History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Early History Of The UP
The question will not fail to suggest itself: Were these vast operations accomplished through slave labor? That a conquered people were kept at this isolated place by their victors, and in this thraldom obliged to work the copper mines, is an opinion, however, which cannot be received without further confirmation. That a central government, situated [...]
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The latter are found in large quantities in the rubbish forming the tumuli at the mouths of the pits, as well as in the excavations themselves, where, mingled with considerable amounts of charcoal, they seemingly had been pushed behind those miners as they advanced in “the exploration of the vein, the walls of which were [...]
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Some contend that, during so long a lapse of time, they have completely disappeared through decay. But this conclusion will hardly be accepted as satisfactory. It is difficult to believe but that, of a population so crowded as is implied by the extensive excavations on Isle Royale, some must have died during even the periodic [...]
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This island lies off the south-west end of Isle Royale, and is a sandstone rock with very little soil on any part of it, and only a few small trees or brushes at one end. The sides of the island rise abruptly, and there is no landing for even small boats, except for a short [...]
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At two places at each end of the circular pits, the copper veins in the wall-like cliff had been attacked and partly excavated. The rock was disclosed, as if from the action of fire, and at the base of the more central point the sandstone is considerably hollowed. All those works exhibited the same roughish [...]
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What was the character of their vessels or sailing craft, if such were employed ? How did so great a population support life in such circumscribed limits while still carrying on their mining operations? Did they make a permanent settlement, their families abiding with them, or were they simply migratory, visiting the island and returning [...]
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The works, generally pits of from ten to thirty feet in diameter, and from twenty to sixty feet in depth, are found scattered throughout the island, wherever examined being sunk through the few feet of superincumbent drift, where it exists, into the amygdaloid copper-bearing rock. They invariably are on the richest veins; and the intelligence [...]
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The tools, though injured from oxidation, appear to have been of fair workmanship, and were evidently hardened, apparently through the agency of fire. With the exception of the stone hammers, no other tools formed of stone have been observed. A large portion of a wooden utensil shaped l^ke a bowl was taken from the debris, [...]
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