the ontonagon copper bowlder in the

THE ONTONAGON COPPER BOWLDER IN THE

U.

S.

NATIONAL MUSEUM.

CHAEI.es MOORE.

1021

HE ONTONAGON COPPER BOWLDER

IN

THE

U. S.

NATIONAL MUSEUM.

By Charles Moore.

In a corner of the National

Musenm

a bowlder of native copper, weighing perhapsthreetons, rests

upon

aplain

wooden

base. Trans- ferred tothe

Museum

from thePatentOffice, in 1858, thecoi)per frag-

ment was

accompanied

by no

records,

and

thispaper has been written withthe viewof tracingtheintricatebutinterestingstoryof theonce celebrated

Ontonagon

bowlder.

Worshipped

as a manitou

by

the superstitious Indians during uncounted years, the siren of mining adventurers while yet the flag of

England

floated over the

Lake

Country, the objective point of haz- ardous expeditions

by

explorer

and

scientist,the

Ontonagon

bowlder has never been ^{soleft to} itself as it hasbeen during the half century that has elapsed since it

was

brought to the national capital,

where

the expectation

was

that alleyes

might

gaze

upon

it as the represent- ativeof national wealth

and

enterprise.

About

themiddleofthe seventeenthcenturythe Jesuit missionaries

and

the

French

explorers, penetrating the wildernesses about

Lake

Superior, found

among

the

most

treasured possessions of the Indians pieces of copper weighing from 10 to 20 pounds. Often these frag-

ments

of copper were regarded as household gods,

and

from an indefinite past

had

been transmitted from generation to generation.

Tradition also told of larger masses of copper situated at several points along the shores of the great lake,

whose

^shifting sands often covered

up

the bowlders foryears at a time, thus causing the super- stitioussavagestodeclare thattheir ofl:ended deities

had

disapj)eared for a season.^

In 1067 a piece of copper weighing a

hundred pounds was

brought

to Father Dablon.

"The

savages," hereports,- ''do not allagree as to the i^lace

whence

this coi)per

was

derived.

Some

say it

came

from

where

the [Ontonagon] Eiverbegins; otherssayclose tothelake;

and

others from the forks

and

along the eastern bank."

Whether

the 'Journaldu Voyage du P^re Claude Allouez,Relationdela Nouvelle France,en l'Ann6e1667. Sagard,p. 589. Voyagesof PierrefispritRadisson, ThirdVoyage.

^Relation of 1670.

1023

1024 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

^1895.

Dablou fragment

was

a float piece of copper, orwhetherit

was

apor- tionbroken from the great^rock, it isimpossibleto say.

The

reference of the Jesuit ^father,however,

makes

it evident thatat thetime

when

hewrote, the Indianswere familiarwith the copper region along the Ontonagon, on ^thewest

bank

ofthe westfork ofwhichriver the great bowlderlay

when

discovered

by

white men.

In1669 the French

Government

sent Louis Joliet to

Lake

Superior to searchforthe deposits ofcopperso often referred to in therelations ofthe missionaries, but he gotnofarther than Sault Ste. Marie,

and

three years later he turned aside from such material pursuits to accomplish, in

company

with Father Marquette, the discovery of the Mississippi Eiver.

So

faras authentic recordsgo, thefirstwhite

man

to visit the

Ontonagon

bowlder

was Alexander

Henry, an English adventurer,

and

he

saw

itto hiscost. Shortlyafter

England

acquired

Canada

fromFrance,

Henry

established himself as a trader at Macki- nac,

and

his narrowescapefrom death atthe

hands

of the savagesin themassacre atthat post in1763 forms oneofthe

most

thrilling chap- ters of Parkman's "Conspiracy of Pontiac,"

and

is also the basis of Mrs. Catherwood's

more

recent story, "

The White

Islander."

In 1771,lured doubtless

by

the

mass

of copperat the forks of the Ontonagon,

Henry and

hisassociates undertookto pierce the bluflsof clay

and

redsandstone which borderedthatstream,' inthe hopeoffind- ing the vein

whence

the bowlder came.

