Copper Mining

The first mass of coppcr found in the Lake Superior country was discoverei! in the rapids of the Ontonagon river in 186f, by Alexaoder Henry, who cut off a poition weighiog about 100 pounds. In 1830 the spot was visited by Oso. Gmm and Dr. lioughton, whoalpo took away soino speoimeos. It was finally claimed by James K. Paul, our oldest resident, wlio luooeedad in removing it to the mouth of' the river in 1843, and was then taken to Washington, where it Btiil remains. The mass was puro copper and weighed about 3,000 poumls. J'he largest mass of' pure eopper waa taken ñoñi the Minnesota mine, in üninnagon county, the rough weight was $00 tons, and produeed 446 ton-i of pure c pper. The thickest part of thil maga was alittle over soven fet. It, reqatred the iabor of 20 men during a peiiod of 23 moutus. Over lü ton.s of qopfér chips were taken from it during the dividing pro cess. Xhe Cliff mine developcd one niaai weighing a little over 250 tons. Masaei of 00 to 100 tons were souiewhat frequent oceurreDoe.=, both in the Cliff and Minnesota in their earlier workings. The Phuenix has turned out a nuouber of large masses, the largest weighing over 200 tons. The Centra! has also produeed a lar!:e amount ol' mass Bopper, the largest of whiuh weighed over 20 tons. A mass was found at the surface of this mine, partly mined by a primitive race, that weighed 53 tons. Maeses of 80 to 100 tons havo been f'ound in the Copper Falls and National mines. Maaaef of from one to 50 tons have been fouod in all the mines that have been worked to any cxtent, except the Calumet and Hecla, the Sehoolcraft and ü.-ceola. The larptst piece found in tlie Calumet and Ilecla, weighed less than ta ton. Mass oopper is being f'ound in the MinoDg mine on Isle Royale, The largest piece found so far weighed about throe tons. It is stated in regard to the npoifg dbiu by the primitive races, that at oniy one point on Isle Royal the amount of labor performed by thoseancient .men fiircxceeds that of one of our oldost oopper mine-i on the Houth shoro of Lake Superior- a mine that has been constantly workeJ with a large force for over 20 years ; or stated in another forui, that it would have required a forcé of 100,000 men 50 years (with their means of working) to do an eqnivalent amount of work. The tone Dammers which they used weighed from 10 to 30 pounds- the chief tooi with which the labor was perfjrmed, and many masses, taken from various mities in the Ontonagon district, bave been remarkable for these stone hauimer marks upnn the surface. The discovery of this old work w;is the discovery of the mines. HatcheN, knives, spears and fish hooksaro frequontly found made of copper by the nrei-eiit race of Chippewa Indians. On the trap ranges of the south thoro ancient miuing works aro numerous; their first discovery was made n 1848, and a mms of copper was found at the Minnesota, ot the bottom of a pit 18 feot in depth; the tnass was ten feet long, three feet widc umi iwo Vot wide. and weighed (5 tons. On digging out the pit, which was filled to the top with earth and decotaposod vegetable matter, the niass was fniind to r.?st on stieks of oak timber, and liad been rai.sed about fire feet by the ancient minors. There was over ten cartloads of stone hammersat this pit and others along the samelodp, and at