Having delivered this simple sermon, he turned and led the way back to the cabin.
A few moments later he left once more to return with a heavy object in his hands.
“Here. Take this,” he said to Red.
Red reached out for the thing, sank forward, all but dropped it, then exclaimed:
“Whew! How heavy!”
“Native copper,” said Ed with a smile. “Taken from the earth when the foundation for the lodge was laid.”
“Looks as if it had been melted,” said Red.
“Probably was, before man came upon the earth. Float copper, they call it. Indians mined it on Isle Royale many generations before the white men came. It was a prized possession. Spear points, arrow points, skinning knives, knives for fighting could be made from it.”
“But why are there no mines here now?” Red had visions of becoming a pioneer copper miner. Next to steel he loved copper best of all.
“That was tried more than fifty years ago. That’s what that miner’s grave means out there. Copper mining was tried in many places. Had it not been for the supposed wealth of copper deposits here, the United States would never have owned Isle Royale. It would have gone to Canada. We bought it from the Indians. And, after years of labor, the copper miners discovered that copper mining on Isle Royale would never pay.