Only

complete ignorance of the geology of the

Lake

Superior region can explain

what

Doctor

Houghton

calls "theseQuixotictrials;"^

and

complete failure

was

the natural result.

In 1819,GeneralLewis Cass

made

thefirstexplorations of the

Lake

Superior region thatwere undertaken

by

this Government. Turning from theirjjath,his party ascended tbe

Ontonagon

Eiverfor 30 miles tovisit the

mass

of copper

whose

existence, says Cass,

had

long been known.

"Common

report,"hewrites to

John

C.Calhoun,Secretary of

War,

"hasgreatlymagnified the quantity,

though enough

remains,even afterarigidexamination,torenderita mineralogicalcuriosity. Instead ofbeing a

mass

of pure copper, itisrathercoi^per

embedded

in a hard rock,

and

theweight probablydoesnotexceed5 tons,of

which

therock

is

much

the largerpart. It

was

impossibletoprocure

any

specimens, forsuch

was

itshardness thatourchiselsbrokelike glass. I intendto send

some

Indians inthe spring to procurethe necessary specimens.

As

^Iunderstandthe nature of the substance,

we

can

now

furnish

them

with suchtools as will eflect theobject. I shall,on theirreturn, send

you

such specimens as you

may

wish toretain forthe

Government

or to distributeas cabinetspecimenstothe variousliterary institutionsof the country."^

»Henry, Alexander. TravelsandAdventuresinCanada.

New

York,1809, p. 231.

^Bradish,Alvah. MemoirofDouglas Houghtou. Detroit, 1889,p. 204.

'Smith,W. L. G. LifeandTimesofLewisCass.

New

York, 1856, p. 133. Cass neversawthe rock,ashehimself saysinSenate Report260,28th Congress,1st session.

ReportofU.S.NationalMuseum,1895.—Moore. Plate

l'-

4

1 w-

!iiVi "III

THE ONTONAGON COPPER BOWLDER. 1025

Doctor

Henry

R.Schoolcraft,

who was

a

member

of theCassexijedi- tioD,says that thebowlder

was

found

on

theedgeoftheriver,directly oppositeanisland

and

atthefootofaloftyclaybluff, thefaceofwhich appearsat aformer timeto have slipped into the river, carryingwith

it detached blocks

and

rounded masses of granite, hornblende,

and

otherrock,

and

with

them

the

mass

ofcopper in question. "

The

shape of the rock," hesays, "isvery irregular. Itsgreatest lengthis3 feet 8 inches; its greatest breadth,3 feet 4 inches,

and

it

may

altogether contain 11 cubicfeet. In size it considerably exceeds the great

mass

of nativeironfound

some

years ago

upon

the

banks

of the

Eed

Eiver, in Louisiana,

and now

deposited

among

the collections ofthe

New

York

Historical Society, but, on account of the admixture of rocky matter, isinferiorin weight. Henry,

who

^visiteditin176G, estimates

its weightat5 tons; but, afterexaminingitwith scrupulousattention, I donot think the weightof metalliccopperin therockexceeds _2,200 pounds.

The

quantity may, however,

have

been

much

diminished sinceits firstdiscovery,

and

the

marks

ofchisels

and

axes

upon

it,with thebrokentools lying around,prove that portions

have

been cut off

and

carriedaway."'

Schoolcraft calls attention to the fact that the connection of the bowlder with substances foreign to the immediate section of the country

where

it lies, ''indicates aremoval from its originalbed,while the intimate connection of the metal

and

matrix,

and

the complete envelopment of individual masses of copper

by

the rock, point to a

common ^and

contemporaneousorigin, whetherthatbe referable tothe agencyofcaloric or water."

Schoolcraftgives aviewof the copperrock (see Plate2) taken from a pointbelow the

mass

of copper, looking

up

the river;

and

from the picture one readily understands with

what

difficulty the

mass was

removed.

The

story of thatremovalis

now

to betold.

The

party sent

by

Casswerenot sofortunate ashe anticipatedthey

would

be.

They

cut about thirtycords of wood,

which

theyplaced aboutthebowlder,

and

then setfire to thepile.

When

thecopper

was

well heated,they dashed water

upon

it, but the only result

was

to detachpieces ofquartzrockadheringtothe native copper.

