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Canku Ota |
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(Many Paths) |
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An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America |
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April 5, 2003 - Issue 84 |
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Early Copper History |
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From: Superior Sunday Leader - March
19, 1899
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credits: submitted
by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)
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James
Bardon Tells of Some Work Done in Copper Exploration in Early Days Probably
no man in the city has a wider acquaintance with the land of this county,
than James Bardon of the East End. Mr. Bardon is one of the city's oldest
settlers, and during his residence here has done a deal of exploring throughout
the county and is well qualified to speak on matters relating to the copper
deposits. In speaking of the copper mines and their development yesterday
Mr. Bardon told of the earlier advice as to the future work. The
following is what he said" I
believe that copper in large paying quantities will yet be found in Douglas
County, east and west of Superior. From the first advent of the white
man in this country copper has been found in several places in the range
of hills lying south of Lake Superior, locally known as the 'South Range.'
The considerable exploration and mining at Copper Creek and Black River
Falls and near the Amnicon and Brule Rivers by the American Fur Company
in the forties and by the Milwaukee, Boston and Superior capitalists in
the fifties and sixties, show a universal faith in the universal worth
of our country. In all the old mines the specimens contained much
copper. Rock that thirty or forty years ago was pronounce non-paying,
would today be called rich, owing to the improved methods of mining and
the increased price of copper. I am glad to see enterprising men in our
midst opening up the old mines, the Percival, the Northern Wisconsin,
the Fond du Lac, The Copper Creek, The Black River Falls, the Culligan
and other early mines as well as several new ones. Many
were the stories told in the early day of rich 'finds' on the South Range.
George R. Stuntz and William C. Howenstein found at Copper Creek in 1863
found a chunk of solid copper weighting 70 pounds, and as much as a barrel
of specimens of solid copper weighting one to twenty pounds. A blast
put in near Black River Falls in 1864, at the insistence of Professor
Hauchett, State Geologist of Minnesota, threw out several hundred pounds
of rock thickly filled with rich nodules of copper, pieces of the metal
weighing from half an ounce to two or three ounces. Antoine
Ambulh, who pre-empted the land on which is now the Starkweather Mine,
brought word to town before is sudden and untimely death, that he had
found on his land a solid mass of native copper, which he had covered
up so that no one has yet found it, but it is still there, somewhere no
doubt. Mr.
August Zachau of this city, who came here in 1853, says that on his land
on the range, near Bardon Avenue in found in 1854 stone hammers of the
kind used by the antecedents in copper mining. It is a well-known fact
that these hammers when found on the Keweenaw Point invariably have indicated
the presence of good bodies of copper. Such hammers were found near the
Calumet &Hecla and others of the rich mines of today. The
opening of copper mines convenient to Superior would be of incalculable
benefit to this city, but we are not likely to find mines by walking up
and down Tower Avenue and West Fifth Street and talking about them. We
must go out on the hills and look for the metal. As soon as the snow goes
off let parties of two to six thoroughly explore the country along the
ranges from the Minnesota line on the west to Iron River on the east,
by travelling up and down the ravines and over the bluffs wherever the
rock is exposed, armed with pick, ax and shovel digging into the earth
uncovering the rocks, and breaking off samples here and there. These parties
should camp out in tents or make their headquarters with settlers, or
in abandoned lumber camps. Let men go to work with much zeal and earnestness,
as they would display if they went to Colorado or the Klondike for a like
purpose. The camp life and the employment will be found interesting and agreeable, and at the same time may prove a source of great profit. The expense will be but little, the work of exploring is not laborious, and the participants will feel amply repaid for the recreation, if nothing more comes of their explorations. Most of the lands on the range can be bought at low figures, and if copper is found on any tract then will be the time to acquire the title. Those who already own lands on the range should lose not a moment in thoroughly examining them. An owner will feel warranted in doing more than merely exploring; he may dig trenches to uncover the rocks, put in blasts and do much of the work necessary preliminary to opening a mine. It may be, and in fact it is not unlikely, that a source of great wealth exists at our very doors. Let us without delay, do what we can to discover and develop it. |
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