An area of Isle Royale National Park that was mined for copper perhaps as many as 4,600 years ago has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Minong Mine Copper Mining District is on the northern side of Isle Royale, a bit west of McCargoe Cove. The designation announced this week celebrates the national significance of Indigenous and historic copper mining that occurred at the Minong Mine. "Minong" is the Ojibwe term for Isle Royale.
The NHL boundary covers more than 200 acres and encompasses the Minong Mine archaeological site and the McCargoe Cove occupation archaeological site. The Minong Mine site includes both the Indigenous copper mining pit concentration and the historic remnants of the Minong Mining Company. The McCargoe Cove site includes both an Indigenous occupation site and the remains of the historic village of Cove.
Archaeological and historical evidence suggests copper mining activity by native groups started no less than 4,500 years ago, a park release said. Mining continued through the 1880s.
As highlighted in the nomination report, authored by Dr. Daniel Trepal of Michigan Technological University with review by multiple specialists, the Minong Copper Mining District is nationally significant because it showcases the intimate connection between North America’s most significant Indigenous and historic native copper mining activities. The site has high integrity and combines one of the largest, best preserved Indigenous copper mining landscapes with the well-preserved remains of the largest historic copper mining operation on Isle Royale.
The Indigenous copper mining pit concentration within the Minong Copper Mining District is one of the largest ever found and is by far the most thoroughly studied, according to park staff. The Minong Copper Mining District figured prominently in several early archaeological investigations, contributing to the development of archaeological science with respect to understandings of Indigenous copper mining. Much of toay's modern archaeological knowledge of Indigenous native copper mining methods stems from field research undertaken at this site.
“This National Historic Landmark designation for the Minong Copper Mining District cements its stature as an exemplary archaeological site,” said Isle Royale Superintendent Denice Swanke. “Indigenous mining activities figured prominently in the park’s 1931 enabling legislation and the district benefits from being in designated wilderness within a national park, which will help ensure retention of a high level of integrity.”
Fred Dustin, who was part of a University of Michigan anthropology team that surveyed Isle Royale in 1929 and 1930, recounted that at the Minong Mine site they discovered that "prehistoric (mine) pits gradually increase in number until they become so thick they run into each other a little west of the main working of the Minong."
"Leaving the old mine, we climbed up the cliff to Arthur's Lookout, and proceeded northeast along the ridge for about forty rods, where we discovered an ancient pit," noted Dustin. "Here the rock masses dip to the north instead of the south, and apparently had made the ancient miner's work easier for this reason. Several battered hammerstones were lying around, and a copper stain near the bottom of the pit indicated the probable location of the red metal that had been beaten out by those crude but effective tools."
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Comments
There is a growing body of evidence that the Minoan civilization based on the mediterranean island of Crete had navigated and explored north america for the purpose of monopolizing the Bronze Age. A published volume titled “The Lost Empire of Atlantis” can be researched on the authors website gavinmenzies.net. It fits perfectly with the time frames posited above. Many scientific contributions can be inspected.
So, the not so hidden premise is that Minoans must have come all the way across the Atlantic to mine a few lumps worth of copper because that story is more comforting and probable to you since you can't force yourself to believe Native Americans could possibly do it on their own? It seems like, with that line of thought, you might be close to taking racism to delusional heights?
The dna analysis of great lakes indiginous samples show a significant percentage of anatolian decent. It is the asian mainland between the Tigris-Euphrates and the island of Crete. There are major copper mining sites in Lake Superior (ninety percent of the bronze alloy). It is not a delusional reach that minoans conscripted indiginous men to work the mines and to interbreed with the women. There is no evidence that pre-columbian people used the copper to improve or decorate their culture, it was all extracted, smelted, and shipped down the Mississippi, up the gulf steam to Ireland, where the tin mines were (the ten percent ingredient), then south through the pillars of hercules back home. Im sure prospecting pits were sampled all over the canadian shield. Read the research...
Okay, I stand corrected. As soon as the new Secretary of Interior is confirmed and a new NPS Director is announced, you, along with boards of National Park Traveler and all the nonprofits that support it, should join in petitioning the new Secretary of Interior and a new NPS Director to showcase your research in a visitor center erected right there at the Minong Mine site. I propose a massive full color triptych.
The background image on the first panel really must depict the evolutionarily superior Minoans heroically sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, past the copper mines already being worked in that region at that time, then across the Atlantic and into the Great Lakes... somehow. That first panel also needs to include at least two other graphic depictions. One should show grossly outnumbered Minoans using their superior strength and intelligence to subjugate indigenous men and force them to work the mine and a second needs to depict how droves of adoring indigenous women must have thrown themselves at the feet of those ancient caucasian supersailors.
The background image on the second panel of the triptych absolutely must depict those Minoan superheroes supervising their hapless and helpless indigenous workforce in extracting and smelting that copper treasure. This second panel also needs to include at least three graphic insets. One should, of course, show the domestic side of this operation, with seated Minoan voyagers surrounded by adoring indigenous women who are, of course, all now pregnant and carrying that precious caucasian seed; the second inset needs to depict enough copper to make this effort worthwhile being transported the hundreds of miles to suitable embarkation sites on the Mississippi River; and the third inset needs to show the construction, on that embarkation site, of vessels large enough to carry such loads of heavy copper and seaworthy enough to cross the Atlantic to Ireland.
The background image on the third and final panel of the triptych should be a map, in a fashionably heroic graphic style, depicting these ancient caucasian supersailors bravely crossing the Atlantic with their loads. Inset graphics on this third panel need to show the Minoans using the ancient Irish to mine and smelt the tin and alloy it with the copper to make bronze and monopolize the Bronze Age, except for the bronze already in use across China and India and throughout Africa and all made using locally sourced copper and tin.
Once you lay out the whole story, it all makes perfect sense. Thank you for enlightening us.
Ojibwe people using stone age tools to extract had to learn to smelt from someone, say the Minongs.