The

party, having

become

disheartened,leftthe country,having

moved

therock4 or 5feetfromthe

bank

of the river; nor did the

Barbeau

party,

who went

from Sault Ste. Marie

two

yearslater,

have any

better success.

Itso happened, however, that Mr. Joseph Spencer, a

member

of the Cassexpedition,toldthe story of thecopper rocktoMr.JuliusEldred, a

hardware merchant

of Detroit;

and

for sixteen years this enter- prising

man schemed and

planned

how

he

might

succeed

where

others

had

^{failed.^}

'Narrative Journalof Travels through theNorthwesternregions of the United States, etc. Albany,1821,pp.175-178.

2JohnJones,Jr.,intheNoavYorkWeeklyHerald,October28,1843.

NAT MUS

⁹⁵ 65

1026 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

^1895.

Until the report

made by

tlie State geologist of Michigan, Doctor Douglass Houghton,^in1841,there

had

been

no

authentic ortrustworthy statements in regard to the copper-bearing rocks of

Lake

Superior;' butwithin four years from the date of that report the mineral lands from thetipof

Keweenaw

Pointtothe

Ontonagon

Eiver were overrun with prospectors, the great majority of

whom

^{left dollars}

^where

^they

foundpennies. ItisinDoctor Houghton'sreport that the bestscientific account of the copper rockistobefound. "I

have

thusfar," hesays,

"omittedtoalludeparticularly^to.the large

mass

of nativecopper which has been solong

known

to exist in the

bed

of the

Ontonagon

River,

lest,perhaps,this isolated

mass might

be confounded withthe veinsof the mineral^district.

That

this

mass

has once occupied aplacein

some

one ^of these veins is quite certain,but it is

now

perfectly separated from ^{itsoriginal condition}

and

appears simply as a loose transported bowlder. ^{* * *}

The

copper bowlderisassociatedwithrockymatter, which inallrespects resembles that associated withthatmetal in

some

portionsof the mines before described, therocky matter being

bound

together with innumerable ^{strings of metal;} but averyconsiderable portion of thewholeiscopperⁱⁿa stateofpurity.

While

this

mass

of native copper can not ^{fail to excite}

much

^interest,from its great size

and

purity,it

must

be bornein

mind

thatitisaperfectly isolatedmass, having no ^connectionwith

any

other; nor does the character of the country lead totheinferencethat veins of the metaloccurinthe

imme-

diatevicinity, though the mineral districtcrosses thecountry atadis- tance of but afew miles."

Leavingforthe

moment

the question as totheorigin of the copper rock,letus followitshistory. Priorto 1843not a

pound

ofcopper

had

been shipped commercially from

Lake

Superior.

The

billion

and

a half jjoundswhichhave been taken fromthat region

have

been

mined

^since thatyear,

and more

thanhalf thatproduct has been taken froma

mine

discovered sincethe

war

oftherebellionended.

The Ontonagon

bowl- der

was

notregarded primarilyin a commercial light; for its

market

value as ingot copper could not

have

exceeded $000.^ Mr. Eldred's object intransportingit tothe lower lakes

was

to exhibititfor

money

inthe variouscitiesof the East. It

was

acuriosity.

As

Senator

Wood-

bridge said,it

was

" a splendidspecimenof themineral wealth of the

'

Far

West.'

"

In 1841 Mr. Eldred arranged with

Samuel Ashman,

of Sault Ste.

Marie,to act ashis interpreter inthe purchaseofthecopper rock from the

Chippewa

Indians, on

whose

lands it

was

^situated. Obtaining a trading licensefrom Mr. Ord, the

Government

agent, the

two men

set outforthe

mouth

oftheOntonagon,

where

they

met

thechiefs

and

con- cluded thepurchasefor$150, ofwhich

sum

$45

was

paid incash at the

1Whittlesey, Charles,inSmithsonianContributions, Vol. XIII.

^Senate Report on Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation, 1893, I,p.70, gives thepricesof coppertorsixtyyears.

THE ONTONAGON COPPER BOWLDER. 1027

time,

and

theremainder

was

paidin goods

two

years later.

