USA > Michigan > Ontonagon County > A history of Silver City, Ontonagon County, Michigan > Part 1
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SILVER CITY By KNOX JAMISON
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Porcupine Mts. State Park Sept. 7, 1963 Knox Jamison
A History of
Silver City
Ontonagon County Michigan
By KNOX JAMISON
EDITOR'S NOTE
We believe Mr. Knox Jamison is well qualified to tell the story of Silver City. He has lived in this area for one half century, part of that time in the settlement of Silver City. As president of the Ontonagon County Historical Society he has taken an active interest in preserving and recording the history of this Ontonagon country. Some of his other writings have appeared in the Michigan Con- servation and Michigan History publications.
Mrs. Knox Jamison contributed the illustration for the front cover of the book.
The reproduced photographs are through the courtesy of Mr. John Spotton.
Tracings were made by Andrew Poulas.
Copyright, Knox Jamison, 1963
Silver City
The little settlement of Silver City, Michigan has one of the most ro- mantic and interesting histories of any town in the state of Michigan. It is located on Lake Superior at the mouth of the Big Iron River, thirteen miles west of the Village of Ontona- gon. It was, and still is, the gateway and center of activity of a historic part of Michigan.
The earliest explorers and mission- aries knew of the Iron river as all travel was of course by water or on foot then, and the mouth of the river afforded shelter for small craft. The river was first shown on the famous map drafted by the Jesuits in Paris in 1672. Later English maps showed the river with a notation in the gen- eral area of "Copper Mines". An of- ficial U. S. Government map printed in 1836 first shows the name as Iron river. Why the name was selected is a matter of conjecture. One possible solution is that the high clay banks upstream would discolor the water in the spring or after a heavy rain- storm, to a brownish iron color. The iron formation is several miles west of the river system and its location was unknown at the time the river was named. The Indians had a name for the river, The Piwatie. There are early records of Indians using the mouth as a permanent camp be- cause of good fishing.
The field notes of Charles T. Jack- son, United States geologist, show he stayed at Iron River in August of 1847 and explored the Porcupine Mountains. He said that this spot had long been inhabited by a band of Chippewa Indians.
Sometime soon after 1808 the Am- erican Fur Company established a log structure trading post which was standing until 1920. Indians used their foot trail from Lake Gogebic to the river's mouth as a fur route. The American Fur Company trade was at its peak between 1816 and 1822 with a large scale operation
throughout Upper Michigan. L'Anse was the main post for the western end of the Upper Peninsula and the central headquarters was Michilimac- kinac. There were some 64 men working annually for this company during this period as traders, who, in turn, hired several men to assist them in drumming up business. Traders working out of L'Anse were Goodrich Warner and John Holiday. However, by 1834, when Astor sold out his interest in the company to Ramsey Crooks, the peak of the fur traffic was over.
The 1840 fur sales showed a total of $54,000.00 and by 1850 no sales were mentioned. Some furs were undoubtedly sold to independent traders after that time but the days of the big fur companies were over. Records show that in 1798 the Michi- gan-Northern Wisconsin and North- ern Minnesota area produced 181,150 furred animals of which 106,000 were beavers. Other furs listed were fox, marten, otter, bear, muskrat, wolves, fisher, mink, cats and deer. Even the terrific profit of six hund- red to seven hundred per cent that the traders took from the Indians did not pay the companies to oper- ate after 1850.
As late as 1875 the annual report of the superintendent of the St. Mary's ship canal showed 4504 bundles of furs and pelts (100 Lbs. per bundle) being carried through the canal. Also carried on the ves- sels from Lake Superior ports that year was 847 tons of silver ore, 2125 tons of mass copper, 12,632 tons of ingot copper, and 3,638 tons of stamp work copper.
Even yet today, the region around Silver City produces some fur which is still predominately beaver. Pro- fessional trappers eked out a living here as late as 1925.
