USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history > Part 23
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There have been no new and important ranges of mineral discov- ered for a number of years though there is more or less sporadic dig- ding done every winter and several thousand pounds of mineral raised and sold.
At present Wallenhurst, Longkamp & Kreizer have good diggings on Section 35, Town 3, near the cross-roads as you go to Dutch Hol- low. They have raised the last winter over ten thousand pounds, and probably double that amount during the year, and have drifted only some fifteen feet. The mineral dips down into water too strong to be kept down without machinery. Under this water they have found a bed of black-jack which they have proved for over thirty feet hori- zontally. For how much longer the ore runs they do not know.
Chalder & Stuer have good diggings on the south half of Section 36, Town 3, Range 3, which they have worked for a number of years and taken out over one hundred thousand pounds. They expect to wash up several thousand this spring and think the diggings good for a million more.
Durley & Turner are engaged in the old Pump Diggings of James Alderson, on the Lewis estate, on Section 34, and will probably "wash up" a few thousand when the mud dries up. Their new discovery promises to make quite a bunch and turn out several thousand. This location, rich mineral ground in years gone by, H. W. Wright once worked to good advantage and there may be several fortunes more there.
Peter Rupp, on Section 35, Town 3, Range 3, has good diggings on his farm which he has worked several years and expects to have five thousand pounds in wash-dirt this spring (1900).
John and James Hull, called the " Hull boys," who have mined in Potosi tor more than fifty years, are still engaged in drifting in the ground and sell a few thousand every year. Their diggings are on the hill in the rear of the Catholic church in the village, on lands belong- ing to the Ennor estate which are perforated with holes out of which have come tons of lead ore, and probably they will produce tons more.
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PRESENT CONDITION OF GRANT COUNTY MINES.
At Rockville there has been some mining during the last winter on old diggings, but little prospecting. Dunn & Krachenbusch are said to have a good prospect and will work up several thousand pounds of mineral this spring.
At Buena Vista George Basing is mining on lands of Clem Thomas, on Section 23, Town 3, Range 3, and getting fair mineral, and on the same section on land belonging to John Lonergan, Alonzo Cardy has dropped onto a bunch of rich mineral which may prove a fortune to the discoverer, if the diggings do not "peter out," as most of them are apt to do before unfolding their wealth.
Jacob Zimmer, on Section 26, the old Tom Langstaff, will raise some fifteen thousand of rich ore this spring and in due time pay for his farm out of the bowels of the earth in place of the surface as is usually the case.
There have been some attempts to strike up dry-bone and black- jack veins of ore but as yet have not found it in sufficient quantities to make it an object of much labor and investment.
The Wallenhurst & Co.'s mines are said to be bottomed on this valuable ore, but it pitches too deep and rapidly into the water to make it profitable to work under ruling prices. Time and invention may alter all this, when our dry-bone and black-jack will become the best paying ore to work.
BEETOWN DISTRICT.
Mining in this once prosperous district is at a low ebb. Besides some desultory prospecting not of sufficient importance to be men- tioned if detailed information about it could be obtained, the follow- ing notes, referring to the spring of 1900, include all the mining oper- ations of which information could be obtained.
Peake & McDonald are sinking a prospect shaft on the Morey Range, in the Hull Hollow south of the village. They found a small scratch eight or ten feet above the lower opening with some mineral. It is undeveloped. They are still sinking for the lower opening.
Chris and Alex. Garner and Horace Groshong are prospecting in the west Hackett Diggings on the Adkinson & Taylor Range. It is only a prospect, but the chances are considered good.
Joseph Sturmer, Oliver Ashley, and Handy have been working in the western part of the Muscalunge Diggings with fair success, so far as is known.
C. W. Knapp & Son, of Lancaster, have a small force of men at
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work in the Ross zinc mine. When it was first worked, this mine was a great producer of zinc and turned out some lead.
Matt Edwards & Co. have an undeveloped prospect in the dig- gings east of the village. It shows much pyrite (sulphuret of iron) and some zinc. There is a little lead, but the prospect is considered for zinc only.
PLATTEVILLE DISTRICT.