The

party then x)roceeded about 26 miles

up

the river, climbed the high hill

which intervened

between

the

main

stream

and

that point

on

the fork

where

the rock

was

situated,

and

raised iton skids.

More

thanthis they could not do; nor did they

have

greater success the following

summer.

In 1843 Mr. Eldred started from Detroit with wheels

and

castings foraportable railway

and

car;

and

to protect hispropertyrights, he secured from General

Walter Cunningham,

the United States mineral agent, a permit to occupyfor mining purposesthe sectionof landon which thebowlder stood. Arriving at the rock, Mr. Eldred

was

sur- prised

and

chagrined to find it in possession of a party of Wisconsin miners underthedirection of Colonel

Hammond, who had

located the land underapermit

made

directly

by

the Secretary of

War

toTurner

and

Snyder,

and by

their agent transferred to

Hammond. The

only thingtodo

was

to

buy

the rockagain,

and

this Mr.Eldred did,paying

forit81,305.

Ittook a

week

for the party of 21 jiersons to get the rock

up

the 50-foot hill near the river; then they cat timbers

and made

a stout

wooden

railwaytrack,placed the rockon thecar,

and moved

it with capstan

and

chains as houses are moved.

For

four miles

and

ahalf, over hills 600 feet high,through valleys

and

deep ravines; through thick forests

where

the path

had

to be cut; through tangled under- brush,the

home

of pestiferous mosquitoes, this railway

was

laid

and

the copper bowlder

was

transported;

and when

at last the rock

was

lowered to the

main

stream,nature smiled

on

the labors of the work-

men by

sending a freshet to carrytheir heavilyladen boat over the lower rapids

and down

tothelake.'

While

arrangingtransportation to SaultSte. Marie, Mr. Eldred

was

confronted

by an

order from the Secretary of

War

to General Cun-

ningham

directing

him

to seize the copper rock for transportation to Washington.

"The

persons claiming the rock

have

no right to it,"

says Secretary Porter,

"but

justice

and

equity

would

require that they beamx)ly compensatedforthe trouble

and

expense of its removal from

itspositionon the

Ontonagon

to the lake;

and

for this purpose Gen- eral C. will examine into their accounts

and

allow

them

the costs,

compensating

them

fully

and

fairlytherefor, the sum, however, not to exceed $700. ^{* * *} if theyset

up

a claimfor theownershipof the articleitself, thatis not admitted or recognized,

and

their redress, if they

have

any," will be

by an

application to Congress."^

'Jones'sletter in

New

York Herald. I have carefnlly examined the statements made byMr. Alfred Meads in the Ontonagon MinerofJune 22, 1895, assigningto

James Kirk Paul, the founder ofthe town ofOntonagon,the credit ofbringing downthe rock. Undoubtedly Captain Paulwas inthex^f^rty,buttheproof iscon- clusive thatallwork wasdone underthe direction ofMr. Eldred.

2

War

Department MSS.LettersCunninghamtoPorter,August28,1843;Maynadier

toPorter,September27, 1843,andPorter'sindorsement.

1028 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

^1895.

The sum

mentioned

by

the Secretary being ^manifestly too smallto compensate^Mr.Eldred"fully

and

fairly,"General

Cunningham

allowed the latter to transport the rockto Detroit,

and

promised that ifthe curiosity

was

orderedto

Washington,

Mr. Eldred should be placedin charge ofit.

On

October11,1843,thebowlder

was

landed in Detroit^{^} aud placed on exhibitionfor afeeof 25 cents;

and among

those

who

embraced the opportunity to visit ^it

was Henry

^R. Schoolcraft,

who

renewed an acquaintance with the copper monarch, formed ^twenty- three years^{before.^} After lessthan a

month

of uninterrupted posses- sion. United States ^District Attorney

George

C. Bates informed Mr.

Eldred that therevenuecutter Urie

was

waiting at Detroit to receive the rock for transportation to the capital;

and

on

November

9 the bowlderstarted on its long journey,^'

by way

ofBuffalo,the Erie Canal,

and New York

^{City, to}Georgetown,District of Columbia. Mr. Eldred accompanied it as far as

New

York,

and met

itat

Georgetown

witha dray,

by

which it

was

hauled to the Quartermaster's

Bureau

of the

War Department and

deposited in the yard,

where

it remained until sometime subsequent^{to 1855.''}

Mr. Eldred

now

appealedtoCongressforredress;

and

itso

happened

that in the Senate William

Woodbridge,

of Michigan,

was

chairman of the

Committee

on PublicLands.

