LAKE SUPERIOR COUNTRY page-5

They built a harbor at the mouth, of the river without governmental aid and invited the commerce, of the lakes to enter their safe and convenient port in the river. Mr. Cash and other far-sighted individuals cleared fields for agriculture. The soil of some parts of the county, owing to a proper admixture of clay, invited the farmer to enter upon a profitable industry. Lands in mining regions are generally thin and poor and unproductive. But where farm crops can be raised to advantage, the farmer always finds in mining regions quick sales with large profits. Our Ontonagon people were industrious, prosperous, and somewhat proud, if not boastful, of their preeminence. Their prosperity continued for several years, but the final giving out of the mineral in their great mines checked growth and enterprise indeed, caused a woful depression in business, with much poverty and distress. Many of the people, in fact, were compelled to seek more inviting fields, abandoning their cherished homes and cherished associations. But such is life in mining regions. The business being largely speculative, and the mines liable to. impoverishment, there is always an element of uncertainty in it. The farm of broad acres, if properly cultivated and fed, will last for ages. Leaving these people to go on working hopefully in their busy hive, we transfer our thoughts to that other and older hive on Keweenaw Point, some seventy or eighty miles northeast.
Here we find in 1860 the Cliff mine, grown to large dimensions, feeding a large village of miners and laborers, with broad, cultivated fields, open to the sun, and yielding grass, oats, potatoes and other root crops abundantly. A church or two, a school-house overflowing with children, nestle under the picturesque cliffs. A firm, macadamized road has been built to Eagle river.

Tagged as: Keweenaw Point