Michigan’s Copper Country Ellis W. Courter Contribution to Michigan Geology 92 01 Table of Contents Preface .................................................................................................................. 2 The Keweenaw Peninsula ........................................................................................... 3 The Primitive Miners ................................................................................................. 6 Europeans Come to the Copper Country ....................................................................... 12 The Legend of the Ontonagon Copper Boulder ............................................................... 18 The Copper Rush .................................................................................................... 22 The Pioneer Mining Companies................................................................................... 33 The Portage Lake District ......................................................................................... 44 Civil War Times ...................................................................................................... 51 The Beginning of the Calumet and Hecla ...................................................................... 59 Along the Way to Maturity......................................................................................... 68 Down the South Range ............................................................................................. 80 West of the Ontonagon............................................................................................. 97 Calumet's Best Days................................................................................................111 The Strike of 1913 .................................................................................................122 The Declining Years................................................................................................134 Epilogue ..............................................................................................................140 Bibliography .........................................................................................................141 Michigan’s Copper Country – CMG 92 01 - page 1 of 144 Preface Few people realize that Michigan's copper had a greater Editing and printing a publication is not a small task. The economic impact than the California Gold rush. resources needed to produce a book of this size and scope "Michigan's Copper Country" lets you experience the require the efforts of many people with different excitement of the discovery and development of the backgrounds. Thanks to the late Edward S. Wilson, of copper industry. This publication is an attempt to Westland, for making the Geologic Research, acquaint the general public with the geology and history of Investigations & Publications Committee of the Geological the copper deposits of Michigan. Every effort has been Survey Division aware of this manuscript late in 1986. made to present accurate information. The views There had been earlier attempts to ready the manuscript expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily for publication before it was submitted to the Geological reflect the policies or practices of the Michigan Survey Division. Thanks to Esther Clickner and Tyrone J. Department of Natural Resources, Geological Survey Black of the Geological Survey Division, Geologic Division. Information Systems Unit. Esther Clickner converted the 500-plus page manuscript to the computer diskettes. The author, Ellis W. Courter, may not be well known in Tyrone J. Black provided valuable assistance regarding professional geological circles. Nonetheless, he was very style, editing and desktop publishing options, capabilities well known by hobbyists in Michigan and surrounding and output. Thanks to Elvin "Red" Evans, of Surface Water areas. The National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall of Fame Quality Division, DNR, Lansing, who reviewed and edited at the Pioneer Museum in Murdo, South Dakota, was an early version of the manuscript. Al Rarick of the dedicated in 1987 with the permanent installation of the Geological Survey provided a through edit of the first 26 names of deceased rockhounds and lapidaries who manuscript. Stan Dyl, Curator of the A. E. Seaman have had great influence on the hobby. The names Museum in Houghton added considerably to this work. A engraved in the plaque were selected by the Pioneer special thanks goes to the following members of the Museum's Board of Consultants from a long list of names Midwest Mineralogical & Lapidary Society of Dearborn who suggested from all parts of the country. The inductees reviewed and proofread this work: Kathryn Allen, Bill included Ellis Courter. Ellis is listed as an officer in the Baker Barr, Michael Cannaert, Margaret Collins, Hazel Midwest Federation and American Federation of Feilen, Elspeth Gibbs, Joyce Hanschu, Norm Hanschu, Mineralogical Societies and the Scholarship Foundation, Kathy Morris, Lillian Nadeau, Mary Whitman. Ellis would author, and collector whose specialty was Michigan. He have appreciated all of the contributions and marveled at was also a past president of the Michigan Mineralogical the automation and technology that helped bring his Society and the award winning editor of the club bulletin manuscript to press and now to the web. the "Conglomerate," for ten years. He spent many summers researching material for this publication. Ellis died March 21, 1979. It will be deemed a favor if readers will bring errors, omissions, incorrect information or other constructive comments to the attention of: Steven E. Wilson, MI DEQ, Office of Geological Survey 525 W. Allegan, 1st Floor, South Tower, East Wing Lansing, MI 48909-7756 email [email protected] web site www.michigan.gov/deqgeologyinmichigan. COPYRIGHT: Copyright © 2005. The DEQ Office of Geological Survey retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce this document, or allow others to do so, for non-profit purposes. This document can used, all or in part, if there are no fees associated with the use or distribution and credit is given to the Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Geological Survey Michigan’s Copper Country – CMG 92 01 - page 2 of 144 The Keweenaw Peninsula Long ago, in the dawn days of the world, Nature must have Some of these can still be uncovered in the poor rock piles looked with admiration upon that part of our country that in yesteryear grew wherever miners plied the depths which was to become Michigan. Apparently satisfied that for copper. For good measure, it has miles of pebbly Lake this was to be a good land, Nature laid down its rocky Superior beaches, tantalizingly sprinkled with the famed foundation. Then, with an artistic touch, the Keweenaw Lake Superior agates, a fine agate with striking concentric Peninsula was fashioned. When the Keweenaw was banding in translucent shades of red, brown, orange, gray, satisfactorily shaped, it was endowed with a one-of-a-kind and white. All this and more! No wonder it's a treasure of pure native copper. This is the most important rockhound's favorite. commercial deposit of native copper in the entire world. But the glories of Michigan's Copper Country do not end Perhaps in its understanding way, Nature knew that here. Add to its scenic beauty and its rockhounding flavor copper was to be entwined with the progress of some of the oldest rocks on earth. It was the center of a civilization. That when people, in their wanderings, vast prehistoric civilization that predated the American ventured into the Western Hemisphere, they would Indian by several thousand years. It provided the setting discover this special treasure trove of Keweenaw copper. for the first great "mineral rush" in the Western That people would use it in new frontiers. As we now Hemisphere and enjoyed brief fame as America's first know, such did come to pass. Today, because it did, the mining capital. This is the intriguing background and land of the Keweenaw Peninsula is hallowed as Michigan's historic lore associated with the Keweenaw Peninsula. Copper Country. Although the picturesque scenery of the Keweenaw For any who might not be familiar with this part of our countryside may create the impression that it is forever homeland, look to the westernmost rooftop of the Upper new, it is an old land, very old. According to geologists, Peninsula. Here, the Keweenaw Peninsula projects like a its rocky foundation first began to take shape some billion bent finger into the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior. and a half years ago. It started with an episode of igneous Nearly a hundred miles long and some twenty miles wide, intrusion and crustal deformation. This was known as the this rugged finger of rolling, rocky land takes in three Penokean Orogeny which swept across the Canadian Upper Michigan counties: Keweenaw, Houghton, and most Shield. Masses of molten lava surged within the earth's of Ontonagon. Here, it becomes resplendent, a land of crust and in places broke through to the surface. When it scenic beauty. A land graced with limpid inland lakes, did, it billowed out over the land like giant blisters that gurgling streams, and rolling hills adorned with verdant quickly cooled to a glassy hardness. Time after time, over forests. A land almost completely surrounded by the millions of years, frothing lava welled up from deep within rugged shores and blue waters of Lake Superior. Long ago the earth. Each flow spilled