The principal mine at present in the vicinity of Platteville is that of the Platteville Lead and Zinc Company, owned and operated by a Platteville stock company. Work on the mine was begun in the fall of 1899. In January, 1900, the shaft was down 120 feet, and four or five flats of jack, from one to three inches thick, were shown near the bottom of the shaft, while at the bottom was a well- developed and apparently strong pitch of jack. Water was quite strong, the miners being enveloped in a shower. The veins of jack are strong with some tiff, but little stone. At this depth a drift thirty feet long was made, and a vein of jack from one to four inches thick left in sight. Later on the shaft was sunk deeper and several new sheets of jack shown up.
A company has been organized to put on a steam pump and work a jack prospect on lots owned by I. C. Smelker on East Main Street in the city.
B. I. Dugdale and his son Fred have struck one of the best leads lately discovered in the vicinity of Platteville, on Putnam Davis's land. It has two sheets of lead respectively four and six inches thick. They were taking out a thousand pounds a day, when down twenty- seven feet. The wash-dirt averages a hundred pounds to the tubful. The Waters and Stephens mines north of the city are turning out a large amount of dry-bone.
The once famous Big Patch Diggings are now reduced to three or four mines. The Big Patch Mining Company is composed of Platteville men, M. P. Rindlaub being president, Frank Cabanis, vice- president, B. T. Reed, secretary. The mine is on the southern edge of the village. Work on it was begun in the fall of 1899. The company has lately put on new machinery. Considerable lead and jack have already been taken out and the prospects are very good.
The Spink Brothers,'of Big Patch, have lately struck a fine sheet of jack on a new shaft and put in the necessary pumping machinery.
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PRESENT CONDITION OF GRANT COUNTY MINES.
Tarrell & Son are producing some lead from their mine, but have not tested the lower opening.
Walker & Co., near Big Patch, have struck a good lead just at the ,water level.
The Wicklow Mine, a mile and a half east of Georgetown, is owned by a company of Cuba City men, Joseph Longbotham being president, E. J. McDonald, secretary, and R. A. Wilson, treasurer. The company was organized in April, 1899, and by the middle of March, 1900, had taken out 300,000 pounds. The night shift alone once took out 13,000 pounds, one night in February.
In the Whig Diggings the miners in the Graham Mine are working on a breast of zinc ore fifty feet wide and three feet high. The Tippe- canoe Mining Company has opened up a fine mine on Charles Brun- ton's land in Section 36, Town of Harrison. Phillips & Co. have struck a fine jack prospect across the Platte from the Graham Mine, and a good lead prospect in Whig Hollow near the Tippecanoe Mine. They have put in a twelve-inch pump and are going down on a three-inch sheet of lead ore.
HAZEL GREEN DISTRICT.
The Crawford Mines and lands were sold last winter for $120,000. Several new pumps have been put at work and the work- ing force largely increased. A rich vein of lead and several veins of black-jack have recently been struck.
The Mermaid Mine on the lands of the Hazel Green Mining Com- pany is turning out about 2,000 pounds of lead a day.
In the Madison Mine a new thirty-five-horse-power engine has been put in with a ten-horse steam-hoist.
The Oregon Mining Company has lately been organized at Hazel Green and is preparing to work several leases in the vicinity of the village.
A. J. Smith has lately taken leases to the amount of $300.000 near Hazel Green.
Joseph Staver has sold his farm of sixty-nine acres adjoining the Crawford Mining Company's lands, for $6,500, to Detroit men, who are about to begin mining operations.
The New Deal Mine, once sold for $35,000, has lately been sold for $100,000. It is one of the largest jack mines ever discovered. Several hundred tons of ore have recently been taken out. It has been opened up so that a hundred men can be put at work on it at once.
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY.
WINGVILLE DISTRICT.
The mines at Dry-bone, near Centerville, are the principal ones in this district. The Public Mine produces five hundred tons of black- jack and dry-bone a year and some lead.
Chany & Topp raise two or three hundred tons of zinc ore a year. Edmund Cramer raises considerable dry-bone every winter on his own farm: Several smaller producers have mines from which they would raise more zinc if the price were higher.
