The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1921-08-19

as ! learned it from some half-breeds
at L'Anse.
In the early days / did great deal
Of timber estimating in Baraga coun-
ty. / remember one trip especially
of three weeks which Imade to Town
| so, North of ange 80 w. This is the
Huron Mountain country, fifteen
miles south of Skanee. had two
men with me who were well known
in L'Anse-John st. Arnauld and
James Holiday. We had to carry
everything on our backs through the
woods, and when we started st. Ar
nauld's pack weighed 125 pound, Hol-
liday's 90 pour and mine 20 pounds.
We on'-' carried solid food, such as
49,, ilour, prunes, tea, sugar and
baking powder. 1t was very warm in
+, the month of May and we were only
able to make ten miles day, as we
were running straight section-line,
through swamps and over hills. There
was no road built in there at that
time. We made frequent stops for
rest, and at one time, while sitting
On a log noticed beans scattered on
the ground. turned to St. Arnauld
and said: Johnnie, yoa are losing
your beans cut of your pack" He
looked around and said: "My pack is
all right" Then he said: "You stay
here" and he and Holiday started
off. Indian fashion, trailing string
of beans which led through the woods.
In little while they returned, bring
ing some cans of corn and beef which
had been chewed by bear. Going
the other way they soon brought back
the empty bean bag. 1t seemed that
some trapper had made cache of
his supplies in tree, to keep them
away from the bear. Johnnie said
to me then: "You can never hide
anything from bear. If you put it
it a tree. he will go up and pull it
down. If you bury it in the ground
he will dig it up. If you put it in
hollow log, he will tear the log tc
pieces. But" he said, before we go
back, will show you how to fool
bear" Our permanent camp was on
a little lake which is the head waters
Of the Huron River. We had two
days of work to do in the next town.
ship, and did not want to take any
more supplies with US than we need
ed for these two days. st Arnauld
took the balance cf them, cleared
little space on the ground, thatched
the supplies with balsam boughs. and
then crossed on top of them two hard
wood joles, sticking blazing axe in
the center. He said to me: "a bear
will never touch that. 1t will fool
him because he will think it is trap.
an bear is too smart to get caught"
We were gone two days and when we
returned we found that a bear had
walked all around our supplies, /
tracked the ground down, but every
thing was found just as we left it. !
st. Arnauld fooled the bear.
We have already seen that L'Anse
was the important reloaing link in
the transportation communication
with the Copper Country, and that it
still retained some of its ancient glo-
ry as fur trading mart for the In
dians in the early eighties. We have
still to see that it played most inn
portant part as numbering center
and as promising iron ore produc-
er, while its farming experimental
ton was then in its incipient stage Of
development.
When I lived in Baraga county
there were two daily and two annual
events that were of prime importance
and furnished a never ending source
of conversation. The daily events
were the arrival of the train from
Marquette in the evening, and the
arrival Of the stage from OntonRgon.
The yearly events were the harding
ers of Spring, namely: the arrival
of the first boat and the coming from
the log-drives of the lumber-jacks.
The latter event always meant a very !
live town for couple of weeks until /
the winter savings had been properly
distributed in the usual lumberjack
fashion. Probably at that time 80
per cent Of the people made their liv-
ing cut Of the lumber business. The
Nester saw mill was the largest one
in the Northwest and had ! capacity
Of 100000 feet per day.
In the early eighties it beemed for
time quite probable tRat Baraga
county would rank amonf the large
producers of iron ore. In 1872 a |
pocket of excellent ore f,as discov- ,
cred five miles south Of EAnse. In
about eight years it had been sufic-
iently developed to entitl4 it to the
name of mine. It was called the
Taylor Mine. An iron ore DICK, which
was the model Of its time, vas built
: j.