NATIVE MICHIGAN COPPER

by AL STIMAC

The little army of miners is no longer insignificant, Who can withhold from its members an involuntary tribute of respect, when we view the smallness of their number, and the importance of their work; when we reflect upon the uncertainties, the hardships, the dangers which surround them; explorers of another world; sailors, who drive daily through seas of solid rock; soldiers, whose task is a battle with difficulties, danger, and sudden death -the advance guard of civilization, the salt of the earth!

Samuel B. Christy American Institute of Mining Engineers,

Native Copper

• One of the Few Metallic Elements to

Occur in Uncombined Form as a Natural

Mineral

• Occurs rarely as Isometric Cubic and

Octahedral Crystals

• More Typically as Irregular Masses and

Fracture Fillings

PERSPECTIVE

• Kennecott-Utah Copper Contains 0.5 to

0.8% Copper

• One 350 Ton Truck with O.6% Copper

yields 3 Tons of Copper

• Michigan Copper is 2 to 100% Copper

Depending on the Sample

KEWEENAW PENINSULA

• Northernmost point in Michigan

• Premier Mining Location from 1840 to

1968

• Calumet was the second largest city west

of Appalachians after Chicago at turn of

the century

• At one time there was 1 stockbroker for

every 26 residents of Calumet and area

Place Name Derivations

• Keweenaw – Indian for The Crossing

Place

• Calumet – French for Pipe meaning Indian

Peace Pipe

• Laurium – Mining City in Ancient Greece

where Copper and Silver were Mined and

Home of George Gipp and Al Stimac

THE PROLIFIC KEWEENAW

• 94.5% Cu Mined until 1929 came from a 3 mile by 26 mile strip between Mohawk and Painesdale

• Heyday was 1900-1918

• Keweenaw District was Second Largest Producer of Copper in the World

- 8.2 Billion Pounds Copper Mined

- $325 Million in Dividends from 1845-today

Early Exploration Was Fostered By

Ontonogan Boulder

• Circa 1670 explorers were viewing the

boulder

• Ben Franklin Drew the Map of Settlement

with Britain to Include Isle Royale

• After Michigan became a State in 1840

Douglass Houghton Led the Survey to The

Keweenaw

• Legacy Short Lived - Drowned in 1845

ONTONOGAN BOULDER

3708 POUNDS

COPPER FORMATION IS

CHEMICAL AND NOT VOLCANIC

• Hydrothermal Venting with Copper in Solution which Precipitated on Cooling Forming:

• Float

• Mass

• Amygdaloid

• Within other salts like calcite

• Fused with other metals like silver (half breed)

HALFBREED

DATOLITE WAS CONSIDERED

A WASTE PRODUCT • Porcelain-like Material

• Ranged in Size from Tiny to 140 lbs

• Calcium Boron Hydroxide Neosilicate

Mineral

• Coloration Due to Inclusion of Copper or

associated minerals from hydrothermal

precipitation

• Caused Drills/Tools to Muck Up/Wear Out

MENARD MASS 18 TONS

QUINCY MASS 16 TONS

LARGE MASSES WERE CUT

UNDERGROUND

Largest Mass Found in Minesota

Mine in 1857

• Estimated at 380 to 478 Metric Tons

• 52 ft x 16 ft x 9 ft

• 20 Men Took 15 Months to Blast, Hammer

and Chisel it for Smelting

• Chisel Chips Alone Weighed 24 Metric

Tons and Paid for Half the Labor

LATEST BOULDER FIND

• Offshore 1991

• Seventeen Tons

• Removed in 2001

• Destination Michigan Tech Mineral

Museum at Quincy Steam Hoist

• Boulders

19TH Century Mining

• Early Mines were located near Lake

Superior for Transportation Purposes

• Significant Amounts of Lumber Were

Required for Shoring Up Drifts

• Trains Came Later

• Mills and Smelters Followed

• Mechanical Drilling Followed 3 Man Hand

Chiseling

Many Ethnic Groups Contributed to

the Copper Industry

• Cornish Croatians Finns French

• Irish Swedes Italians Norse

• Germans Poles Slovenes Scots

• There were up to Four or Five Churches of

the Same Faith for the Different Ethnic

Groups

Cliff Mine

• Operated from 1846 to 1856

• $108K Investment Yielded $3.8M

HORSEPOWER LITERALLY

Modern Mining Methods Allowed

Deep Shafts

• Original Mines Tended to be Hill

Sides/Shallow Pits

• Steam Power Offered Means to Lower

Man Trams and Raise Ore Trams

• Typical Mine Depths Were 1 Mile Deep

• Quincy was Deepest Mine at 9000 Feet

Calumet & Hecla’s Quincy Mine

NORDBERG 2500 HP HOIST

QUINCY MINE HOIST

• 30 Foot Drum Held 10000 Feet 1-5/6 Inch

Wire(27 Tons)