Freeman & Topp are preparing to mine zinc ore on a large scale. They intend to concentrate the ore at the mine, and for this purpose have drilled three hundred feet for water. Heretofore the ore has had to be hauled to the Blue River wash-places, as has been the case with the wash-dirt from the lead mines here for sixty years.
Formerly all the zinc ore of these mines was hauled to Mineral Point for reduction; but now it is shipped at Montfort. Three thou- sand tons were delivered at that station last year (1899).
At Livingston the Coker Mine is working forty hands and paying well. At the same place the Rundell Mine is being reopened by a Mad- ison company, who are putting in a $3,000 plant.
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CHAPTER V.
PREHISTORIC MOUNDS IN GRANT COUNTY.
Three Mounds Examined-Varieties of Mounds-Localities of Mounds-Conclusions.
Grant County, although not having an ancient history in the ordinary sense of the word, has some interesting and mysterious archæological monuments in the celebrated mounds. That these were the works of a race of people who inhabited the country before the advent of the Indians and were superior to them in civilization, is gen- erally agreed. Further than that nothing is settled and little is known, and space will not be occupied with speculations on the subject.
The mounds are of three classes: those apparently for fortifica- tions, the circular and oblong tumuli, and the effigy or animal mounds. The last class includes representations of several kinds of quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. In 1842 Mr. Stephen Taylor furnished Silliman's Journal a description of three mounds, situated in the western part of the village of Muscoda. One of them was the effigy of a wildcat and measured from the nose to the end of the tail 264 feet. Another was a turtle 76 feet long. It was in very low relief, being only from ten to thirty inches high, but the grass-sod had preserved the outline perfectly. The head pointed eastward. The third one was a similar turtle.
THREE MOUNDS EXAMINED.
In January, 1870, the workmen digging for the foundation of a saw-mill near Potosi, near the bank of the river, dug into one of these circular mounds and came upon two human skeletons in a good state of preservation. One of these skeletons was said to be seven and a half feet and the other eight feet long. Under the skeletons were found many arrow-heads, and other strange objects. These relics were not preserved.
In 1877 Mr. E. B. Crane, of Hazel Green, investigated a mound on
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a bluff of Sinsinawa Creek, four miles southwest of Hazel Green, and thus describes what he found :
"The mound was fifty feet long. five feet high and fifteen feet wide. Its length was east and west. We began at the west end. Two feet below the surface we found many pieces of burned sandstone, which is a characteristic of all the mounds I have explored in this part of the country in which were found human remains. At the depth of three feet we discovered small pieces of broken pottery. Next we found many flat stones, neatly arranged, with the edges close together, and evidently intended to aid the heavy coating of clay, which was also placed over the remains to protect the dead from being disturbed by burrowing animals. However, having removed some of the stones, we found that time and decay had allowed one of the larger stones to settle, and that a woodchuck or some other animal had succeeded in making the tomb of these prehistoric people his home, and in digging his burrow had destroyed some of the bones and broken the pottery. We found the remains of four persons, one in a kneeling and the others in a reclining position, with their heads to the east. The skeleton in the best state of preservation was that of a female whose bones as well as the teeth indicated great age. The crowns of the teeth were worn down to the gums without any cavities or indications of decay. The head was badly broken and some parts of it entirely gone. How- ever, I succeeded in restoring it to its original form by the use of plaster and careful manipulation, The head is almost precisely like that of a negro, except the nose and mouth is more projecting, like that of an orang-outang. The lower maxillary is lacking. It must have been thrown out by the animal referred to in burrowing. By the side of this female was an earthen pot or vase made of clay and pul- verized stone. This was also badly broken, but I have succeeded in restoring it to its original form, supplying the missing parts artificially. This vase will hold nearly five quarts and is in the shape of an egg, with the small end down and the topslightly narrowed to form a sort of neck, the upper edge flaring out a little. One of the other skeletons unearthed was that of a male, the bones of which were in a bad state of preservation, moisture having reached them through the burrow of the animal referred to. This man was, I should judge, six feet high. The female was not more than five. We found also the femoral and tibial bones of a child not more than a year old. These were in a fair state of preservation. Aside from the remains already mentioned, noth- ing of interest was found, if we except the temporal bone of a pre-natal
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skull. This some scientists seem to doubt, maintaining that bones so fragile (if, indeed, they are more than cartilages) could not be preserved in the earth for any great length of time. However, the fact is estab- lished beyond question, and I have several pre-natal bones in my pos- session, which I found embedded in a fine quality of clay, which is equiv- alent to hermetically sealing such bones in a metallic case. We inves- tigated three other mounds in this vicinity, but they were made of black soil, and the remains which had once been there had long ago returned to mother dust. No pottery, implements of any kind, or other relics were found in these last examined mounds."
