Ancient Giants Remove Three Ton Blocks of Stone From a Lake Superior Copper Mine

Ancient Giants Remove Three Ton Blocks of Stone  From a Lake Superior Copper Mine

One of the few skulls discovered at one of the copper mines shows that it was not that of American indigenous peoples

The modern mining works are mostly confined to that part of the copper region known as Keweenaw Point. This is a projection of land extending into Lake Superior and described as having the shape of an immense horn. It is about eighty miles in length, and, at the place where it joins the mainland, about forty-five miles in width. All through this district, wherever modern miners have worked, remains of ancient mining works are abundant; and they are extensive on the adjacent island, known as Isle Royale. The area covered by the ancient works is larger than that which includes the modern mines, for they are known to exist in the dense
 forests of other districts, to which the modern mining has not yet been extended.

One remarkable mining excavation of the Mound-Builders was found near the Waterbury mine. Here, in the face of a vertical bluff, was discovered “an ancient, artificial, cavern-like recess, twenty-five feet in horizontal length, fifteen feet high, and twelve feet deep. In front of it is a pile of excavated rock on which are standing, in full size, the forest trees common to this region.” Some of the blocks of stone removed from this recess would weigh two or three tons and must have required levers to get them out. Beneath the surface rubbish
 were the remains of a gutter or trough made of cedar, placed there to carry off water from the mine. At the bottom of the excavation, a piece of white cedar timber was found on which were the marks of an axe. Cedar shovels, mauls, copper gads or wedges, charcoal, and ashes were discovered, over which “primeval” forest trees had grown to full size.