The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-04-25
HUNTERS ISLAND
TIMES HISTORY
NEW YORK TIMES TELLS HOW
HUNTERS ISLAND, A FEW MILES
NORTH OF HERE, MAY BECOME
A DIPLOMATIC CONTROVERSY
IN THE FOLLOWING.

Hunters island, on the international
boundary of Minnesota and now
mapped as a part of Canada, may
become source of diplomatic negotia-
lions. Senator Schall of Minnesota
has offered a resolution in the Senate
setting forth that Hunters island is
actually a peninsula and a part of
the United States, and directing the
senate public lands committee to as
Semble data regarding its geographic
cal and political status. The following
article deals with the early records
and treaties as they may affect the
status of Hunters island.
Hunters island is millionaire
tract occupying about sixty miles of
the northern international boundary
midway between Lake Superior and
Lake of the Woods. 1t has approx
imately ten times the area of the Vir-
gin island, for which in 1917 the
United States paid Denmark $25, OO0-
900.
Recent engineering surveys de-
veloped the fact that Hunters island
is not an island, but a peninsula. The
contour map filed by the engineers of
the United States boundary commits
sion indicates that this peninsula is
attached, not to Canada, but to the
United States by rock divide rising
fifty feet above the So-called lake on
the east and ninety feet above the
boundary lake on the west. Hunters
island appears geographically to be a
northern peninsula of Minnesota
"By the original treaty of peace.
1888, his Britannia majesty, "for him
self, his heirs and successors, relin-
pushed all claims to the government
proprietary and territorial rights of
the same and every part thereof to
all territory south of the water COM
munication" between Lake Superior
and Lake of the Woods. The inter
national joint commission in it's 1880
report states that the water COM
munication" flows north of Hunters
island with avian divide on the south.
I'm the BridiSh Museum is filed the
original map which George III had
before him when he signed the re-
linquishment treaty. 1t was John
Mitchell's map of British and French
possessions in North America It
showed a water communication run
ming westward from the ST. Lawrence
w DdhC hOulICAlO4 cl1AO O1IC1IOC W hohC
of the Woods The map was crude,
as the maps of territorial deeds are
crude, but it showed plainly enough
the intent of the British government
when it relinquisiled, in article 2 of
the treaty all territory below the
water communication" between Lake
Superior and Lake of the Woods.
I'm the New York city library is
laI J~l, To, of
showing the water communication"
Jay was one of the treatymaking am
bassadors dispatched by Washington
and is supposed to be the man who
drafted that term water communi-
cation" and repeated it from water
way to waterway all the way along
from the Gulf of st. Lawrence up to
the Lake of the Woods.
"The War of 1872 was another Amer
lean victory. Uncle Sam relinquiShed
no territory; he only strengthened his
boundary fence and provided for a
survey. The treaty of Client, 1914,
instructed the commissioners ito fix
and determine, according to the true
intent of the said treaty of peace of
1888, that part of the boundary be-
tween the dominions of the two pow
ers, which extends from the water
communication between Lake Huron
and Lake Superior to the most north
western part of Lake Of the Woods"
"The commissioners likewise were
ito decide to which of the two parties
the several islands lying in the lakes,
water communications and rivers
forming the said boundary do re-
spectively belong in conformity with
the true intent of the said treaty of
peace" The treaty-makers of 1914
made no concessions of territory
gained by their predecessors in 1888.
"The two commissioners appointed
by the United States and Great Bri-
tain pursuant to the 1914 treaty failed
to agree upon a final report. But the
American surveyor, James Ferguson of
Wilmington, Delaware, reported to
Daniel Webster, by letter, in 1912, the
rivers of the boundary north Of Min
nesota, and specified "the outlet of