The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-12-16


A New international Happy uniting
Ground.
have suggested making the Rainy
Lake watershed the area of the new
international happy hunting ground,
because its boundaries can be easily
delimited, from the point of view
of presentday exploration by canoe.
But it might be extended to include
the Lake Superior shoreline. That
would take in Grand Portage, once
the lakes headquarters of the trans
continental fur trade, as we'll as
Rainy Lake, to which the headquart-
ers of the North West Company was
transferred, during the period when
it's greatest exploratory work was
being done in six states and five
provinces. Grand Portage could be-
come the first port in the world
solely devoted to the promotion of
goodwill, begotten of craftsmanship
an ten per cent exploratory ro-
nance, fur trade romance, trans
portation romance, and international
boundary romance. Everything that
goes into the wondrous history of
this half-continent abounds and can
much more abound in the departure
now suggested for this unique neigh
borhood. AS I have taken Lake La
Croix as typical feature of the
boundary itself, let me take David
Thompson as the explorer whose
work is most intimately connected
with this great territory we are con-
sidering. Of his work he wrote this
great but modest paragraph:
''Thus have I fully completed
the survey of North America
from sea to sea and by almost
innumerable astronomical OBJ
servations, have determined the
positions of the mountains,
lakes and rivers, and other re-
markable places on the northern
part of this continent; the maps
of all of which have been drawn,
and laid down in geographical
position, being now the work of
twenty-seven years"
Thompson's journals give .he most
illuminating story of eighteenth
century life in the Superior kinter-
land that has ever been written, but
they do not touch what is believed
to be the real reason for his survey
of the sources of the Mississippi.
That can be the subject of a most
intriguing account of how boundary
matters concerned fur traders on the
infant republics western frontiers,
and demonstrated how a treaty of
Versailles left questions finally un-
settled in 1888 as it did in 1919.
The North West Company of Mont
real was trading in Minnesota, with
many posts, between Fond Du Lac
(Duluth) and where the Red river
crosses parallel forty-nine 1t flew
the British flag at every one of them
until 1906. At the command of
Lieutenant Pike (who Yves killed at
Toronto in 1913, and after whom
Pixies peak in Colorado was named)
the flag came down in that year; but
the exact boundary wasn't settled
until 1827-forty-three years after
the treaty of Versailles which finally
established the independence of the
revolted colonies.
Thompson Concerned in Final Set
Element.
David Thompson was deeply con-
cerned in that final settlement, for
he was the surveyor for the British
half of the international commission
which fixed the frontier bet =een
Canada and the United States from
Cornwall to the Lake of the Woods.
The American and British boundary
commissioners disagreed so much
about where the trans-Superior
boundary ought to be that the Amer
leans surveyed the Kaministiquia,
from Fl. William; and the British
surveyed the st. Louis from Duluth.
The international story of setting
this boundary through the Rainy
Lake watershed is as good as a play,
though it has never yet been gwen
as entertaining drama. It ties in
with the romance of all the region
with which Radisson, Du Luht, La
Verendyre, and all the galaxy Of
brave adventures and daring traders
are imperishably associated.
Can you make living commem-
Grafton of explorers and fur traders
who introduced civilization to half
a continent? I conceive the cooper
alton commissions which will over
see the development. 1t will make
names and phases of our similar
history visible and vocal through
the use of historical names and the
reconstruction of a fort here and
trading headquarters there. 1t will
be an outdoor mecca that will in
f1uence the teaching of international
goodwill in every school of North
America.
The creation of modern civiliza-
ton here, through faulty instruments
as many of the explorers and traders
were, is the new worlds Odyssey
waiting to be rehearsed. In this
international happy hunting ground
it can be staged from time to time
serial spectacle, improving all the
details.
The first international boundary
commission settled our water from
tiers after ten years friendly CO.
operation. It's greatest triumph of
common sense over contention was
along these very trans-Superior riv-
ers and lakes. The second inter-
national joint commission which sat
in 1925 on the banks of the Rainy
river, has been working harmonious
ly for fifteen years. There is every