Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-26
Curious Discovery.

HOW the discovery Oh the famous
Calumet mine was due to an al
most inconceivable chance Us told by
n Government official. 1t appears tha'
several centuries ago, perhaps DeIoIe
white men set foot on American SOIL
a party of Indians dug up some cop
per on Isle Royale. AS the winter ap'
nroached they prepared to migrate to
quarters farther south and, loading
their canoes deep with the spoils OF
the Summers work. they padded to
the mainland toward the southeast.
Avoiding the hazardous voyage around
Keweenaw Peninsula, they started to
carry across it and were probably
overtaken by an early winter storm.
At all events, they dug a pit and
buried their treasure near the place
that afterward became Calumet No. /
shaft. By an accident, the spot they
chose was on the hanging wall of the
Calumet conglomerate, close to the
lode
Relieved of their burden, the primi-
tive miners hurried toward milder
climate, but must have met with dis
aster on the voyage, as they never
returned for the copper. Genera tions
lived and died, little seedlings on the
edge of the pit grew slowly into huge
trees and in the stiffness of the pri-
meval forest the buried hoard of the
Indians guarded in secret the mighty
treasure that lay beneath.
The early French explorers found
copper on the Ontonagon River in the
seventeenth century, but Keweenaw
Peninsula was still virgin forest
when, 81 years ago. it was ceded to
ho Int
Indians. After the copper fever of
1S45 and 1916 had subsidized, it left the
country still wilderness, with a few
small mines hidden here and there in
the forest.
Such were the conditions in 1858
when Hubert was surveying a state
road from Copper Harbor to what is
now the southwestern limit of Hough-
ton county. Roaming about in the
woods, he stumbled across the Dit
where the copper from Isle Royale Law
buried. This he mistook for an old
indian copper mine. Looking about
III the vicinity for further traces of
workings, he found, a few hundred
teet to the southwest, near what was
a1terWard Hecla No. / shaft, a large
DOCK OF conglomerate This rock
WelShlng many tons, was infiltrated
with copper and was in fact a bit OF
Inc calumet conglomerate.
II was evident from its appear nee
! mat Is was not a bowlder TRANSPORTED
! there by the ice of former ages, and
ne was convinced that it had been
| lifted out of The ground by the frost
| and lay close to its original position.
| Satisfied that he had made an i'm.
portant discovery. he went about his
! business, keeping his secret to him.
! seH--a secret that was valuable only
| because the pit happened to be where
1t would have been had it indeed been
the mine for which he mistook it.
! Taking the greatest care to keep his
| actions quiet. Hubert tried to gain
| possession of the land on which the
pit was situated. With his tiny api.
| tai he was unable to do this, but he
| eventually bought the land to the
| north. 1t was not until August, 1864.
| that he found himself in a position to
| make an opening.
| Assuming that the bowlder was near
| the lode and that the pit was an open
| ing into the lode, he drew a line from
| the bowlder through the pit and eX'
| tended it TO the nearest point on his
own land. Here. at what is now
| Calumet No. shaft, he sank a shaft
| and by the middle of September ne
was we'll into the copper-bearing con-
| giomerate. Thus it was that the
mine producing the best copper in the
country was begun. 4......