guiding his men through the
trackless forest by the stars instead Of
adopting the methods of the Indians
who placed all dependence upon wood
craft. "StargaZer' soon became an au-
thority in the tribe, and was looked
rpon as a patriarch and chief, so that