The fur trade was falling off from 1840 on but a new activity replaced
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it. It was the mining industry with its influx of prospectors and miners. Douglas Houghton, state geologist, made his famous report on the min- erals of the area in 1841, and J. W. Foster and J. D. Whitney their re- port to the Congress of the United States on the geology of the district in 1850. Both reports mentioned the Iron river as one of the principal rivers of the Lake Superior district. Copper was known to be present much earlier than this though. In his notes of 1670 Father Deblon stat- ed that near the Nantonagon (Ont- onagon) River he was presented with a piece of copper from that locality. First mention of silver was by Alex- ander Henry in 1771 when he re- marked that a stone of eight pounds in weight was found at Point Aux Iroques containing 60 per cent silver. Hardly any of the early explorers noticed or at least mentioned the pre- sence of silver with the copper.
First direct geological report on the immediate area of Iron River was by Mr. Foster who says: "At Iron River, the sandstone is very fissile and of a dark brown color, resembling a slaty rock. This rock dips in a direction different from the general dip of the sandstone which lines the coast. This diversity has been occasioned by the upheaval of the Porcupine Mountains, whose pro- longation is at nearly right angles with the general direction of the trap range. The bearing of the sandstone exposed in the stream bed varies from North and South to N40E and S40W." He also states: "It has been asserted that some of the native copper contains a small portion of silver alloyed with it. Native silver also occurs fairly frequently. Up to the present time the quantity of sil- ver occurring with the copper has not been sufficient to make it worth while to separate it from the copper."
The record of Iron River would not be complete if it did not include the early copper mining just west of this settlement in the Porcupine Mountains. Iron River was the near- est civilization to the mountains and many of the supplies for the mines were unloaded there.
In the treaty of La Pointe, on Oct. 4, 1842 on Madelon Island, the Chip-
pewa Indian chiefs met with the United States Government represent- atives and ceded all their lands in this area to the United States. The treaty covered all lands laying west of the Chocolate River (Chocolay River in Marquette County) and in- cluded lands east of the American Fur Company's trading post on the Fond du Lac River. This started the copper boom on the south shore of Lake Superior. Mining permits were issued by the War Department stationed at Porters Island in Copper Harbor (Keweenaw County). Later sub agencies were set up at Ontona- gon and La Pointe. By the close of 1846 over 1,000 locations were made and the offices closed to further per- mits. People were clamoring for these locations to get rich in ten years, the period covered by the per- mit. The Iron River area saw a great deal of activity as there was many a location in the immediate vicinity. The severe northern win- ters and isolated country had a dampening effect on the ardor of these early prospectors, many aband- oning their claims. On only three of the local permits issued was there serious work done. These companies were the Union, Boston and North American, and LaFayette. Later, by 1855 all lands remaining unsold by the government were open to pre- emption and sale at $1.25 an acre. The later mines were acquired in this way.
It is necessary to know something of how the early copper mining was done to understand the hardships en- countered. There was, of course, no roads whatever, so all transportation was of necessity by water or on foot. After many arduous hours on foot and much prospecting, occasionally an outcropping was found in a stream or hill that contained a vein of cop- per. Pits were then sunk down to solid rock at several points to prove the lode. Then if capital could be obtained shafts were sunk about 400 feet apart on the lode in depths of 100 feet or more and connected by means of a drift, in order to prove the value of the lode. If the prospects then looked good more ex- tensive mining was begun and a rock house and stamp mill erected for crushing the ore. Diamond drilling
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did not come into general use until about 1878. Not many mines reach- ed this last stage because very few actually shipped out any copper; of the few that did reach this stage we will give more detail.
The first mine started in the moun- tains, the Union, was only four miles from the settlement of Iron River. J. J. Spaulding in charge of work at the mine tells of walking to Iron River to see an Indian Medicine dance. He stated that in 1846 there were fifty men and two white women living at Iron River in addition to the Indians. On the 4th of July he went there to celebrate the holiday. His account states he had a fine time in which he made the following toast: "The miners of Lake Super- ior, may they paw back the dirt in their progress through the earth and everything they touch turn to cop- per." All provisions for these early mines came in by sailing vessel, land- ing the supplies either at Silver City or Union Bay three miles to the west. Several other mining ventures fol- lowed in the mountains, notably the Carp Lake, Lafayette, Cuyahoga and Nonesuch.