Hon. C. K. Dean thus described a mound near Boscobel :
"This mound, which I opened in the fall of 1858, was located on the very topmost point of the conical, and for the most part, untim- bered, bluff lying about one mile east of the central part of the present city of Boscobel, and mostly within the northeast corner of Section 35 of the Town of Boscobel. The mound was about four feet in diameter, circular, and elevated about twenty inches above the stony surface of the crest. Upon excavation, it was found to have been built from the ground up, quite unlike any other aboriginal mound of Wisconsin, of which the Society has record. On removing the outer layer of earth, quite thin, but uniform, a carefully paved layer of rock was found cov- ering the entire surface; this was succeeded by a thin layer of earth, then by another layer of rock, which alternatives continued to the number of four in all. Then was disclosed a triangular rock enclosure, resting'upon the natural surface, about eighteen inches long by twelve inches wide, and six or eight inches deep. This had been capped with a flat rock, which, by decay and lapse of time, had become broken and partly fallen in.
"Within this inclosure were found evidences of human cremation, viz: ashes, coals, and heat stains; and in the center there were the remnants of the sacrifice, indicating the cremation of one large male person and a female of much smaller size. The skulls were mostly en- tire and parts of the larger bones were intact. No implements or archæological specimens whatever were disclosed.
"Another peculiarity of this mound was that, by its location on a site commanding a wide and pleasing view of the Wisconsin River val- ley, with its charming irregularities of outline and bold escarpments of enclosing walls, it indicated a fine esthetic taste on the part of the burying party, not generally accredited to that unknown race."
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The following descriptions are copied from the report of Moses Strong, Assistant State Geologist of Wisconsin, and the work of Prof. Cyrus Thomas, of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology :
VARIETIES OF MOUNDS.
The Round Mounds .- They are perfectly round or circular at the base and are dome-shaped or conical, according to their hight, which varies from three to fifteen feet. By far the larger number are less than five feet high, and are spherical segments with an average diameter at the base of about twenty-five feet. The conical mounds usually exceed this diameter and hight, and are always rounded off at the apex. Whether this was by design, or is a modification due to the lapse of time, it is difficult now to decide. Some of the largest have a diameter fifty feet and a hight of fifteen feet. Again, many of the round mounds were so low as to escape observation, and sloped so gradually into the ground on which they were thrown up, that the true diameter could not be exactly ascertained. All the circular mounds were per- fectly plain and simple in their structure.
Oblong Mounds .- These tumuli are invariably straight and of va- rious lengths from fifty to three hundred feet. They are seldom more than four feet high, and will average about two and a half feet high and fifteen feet wide. They always slope gradually to the ground at the ends. Sometimes these mounds are found in a long straight line ; others are in parallel rows, but a systematic arrangement is always apparent. Except in their length, there is less variation from a uni- form standard seen in the oblong mounds than in any other kind.
Effigy Mounds .- These have the form of some animal. They are the most singular and interesting of all, and it is difficult to find any theory to account rationally for their existence. They are found of all lengths from fifty to two hundred feet, and are usually a little higher and wider than the oblong mounds. Their average hight is about four feet and their width twenty-five feet. They usually repre- sent animals lying on their sides, with the heads up and the legs apart, as if in action. Representations of the human form do not exist in Grant County, although they are found north of the Wisconsin River. Three instances of representations of birds were observed, and one of an animal like a lizard.
That these mounds were intended to represent animals can be seen at a glance, but what particular species of animal is sometimes not so evident. In general, all that is plainly seen are the head, neck, body,
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and legs of an animal. Sometimes are added to them ears, horns, or a tail, the horns and tail being infrequent.
LOCALITIES OF THE MOUNDS.