An

exhaustive reporton thesub- ject

was made

at the first session of theTwenty-eighth Congress,

and

three years later,

by

an act approved

January

20, 1847, the Secretary of

War was

authorized "to allow

and

settle

upon

just

and

equitable

*Farmer'sHistory of Detroitand Michigan,calendar ofdates.

2Schoolcraft, HenryR. The AmericanIndians. Rochester, 1851.

*TreasuryDepartment MSS.Letters from Secretary Spencer to Captain Knapp, September29,1843; Knapp to Spencer,November 11,1843; Captain Heintzelman's receipt,November11, 1843.

*Roberts'sSketchesof Detroit, 1855.

DoctorThomasWilson, of the NationalMuseum,asecondcousin ofCyrusMenden-

hall,who was one of the early proprietors and workers ofcopper mines in Lake Superior(probablyfrom 1840 to 1855 _{or 1856),} contributes the following informa- tion,which ^is ofinterest in this connection: ''My uncle,Thomas Mercer,whena youngman, wentfromColumbianaCounty,Ohio,toLake Superior as an assistant to his cousin. In about 1848 he came down from Lake Superior, by way of the canal,from ClevelandtoBeaver with oneof these immense masses of copper. He dined en route at

my

father's house at

New

Brighton, and inhis companyafter dinnerIrodewithhim on the boat as far as Rochester. Iremember the appear- ance of the nuggetofcopperverywell. Itwasaslarge or larger than the one in theNationalMuseum, andwhenIsawthelatter, Ithoughtitwasthesame whichI

had seen on the boat. Ilearned from

my

father that the masswhich wesawon theboatwastakentoPittsburg, under thebeliefthatitwouldprove of consider- able profit to its owners. It turned out to be a loss, however, owing to their inability to melt it or to cut it, or in any way divide or separate ^it into small enough pieces to handle. They built a lire over it asitstoodinthe yard.

How

they then treateditIdonotknow; nor doIknowthat,with all this labor, itwas

finallyreduced. Itbrought noprofit to the original owners." Dr.Wilsonthinks that there musthave been twoormoreof thesa large copper nuggetswhich were broughtdownthe lakesfromLakeSuperior.

ReportofU.S. NationalMuseum.1895.—^Moore. Plate2.

THE ONTONAGON COPPER BOWLDER. 1029

terms the accounts of Julius Eldred

and

sons for their time'

^nd

exj)enses in purchasing

and removing

the

mass

of native coppercom-

monly

called the copperrock."

The sum

thuspaid

was

$5,664.98.

From

the yardof the old

War Department

totheNational

Museum

isnot a lougJourneyforso traveled arock,

and we

need spend no time on it. There is,however, another

and

a really important question as to the origin of the bowlder. Accepting the statementsofSchoolcraft

and

Doctor

Houghton

that the coi)j)er rock as found

was

an isolated mass, butthatitundoubtedly

came

from oneof the veins in thenarrow copper belt, let us examine the results of explorations

made

^since

their day.

During

thewinter of 1847-48 Mr.

Samuel

O.

Knapp,

the agentofthe Minnesota mine, observedon the ]jresent location of that

mine

acuri- ous depression in thesoil, caused, as heconjectured,

by

thedisintegra- tion ofavein. Following

up

these indications,he

came upon

acavern, the

home

of several porcupines.

On

clearing out the rubbish, he found

many

stone

hammers; and

at adepthof 18 feethe

came upon

a

mass

ofnativecopi^er10 feetloug, 3 feet wide,

and

nearly2 feetthick.^

Itsweight

was more

than 6 tons. This

mass was

found resting

upon

billets of oak supported

by

sleepers of the

same

wood. There were three courses of billets

and

two courses of sleepers.