The Carp Lake holdings reached its peak production in 1865 when it produced 61/2 tons of copper. The incentive for mining then was the all time high for copper in 1864, when it sold for 55 cents per pound. There is no record of ore shipped from the Lafayette but it was much less than the Carp Lake. Both mines were closed by 1866. The Carp Lake was opened briefly in 1897 to 1900 but it was exploration only. The Cuyahoga Mining Company be- gan work in 1859, one mile east of the Carp Lake mine. Again it was Cleveland capital that was spent in driving an adit over 200 feet into the bluff and sinking a shaft. The Cuyahoga closed soon after 1865 with only a very small amount of copper having ever been shipped out. Only buildings at Cuyahoga consisted of two log structures 20 x 24 feet and two stories high which were used as office, warehouse, boarding and bunk house. Supplies for all these mines were unloaded along the Lake Super- ior shore opposite the mines.
By far the most successful early mine in the area was the Nonesuch which was discovered in 1865 by an Indian half breed from Iron River. He noticed the vein outcropping in the Little Iron River in Sec. 1, T.50N, R.43W. It was opened in 1867 by an Ontonagon company and operat- ed under their management until 1873 when more capital was needed. They obtained more funds but were frozen out by Cleveland capitalists. Work continued until 1875 when the stamp mill was destroyed by fire. Captain Thomas Hooper, a reliable mining man, reopened the mine in 1879 and by careful management made it a paying proposition for two years. In 1881 it reached its great- est production with 591/2 tons of cop- per being shipped out by boat from Union Bay. The property was again sold that year and due to poor judg- ment in the process of milling the ore, it closed a few years later. The mining settlement at the Nonesuch in its heydey of 1881 overshadowed the Iron River settlement, the popu- lation of the copper town reaching well over 100 persons and Iron River much less. There was a road of sorts from Iron River to the Nonesuch, and from the Nonesuch south to Lake Gogebic, the latter known as the Bessemer road.
In the early 1920's a score or more of houses and other buildings were still standing. The old tram road for hauling copper with its wooden rails that ran from the mine to Lake Superior could still be followed. The trestle across the river from the shaft house to the stamp mill was in place. Today only the stone foundations of the stamp mill and boiler house can be found.
Iron River played a part in the later copper mines, Halliwell, White Pine Extension, and White Pine. Sup- plies were unloaded here or at Union Bay for these mines as the roads for the greater part of the year were im- passable from Ontonagon west. Even the first supplies for the White Pine Mine were hauled to the Nonesuch and then east across to White Pine. The road from Iron River south to White Pine was not constructed un- til later.
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In 1906 the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company started diamond drilling at the old Nonesuch proper- ty. Some supplies were hauled over the wagon road following the lake shore running from Ontonagon to Union Bay and then south to the Nonesuch. However, the heavier materials were hauled by boat to Union Bay and unloaded at a point called Cuyahoga landing. The ma- terial was then hauled to the mine site with teams. A scow load of ma- chinery for the Nonesuch stamp mill consisting of 60 tons was delivered at Silver City in August of that year. The exploration crews began working also on the old White Pine location. One shaft had been sunk there years ago and also several test pits. The Nonesuch vein outcrops on this pro- perty. Later the Nonesuch operation was abandoned and the C. & H. be- gan their extensive development at White Pine.
Working on the old Nonesuch for- mation during the summer of 1909 a shaft was started at the White Pine location under the direction of Thom- as Wilcox. They reached a depth of 200 feet showing a copper content in the ore of 6 to 10 per cent. The first crew numbered 17 men which was increased to 25 the same year. Exploratory work continued by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, organized as the White Pine Copper Company, through to 1914. In Oc- tober of that year several boats and scows unloaded tons of material for mining and stamping copper at Iron River. From there it was hauled by teams and auto trucks south to White Pine. The teams hauled by far more than the trucks did but it took sev- eral months to get all supplies there over a rough road. From that year on for 30 years White Pine over- shadowed Silver City in population. During the early forties White Pine's population reached only a handful of people because the mine had been shut down for a long period of nearly 20 years. In 1955 however, the Copper Range Mining Company again reopened the mine on a much greater scale than Calumet and Hecla had done. Over a thousand persons now reside there.
Iron River was just the jumping off place for the copper mines but it was the center of the activity for silver mining. By 1872 the presence of silver in the entire surrounding area was pretty generally known. Native silver was present all along the trap range and its occurance was common in almost every copper vein or lode found. Now it was this na- tive silver that excited the imagina- tion of prospectors who hoped to find a vein of solid silver. Austin Corser had discovered silver outcropping in the Little Iron River and homestead- ed the land on which it occurred. The Indians had brought in several speci- mens of native silver to the fur trad- ing post long before the miners ar- rived here.
