The Minesota mine: miners dig into an ancient pit and find a six-ton copper mass already raised on log skids (Ontonagon County, Michigan; found 1847, announced 1848)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1847
SUMMARYThe Minesota mine: miners dig into an ancient pit and find a six-ton copper mass already raised on log skids (Ontonagon County, Michigan; found 1847, announced 1848) [Connections: Tech of the Americas, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDCharles Whittlesey's Smithsonian paper says Mr. S. O. Knapp, agent of the Minnesota Mining Company, first publicly announced the ancient mines in 1848. "Mr. Knapp discovered a detached mass of copper weighing nearly six tons." "The mass of copper had been raised several feet along the foot wall of the lode, on the timbers, by means of wedges." "It lay upon a cob work of round logs or skids six to eight inches in diameter." "The greatest depth of the ancient excavation is thirty feet." "Charcoal, ashes, and stone mauls are found in all of the pits hitherto cleaned out." "One of the heaviest mauls yet seen, weighing thirty-six pounds, came from this location." At the Waterbury Mine "Dr. Blake discovered several shovels, of white cedar." On the trees growing out of the old spoil: Whittlesey counted "two hundred and ninety" rings on one stump; "Mr. Knapp mentions another tree which had three hundred and ninety-five." The Daily Mining Gazette (2015) says Knapp found the pits in 1847, that the company organized in 1848, and that he shipped "seven and a half tons of mass copper" down the Ontonagon River that year
PATTERNThe 1840s companies found working mines, not raw ground: pits, fire-setting charcoal, hammers, shovels and a mass mid-lift. They opened their own mine on top of the old one. HOSTILE/INTERESTED
WITNESSmining agents and a mining-district surveyor, writing about property they were developing
LENS (WW9)The engineers were already there. The company picked up where our people's tools were lying
OPENThe original mine reports and Knapp's own 1848 statement. Whether any stone mauls from these pits are in museum collections and under what accession
SOURCEWhittlesey, "Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior," text; Daily Mining Gazette, "The mighty Minesota". Primary: Charles Whittlesey, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge No. 155 (Smithsonian Institution, April 1863; paper dated Eagle River, 1 May 1856).