LAKE SUPERIOR COUNTRY page-6

Great masses of copper just hoisted from the deep mines astonish us on .account of their purity and size. Masses of from four to eight tons weight, loaded on great groaning trucks, and hauled by from four to six yoke of oxen, go forward slowly down the smooth road to the ‘shipping docks at Eagle river. To crown all the Cliff has become dividend paying, and its fortunate shareholders are becoming rich.
At several points in Keweenaw county, at this time, were several mines of great promise, some of them destined to become paying mines in the future; while others, less fortunate or less rich in mineral, seemed fated to exist for years only as they were fed by assessments derived from the stockholders. Profitable fruitage never came. Thus, while these two busy mining firms, located at opposite extremes of the copper range, occupied themselves industriously, if not always profitably, in their own affairs, a newer field began to attract attention. What is now known as the Portage Lake district was an area lying about midway between the Keweenaw and Ontonagon mines. Although Portage lake, dividing the trap range, had been navigated by the bark canoe and Mackinaw boats of explorers from the first settlement of the country, and some mining had been done as early as 1846 near its shores, yet no fissure veins, bearing mass copper, had been discovered, and, owing to the formation and peculiar deposits of copper in stamp lodes, never had been found. It was the common belief, without any just foundation, that stamp lodes would never pay.

Tagged as: Although Portage, Portage Lake