• Could Hoist 10 Ton Skips at 34 MPH

• Largest of Its Type in the World

MECHANICAL DRILL REPLACED

TEAMS

PREHISTORIC COPPER

DEMAND

• Evidence of Tribes from 10,000 Years ago

• Lake Superior Tribes of 2600 BC to 1200BC

• Most Likely mined 20 Million Pounds

• Max Estimates mined 940 Million Pounds

• Trading Power - Tools & Jewelry & Weapons

• Cosmological Belief in the Manitou

• Midwest – New England- Georgia

• Other

CARBON DATING ISLE ROYALE

HOPEWELL

Copper Utensils and Kharma Were

Drivers

• Many artifacts have been found ranging from fishhooks and spears to pots, plates and jewelry

• Copper pieces were Trading Power

• Ritual Belief Led to Sacred Offerings to Manitou

• Michigan Copper found from North to Midwest to New England/Southeast Atlantic

WHERE WAS THIS OTHER

MARKET DEMAND

• One Man’s Theory

- Pre Phoenician (Minoan/Cretan)

- Sea Faring Traders

- Alphabet Based on Guttural Sounds

- Religion with Monolithic Worship

-Flourished from roughly 3000BC to

1200BC

MEGALITH TRACKS

Cyprus/Crete Sicily Corsica

Majorca Almeria Lisbon

Britany Stonehenge(3100-1100BC)

Belfast Hebrides/Orkneys Iceland

Greenland Labrador

New England Minnesota/Michigan

SWEDISH DOLMEN

SALEM NEW YORK DOLMEN

MINNESOTA DOLMEN

MICHIGAN DOLMEN

The Ship Wreck of Ulu Burun

• 14th Century B.C Ship Wreck Found off

Coast of Turkey

• 50 Feet Long with Wooden Hull and

Planks Held with Mortis-and-Tenon Joints

• Held 200 Copper Ingots weighing 60 Lbs

Each (Equivalent to the Ancient Talent)

Claims of Diffusionists Need to be

Verified

• To date X-Ray Crystallography has not

shown American Copper as the Source in

European/Mid-East Artifacts

• DNA of Native Americans Needs

Research to Establish Origins

• More Research on Trade Goods That

Might Have Been Used with Pre-Historic

Miners

COPPER - A QUESTION FOR

THE ANCIENTS & THE FUTURE

• Plenty of Copper Left in the Copper Country

• What Might the Natives Think About Open Pit Mining (National Park Status)

• Go there Yourselves & Experience the Environment, Copper Mine Tours, Mineral Museum

• Stay Tuned to Copper Sourcing in Europe/Mid East

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Mineralogical Record Volume 23 #2 March-April 1992 Michigan Copper Country

• Matrix-A Journal of the History of Minerals Winter 2001-2002

• Images of America – Houghton County 1870-1920

• Wonderful Power – The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin by Susan R. Martin 1995

• The Hard Rock Mining Era in the Copper Country by Tauno Kilpela 1995

• Calumet – Copper Country Metropolis

Bibliography continued

• Miskawabik – Red Metal (The Roles Played by Michigan’s Copper in Prehistoric America) by Halsey 1992

• Boom Copper by Angus Murdoch 1943

• Starnfers and Sojourners(A History of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula) by Thurner 1994

• Images of America Lake Superior Country 2002

Bibliography continued

• Cradle to Grave(Life Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines) by Lankton 1991

• Prehistoric Copper Mining in the Lake Superior Region by Drier & Du Temple 2005

• Ancient Mines of Kitchi-Gummi (Cyproit/Minoan Traders in North America) by Jewell 2004

Bibliography continued

• Michigan Copper The Untold Story by

Rydholm 2006

• Old Reliable an Illustrated History of the

Quincy Mining Company

Lankton & Hyde 1982