The nearby copper mines had proved silver to be here, so the time was right for a silver boom and Iron River was the center of the activity, even to getting its name changed to the romantic title of Silver City. Daniel Beaser, a retired great lakes sailing captain, could see that the mouth of the Big Iron River would be the center of the silver mining activity. He plotted the site and named the new town Silver City. As proprietor he sold the lots at prices from $100.00 to $150.00 per lot. Log buildings were erected in Silver City, sailing vessels were hauling supplies to the river's mouth, with boats of 4 to 5 foot draft entering the river and docking. The town buzzed with activity and speculation. Silver min- ing companies were organized and stock sold. Of course most of these companies were speculative and ex- ploratory but six did engage in the business of mining. These were the only active companies: Ontonagon Silver Mining Co., Ontonagon and Lake Superior Co., The Superior Sil- ver Mining Co., The Mammoth Silver Mining Co., Scranton Silver Mining Co., and Cleveland Mining Co.
The peak of the silver boom was during the summer of 1875. A one man chamber of commerce, editor Alfred Meads of the "Ontonagon Miner", tells about conditions then: "The recent very favorable tests of ore from the Iron River silver district had had the effect of stimulating other enterprises in that vicinity,
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Nonesuch Mill about 1900. Stamp Mill for crushing and reclaiming copper from ore.
Pictured are a group of 1919 residents of White on the old Iron River Bridge. Left to right they are: James K. Jamison, Peter Sparpanic, Thos. Hutchings, Mike Rubich, Roger Watt, and T. H. Wilcox.
one of which is laying out of a town site on Captain D. Beaser's property at the mouth of the river. It is one of the handsomest locations that could be desired for that purpose and it does seem as if Dame Nature had laid herself out to show what she could do in this way. The beau- tiful little river that goes rushing along over its rocky bottom, the formations of the land in natural benches one above the other, so that no one need be inconvenienced by having a neighbor in front of him, as well as the good and serenely un- limited expanse of Old Father Super- ior himself, which makes an admir- able foreground for the picturer, and the bold outlines of the Porcupines in the west are only the more promi- nent features. The fact that the land has been mostly cleared for a great many years and is now ready for occupancy and garden cultivation without the removal of a stump, root or tree is also in its favor.
In the way of business, the new town will also be particularly favored as from its location it is certainly destined to be the seaport and base of supplies of all the mining interests in that vicinity. There is an excel- lent harbor now for all small craft having six feet of water in the clear, and it is thought that at least ten feet can be secured with a small outlay in dredging.
C. H. Pratt Esq. of Ashland, a sur- veyor of acknowledged ability, has been engaged to do the work (of platting the town) and we under- stand that Capt. Beaser proposes to place the lots at very reasonable prices. The plat may be seen nd lots secured at his office in Iron River.
A lumber yard with a full stock of everything in that line has already been established there by the Ash- land Lumber Company and a general store, meat market etc. will be in full blast in a short time."
This is Mr. Mead's optimistic view of the new town. What actually happened ? Buildings were con- structed alright. By November there were four large warehouses for the mines located near the harbor. A
boarding house was erected for the Mammoth Silver Mining Comany as well as scores of smaller buildings used mostly as residences.
There were crews of miners work- ing at the Cleveland, Ontonagon & Lake Superior, Hubbell location, Mammoth, Collins, Scranton and Nonesuch. The silver reducing mill had been constructed and was in op- eration crushing and treating the silver ore from the mines.
The traffic was heavy both by water and by road. The "Minnie V", a steam yacht owned by James Mer- cer, with P. J. Cusick as captain, was making three trips a week to Silver City and returning to Ontona- gon. One of the trips was on Satur- day when the boat waited at Silver City until 5:00 p. m. before return- ing so that the miners could do a little week end celebrating in Ontona- gon.