The wood had

lost all itsconsistency, so that a knifeblade penetrated it as easily as if it

had

beenjjeat; but the earth

packed

aboutthecopper gavethata tirm support.

By means

of the

cobwork

the miners

had

raised the

mass

about5 feet,or somethingless thanone-quarterofthe

way

tothe

mouth

of the pit.

The marks

of fireused todetach thecopper from therock

showed

that the earlyminers were acquainted witha process usedwitheffect

by

their successors. Thisfragment

had

been

pounded

untileveryprojection

was

broken off

and

then

had

been left,

when and

for

what

reasonis stillunknown.^

From

similar intson the

same

loca- tion

came

tencart loads of ancient

hammers,

oneofwhich weighed_39J

pounds and was

fitted with

two

groovesfor a double handle. There werealsofound a copper gad, acopper chisel with a socket in which

was

theremains of acopper handle,

and

fragmentsof

wooden

bailing bowls.

At

the

Mesnard

mine, in 1862,

was

found an 18-ton bowlder that the "ancientminers"

had moved

48feetfrom ^itsoriginal bed.

'InSenate Report 260, Twenty-eighthCongress,first session, Mr. Eldred relates his trials and final success. Several of the officialcommunications quotedin this articleareprintedinthat report. Theexistence of thereport, however,wasdevel- opedfromthecommunicationswhichwere kindlyfurnishedmebyColonelF. C.Ains- worth, chief of theRecordand Pension Division of the

War

Department; Captain C. T. Shoemaker, chief of the Revenue-Cutter Service, and Honorable T. Strobo Farrow, AuditoroftheTreasuryforthe

War

Department.

^Foster

&

^Whitney'sReport. HouseEx. Doc.69, Thirty-first Congress,first ses- sion, p.159.

^Acut and afull description of this find is given byColonel Whittleseyin his articleon AncientCopper MiningintheLakeSuperior Region,SmithsonianContri- butionstoKnowledge,XIII.

1030 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,

^1895.

The

factthat growinginthe debris of oneof these ancientpits

was

a hemlock having ³⁹⁵ annular rings places the date of the excava- tions before thedays of Columbus.

That

they were

made by

a race distinct from the present Indians is inferred from the fact that the Indians

knew

nothingof copper^{in place};

and

they

had

no traditions of the ancient copper mines

which

cover the ^entirecopper belt,

and

which have been ^to

modern

miners the best indications of the presence of that ^metal. Within 2 miles of one of these "ancient diggings,"

as theyare called, the copperrock

was

found.

The

question herearises,

Was

the

Ontonagon

bowlder detached

by

glacial action

and

carried southwesterly along the drifttothe point

whence

eventually it dropped into thebed of the river_; or is it the product of themining operations of that

busy

people

whose

well-built boats with eachrecurring

summer

inpast agesdotted the clearwaters of

Lake

Superior,

and whose

keen search led

them

to the outcrops of copper aswell

among

the iuhospitable thickets of the

mainland

as on thewave-lashedislands of the greatest of lakes?

Such

is the question

propounded by

Mr.

Edwin

J. Hulbert,

who

spent the best years of hislife ina studyof thecopper country;

and whose

recently published

work

on

"The Calumet

Conglomerate"

marks him

as the mostscientificexplorer

who

^ever accomplished great results in the

Lake

Superiorcopper country. Doubtless the question

is unanswerable; but whethernature or

man

tore thecopper rock from

itsoriginalhome, it stands to-day as the firstconsiderablyshipmentof copper from the

Lake

Superior region

and

the largest

mass

ever taken

away

froma mine. Itisuniquealso inthis:

The

mines of theOntona- gonregionbelong to thepast.

The

greatMinnesota

mine

from which a 500-ton bowlder, valued at over $200,000,

was

taken,

and

whose stockholders received $30 forevery dollarthey i)utin, has long ago been surpassed

by

the

Calumet &

^Hecla,

^whose

ore contains but an insignificant proportion of

mass

copper. There are no

more

massesof virgincopper to be found;

and

the

Ontonagon

bowlder isnot only the

first,butit is also thelast remainingrepresentative of its kind.