Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-06
Houghton's Reports on the Copper.

IOil POI - Oli Lhc SOPPCi.
His reports, which were first published in
1871. were careful and conservative. He
described the enormous extent and value of
the copper deposits in positive but guarded
terms. and at the same time warned pros
pectors and other atyen;Gr is of their in
accessibility and tn" difficulties that .aS III
the way OF their development. His state
ments were prophetic. Although his OBJ
ServatiCns were in a measure casual. be-
cause he had NO trans portation but birch
bark canoe. and no means of drilling or
sinking shafts, they are valuable even to
tEis DAY. and his predictions have been
verified in 4 remarkan.s manner. In the
light of later developments it would be in
tcresttng toe know what information his
final reports would have contained, for
the night of October Il. 1870 while crossing
the lake i'll a Sn0wStorm, his Sal1boat was
Capsized and he was drowned with his COM
panions. and his notebook was lost. His
body was recovered in the following spring.
but his notes probably became saturated
with water and sank TO the bottom.
John Hays. d nat We of Butler county,
Pa. who died in Cleveland in April. 1862,
at the age of ninetyeight years was the
first man to take practical advantage of
the aforementioned contain in the reports of
DR. Douglas Houghton. He was druggist in
Pittsburg, and in 1873 went to the Lake Su
perior regions to recover his health. He
became Interested in the copper discoveries
and with the financial assistance of Dr.
c. G.. HusseS of Pittsburg obtained
eral leases of mineral lands from a specu-
lator named Raymond and from the gov
eminent agents He returned to PittSburg,
organized a company ana In the spring of
1S44 chartered schooner to take him and
party of laborers, WITH their supplies and
tools to what Is low known as Copper
River. where a fort had been constructed
to protect the settlers from the Indians.
The First Copper Mine.
There Hays opened what is known as the
Cliff mine November Is. 1914. and it i'm
mediately became famous as the first mine
to yield pure copper in the United States,
If not in the world. The product was
shipped to Boston. 1t yielded So per cent
of metal. and several large masses of pure
copper were found II the ne;ghborhood.
One of them weighed 2 100 pounds. and an
other weighing 3,S52 pounds shipped
to England as curiosity and presented to
Kings College for Its meteorological col
lection. The Cliff mine proved a profitable
enterprise. earning for its owners during
the first ten years, fl ON. 1886 to 1856, the
sum of S2.5lS.OW n dividends upon an
original Investment of s1as, 9G0:
VIA a party of friends. from Houghton
/ went out he other day to see its remains |
Although the werks were abandoned long
ago and the shaft was filed with debris,
many of the substantial log houses erected
for the use OF the officers and miners are
still standing in good condition. The old
hotel Is still maintained and receives a
generous support from the people of Calu-
met Houghton and other places In the
neighberhood, which make it picnic re-
sort. The wharves have been washed
away. The ancient warehouse Is a melan-
choly ruin The mouth of the river Is
choked with sand, and no boat has landed
there within the life of the present gen.
Grafton. but 1t was once busy place. and
will always have great historic interest be-
cause it was the scene of the first act in
the great mineral development of Michigan