The mines and minerals of the northwest constitute the most striking feature of the country, and at the present time one of the great sources of its wealth.
The centre of the mining country is called the Superior country, or the northern peninsula of Michigan, but there is no reason to believe it is confined to this region. Coal and iron, the most valuable of all minerals are found in various places in the northwest. The principal and most valuable minerals found west of Mackinaw, are iron, copper, and lead. A general view of the mineral region may be found in Owen's Geological Survey of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Superior. Great beds of iron are found in ridges or cliffs, some of which rise up to an immense height. Some of these ore-beds of Lake Superior are fifteen feet in thickness, and one of them contains iron enough to supply the world for ages. Above them are immense forests, suitable for charcoal.
The discovery of the iron mountains and mines of Lake Superior was made in 1846, but they were not fully developed until the year 1855, when the ship canal at Saut St. Mary was completed. The mines are from three to sixteen miles from Marquette, a thriving village of upward of one thousand inhabitants, overlooking the lake, about one hundred and forty miles above the Saut. The mine nearest the lake is about two and a half miles distant from Marquette, and bears the name of Eureka. The ore is said to be of surpassing richness, and yields an iron of the best quality, adapted to cutlery. The Jackson iron mountain, and the Cleveland iron mountain, are fourteen and sixteen miles distant. They send to Marquette an aggregate of one thousand tons per week. These mountains rise gradually to the height of six or seven hundred feet, and are a solid mass of iron ore, yielding from 50 to 60 per cent. of the best iron. The New England iron mountain is two and a half miles beyond the Cleveland mountain, and abounds with ore of equal richness. A mile or two further is the Burt mountain, and the same may be said of this, both as it regards quantity and quality, as of the others. A railroad has been constructed from Marquette to the iron regions, and immense quantities of ore and iron are transported over it daily.
All the hills and mountains surrounding Lake Superior, abound in valuable minerals of which copper is the most abundant. It exists in every variety of form. According to the opinion of the lamented Houghton, this region contains the most extensive copper mines in the known world. The native copper boulder discovered by the traveler Henry in the bed of the Ontonagon river, and now in Washington, originally weighed thirty-eight hundred pounds. A copper mass of the same material, found near Copper Harbor, weighed twelve hundred pounds. At Copper Falls, there is a vein of solid ore which measures nine feet in depth, and seven and a half inches in thickness. At Eagle river a boulder was found weighing seventeen hundred pounds. The number of mining companies in operation on the American shore is upward of a hundred.
The Minnesota mine, fifteen miles from Ontonagon, during the year ending January 1, 1857, produced 3,718,403 pounds of copper. The Cliff mine during the year, produced 3,291,229 pounds of copper. The Portage Lake District, including Isle Royale, Portage, Huron, Quincy and Pewabic shipped 539 tons of copper in 1857.
The Lake Superior miners estimate the total shipment of copper mineral from the lake during the year 1858, at 6,008 tons, of an average purity of 67 per cent—making the product of ingot copper about 4,000 tons, worth in the market at present $1,840,000. Estimating the population of the copper region at 6,500 persons, this gives an annual product of about $280 for each man, woman and child. The shipments were as follows: From Keweenaw Point 2,180 tons; from Portage Lake 1,152 tons; from Ontonagon District 2,676 tons; total 6,008 tons.
The extent and importance of the copper mines of Superior, in relation to the general trade in that metal, may be estimated by the following account of the amount of pure copper produced in other parts of the world. The United Kingdom of Great Britain 14,465 tons, Norway 7,200 tons, Russia 4,000, Mexico 500, Hesse Cassel 500, Hartz Mountains 212; Sweden 2,000, Hungary 2,000, East Germany 443; making a total, out of America, of 30,820 tons. The single District of Ontonagon can produce as much copper as the entire Kingdom of Great Britain. The copper mines of the United States, are doing their part as effectually in adding to the solid wealth of the country, as the gold mines of California, or the silver mines of the Arizonia. The copper mining countries are another illustration of the principle upon which success is based, namely, that concentrated talent, effort and capital are necessary to a development of the resources of a country.
When we look into the manufacture of this article, we shall find a new element in the future growth of towns to arise in this region. At present, a large portion of this copper is shipped abroad to be smelted. But is there not every reason, as well of economy as of material, for carrying on smelting, and all other manufacturing processes, at the point of production? The cost of transporting the raw material is greater than that of carrying the manufactured product. But when all the elements of successful manufacturing exist where the raw material is found, then the economy of the process is doubled. Of metals, of navigation, of food, we have shown there is an inexhaustible supply. But there is also coal near enough to supply the last and only material which might be supposed wanting. Coal is found in the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, in abundance and of good quality. This coal is found at Jackson and at Lansing. This was a matter of so much importance that Prof. Douglas, of the State University, proceeded immediately to analyze it.
The following are the principal results of his analysis. It was made chiefly in reference to the manufacture of gas:—
"The coal was of the bituminous variety, having a jet black color and slaty structure. It was readily ignited, burning with a dull flame and smoke, the fragments comminuting more or less by the heat. It had a specific gravity of about 1.25.