They are found in Grant County in the following localities, besides those already described :
A round mound in Section 16, on Blue River, in the town of Muscoda.
A group of mounds in the city of Boscobel a few rods east of the depot.
A straight mound on the summit of the bluff at the mouth of Green River, in the town of Woodman, northwest quarter of Section 22. It is two hundred feet long, six feet wide, and two feet high.
At the mouth of Dry Hollow, northwest quarter of Section 25, town of Millville, near the bank of slough of the Wisconsin River, are a number of mounds, both long and round, without any apparent order of arrangement.
On the Schmidt place, southwest quarter of Section 26, in the same town, are several long mounds lying parallel to the bluff and a few yards from it. At the Schmidt house are one long and three round mounds, one of conspicuous size. It has the form of the frustrum of a cone. The diameter of the base is forty feet and of the top twenty- eight feet, and the hight is four feet. In the center of the top of this mound is a cottonwood tree seventeen inches in diameter. The ap- pearance of the mound indicates that it has been cut or worn down several feet, to make its upper surface level, and that the tree was sub- sequently planted, perhaps for shade. The mound is constructed of sandy clay, with, however, much less,sand than the surrounding ground. The material of which the mound was constructed may have been brought from the bluff, which is not far distant. About a hun- dred feet south of this large mound is a small circular mound fifteen feet in diameter and three feet high. Thirty feet east of the small mound is a straight one seventy-seven feet long. Following the road for about a quarter of a mile west of the Schmidt place, a mound was discovered, immediately on the bank of the Wisconsin River, and about fifty feet from the foot of the bluff. This mound is the only one of its kind seen. It is perhaps intended to represent a bird with its wings and tail spread, as shown by the circular expansion at the rear end. If this is its design, it is not nearly so well proportioned as the
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other bird mounds which were seen, none of which had their tails spread.
A singular mound is situated on the northeast quarter of Section 2 in the valley of the stream on which Millville village is situated, about three hundred feet south of the house formerly owned by E. I. Kidd. It is on level ground a few yards from the creek, toward which its limbs are extended. The hight of the mound has been much re- duced by cultivation. The remains of several others were observed, but their forms were so nearly obliterated by cultivation that they could not be made out with any certainty. Of the one first mentioned, the fore legs are longer than the others and longer than the body ; the neck is lacking and altogether it is a singular looking effigy.
A large number of small circular and conical mounds were found scattered about without apparent order in the middle of Section 15, Town 7, Range 5, near Warner's steam saw-mill, on the bank of the Wisconsin River.
At the quarter-posts of Sections 5 and 8, Town 6, Range 5, on the new road from Millville to Bridgeport, three straight mounds were found, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet long. They lie at the foot of bluff and parallel to it, near a slough of the Wisconsin River.
On the southeast quarter of Section 14, Town 6, Range 6, about half a mile from the Wisconsin River bridge, on an elevated piece of level land near the bluff, one animal, three oblong, and a number of small round mounds were found. The land had been in cultivation, but the forms of the mounds were distinct. The effigy mound is quite large and appears to be the central figure around which the others are grouped. It is quite large and well proportioned, with the head thrown upward and forward, and the legs bent forward and back- ward. It seems designed to represent some animal in a springing pos- ture. At the intersection of the fore legs and neck with the body a hole was sunk six feet long and three feet wide by the explorers. Nothing was found, except that the mound was constructed of a very hard, compact clay, quite homogeneous throughout, and apparently the same as the underlying subsoil A trench was dug to the center of one of the circular mounds, and a human skeleton was found, the bones of which were so crumbling that no perfect ones could be obtained. It was apparent that the body had been buried seated upon the level ground, with the face to the west, the legs pointing in
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the same direction, not separated, and not bent up. The body and head were erect and the arms placed by the sides. The mound was then built up around the corpse in that position. As the soft parts of the body decayed, room was made for the upper bones to fall into the pelvis, where most of them were found mingled together, compacted in a hard dark clay, from which the bones were separated with much difficulty. Parts of the tibia, femur, ribs and skull, jaw-bones, and teeth were recovered. The jaw-bones and teeth, especially the teeth, were in the best state of preservation of any of the remains. They were the teeth of an adult, much worn on the crowns.
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