Tugs were hauling scows loaded with freight to the harbor. Mining machinery, building materials, and food supplies comprised most of the freight. The port had to be closed to navigation in December but the stage road was much better after freezing during the winter months, than miring down in the summer mud. One of H. W. Beardsley's stage horses dropped dead while coming from Silver City. It was reported to be congestion of the lungs but it could have been because of the bad road conditions at the time. Harry Rough, who was the oldest stage driver around, took a contract to carry the mail between Ontonagon and Silver City. Visitors to the area could go from Ontonagon and return the same day as fresh horses were available at Silver City.
Prospects looked excellent for the new city in 1875. The following year was to prove different. Work was carried on at the mines on a reduced scale. Men at the Cleveland Silver Mine quit because they had not been paid for several weeks. Finally the force was reduced to just a few men and finally stopped altogether. The Ontonagon and Lake Superior mines received orders to suspend all work and discharge all the men. A very
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small crew continued to cut timber for the mine into the fall of 1876, the only activity left in the district. By late fall only a few families remain- ed at Silver City. In fact, in the No- vember election, Carp Lake Township cast a total of 13 votes, 11 Democrats and 2 Republicans. So the silver boom lasted about four years in all, starting in 1872, reaching its peak in 1875 and folding in 1876.
Silver vein rock was found in the river bed of both the Little and Big Iron Rivers containing natural sil- ver. This vein outcropped in the Little Iron River on the W12 of W1/2 of Sec. 13 T. 51 N. R. 42 W. This vein, later found to be outcrop- ping on the Big Iron River was rich in silver ore on the SE14 of Sec. 13 T. 51 N. R. 42 W. running in a general east and west direction. With these discoveries, excitement was in the air and many specimens obtained for as- saying. Most of the vein rock showed great promise, some assaying for as high as $1700 of silver per ton of rock. First actual mining was done by the Ontonagon Silver Mining Company in March of 1873, on the N1/2 of NW14 of Sec. 19 T. 51 N. R. 41 W. The editor of the "Onto- nagon Miner" newspaper, Mr. Alfred Meads, states: "Work was commenc- ed on the ground where it was cov- ered with fully four feet of snow, in a section of country perfectly isolat- ed, no roads to reach it and not a single person living there. All their supplies, provisions, tools and camp- ing material had to be hauled from Ontonagon on dog trains or packed up on men's backs. The men were made as comfortable as circumstanc- es would permit in a brush camp. The point selected for their opera- tions was the extreme northwest corner of the N1/2 of NW14 of Sec. 19 T. 51 N. R. 41 W. Three test pits were sunk to the slate which proved that they were too far north. At length, however, in four weeks from the time they commenced work, they struck the vein about twenty rods south from the east and west line and near the north and south line of their property. It occupied the same geological position as the out-crop on Iron River, at the junction of the slate and sandstone, having the slate
for the north wall and the sandstone for the south or footwall. The width of the vein was the same being about 18 inches wide and fully as rich in native silver and silver ore as the specimens obtained in Iron River. The fact of the vein being found some fifty rods to the east of its outcrop- ping in Iron River very much elated the friends of the district and seem- ed to prove conclusively that the vein was a continuous one. Land was cleared, roads made, houses built and today they have a neat, well regulat- ed, clean location. After Captain Hooper took charge, another shaft was commenced. The size of the shaft is 9 x 10 feet and has now reached the first level, or about 115 feet from the surface. This shaft is the deepest on the vein in the dist- rict and proves conclusively its in- creasing richness in depth. We un- derstand this company is making ar- rangements for the erection of a sil- ver reducing mill."
Following this first work the On- tonagon and Lake Superior Company started sinking a shaft near the bank of the Big Iron River on the N1/2 of NE'14 of Sec. 25 T. 51 N. R. 42 W.
The falls now known as the Green- wood, were not overlooked as a wa- ter power possibility for a mine or reducing mill and explorative work was done at this point with several pits sunk on the tract known as the Hubbell Location. No company was organized because none of the pits sunk struck the vein.
On the Superior r Silver Mining holdings the most extensive mining work was done, probably because of Captain Daniel Beaser. It was the second company to really get down to the serious business of mining. Work started on the east bank of the Iron River about two miles from the river mouth and an adit driven east 120 feet. The vein proved rich in silver, producing $632.00 of silver per ton of rock. With such a prospect, sev- eral houses were built on the pro- perty and talk also was heard of a reducing mill to be built the follow- ing spring here.
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