ONTONAGON: THE RIVER AND THE LAND

 

A TIME OF BEGINNINGS

 

            The beginning, the life, and the present and future of the Ontonagon country is bound to the River. The Ontonagon River, which gives it’s name to the present country, is the largest river which flows into the south shores of Lake Superior.  The name Ontonagon is like no other.  There is nowhere else on the face of this earth that is identified with the name “Ontonagon”.  The origins of the name are in the native Ojibaway language and the word itself was probably corrupted into French, and later on, into English.  Pronunciations have varied through the years and have included Nantounaganing, Nund-Norgan, Donegan, Atounagon, and on the first known map of the area published at Paris in 1672 identified the river as the River Nanton Nagun.

 

            The meaning of the word Ontanogan (Nantonagun), according to the late Bishop Frederic Baraga, one of the foremost authorities on the Ojibway language in his day is said to have held to the translation “my bowl is lost.”  There is a local legend handed down from the Ojibway about a Native American girl of that nation who dropped a bowl in the river.  The river was known as the “river of the lost bowl” to the Ojibway who lived at its mouth at the time of the coming of the Jesuit missionaries.  Other authorities have claimed that according to the context in which it is used, the word Ontonagon can also mean “hunting river.”  Whatever the case, the Ontonagon River was the highway to the interior for the Ojibway, the French couriers de bois, and later for the seekers of the red metal which first brought the white man in hordes to this peaceful land.

 

            The local Ojibway had as their hunting grounds a territory bounded by the Black River on the west, the Misery River to the east, and the band dwelt at the mouth of the Big Iron River (Silver City) in the winter living off the forest, while in the summer months the band lived on the west bank of the mouth of the Ontonagon and lived off the bounty of the River, chiefly off of the great sturgeon that were present in plentiful quantity.

 

            One can not look at the early history of this land without looking to the great copper rock: the Ontonagon Boulder.  The great rock which later served as a magnet drawing the copper prospectors to the area lay on the west branch of the Ontonagon River, near the present-day location of the Victoria Hydroelectric Dam.  Father Charlevoix, a Jesuit missionary reported an incident of human sacrifice upon the great boulder and stated that this immense mass of natural copper was to the Ojibway a Manitou: a go-between to the Great Spirit. 

 

            In 1764, following the French and Indian War, one Alexander Henry, an English fur trader saw this great piece of copper and estimated it’s weight at something like five tons!  The copper boulder, as well as smaller pieces of copper found in the vicinity of the River sparked an interest in mineral development of the region.  In 1734, Louis Denis Sieur de la Ronde, the French commandant at Chequamegon Bay (present-day Ashland, Wisconsin) had actually planned mining operations and built a 25-ton sloop for the expressed purpose of transporting copper to Sault Ste Marie, but local conflict between the Ojibway and the Sioux kept him from fulfilling these plans.

 

In 1772, the above-mentioned Alexander Henry attempted to mine copper near the site of the great boulder, assuming erroneously, that the boulder’s origin was a great load of pure copper in the river bank.  This attempt was doomed to failure for several reasons, not the least of which was the lack of mining experience by the 26 men left by Henry at the boulder site to drive an adit into the river bank.  With the coming of the spring floods, the tunnel collapsed nearly ending the life of several of the excavators!  Henry quit his mining venture in frustration.

 

            It was long after the war for independence that interest was again drawn to the area, and once again, the great copper rock was the magnet.  Henry Schoolcraft, General Lewis Cass, and a host of explorers visited the great copper rock through the years, and nearly all managed to cut off souvenir pieces, but none succeeded in actually removing the boulder.  In 1840, Dr. Douglas Houghton, state geologist for the young state of Michigan visited the boulder site and again took samples.  As a result of Houghton’s mineralogical survey and the report which followed, the first mineral rush began in America two years later, after the 1842 Treaty of LaPointe established the agreement which would allow white prospectors to enter the Ojibway lands in search of the red metal upon which the early fortunes of the Ontonagon area would be founded.

 

            Mr. Julius Eldred of Detroit, a well-to-do hardware merchant and real estate developer had heard of the legendary copper rock from a member of the former Cass expedition and understood the project of purchasing the ancient artifact from the Ojibway with the intent of exhibiting the copper curiosity at Detroit.  Mr. Eldred outfitted an expedition in 1841 and accompanied by Samuel Ashman of Sault Ste Marie who served as attorney to Mr. Eldred, Eldred purchased the boulder from O-Kun-De-Kun (Konteka), chief of the Ontonagon Ojibway band for $150.00, paid as $45.00 hard cash, the remaining $105.00 in merchandise from Eldred’s hardware establishment at Detroit.  Eldred had a signed contract, and a bill of sale, duly witnessed and in every way possible, and had made a good-faith bargain with the Ojibway chief.  After visiting the boulder site and raising the great rock up on a log cribbing to determine the exact size of the rock, he left for Detroit confident that he had consummated a legal purchase and held a legal title to the copper rock.

 

            It is doubtful that the Ojibway held the same veneration for the copper boulder as their ancestors had.  In fact, most of the Ojibway were poor, dependent on the white traders for many of their needs, and saw the opportunity to make a quick profit off of this foolish white man who would probably not be able to move the rock anyway and would lose interest and go away.  The boulder had become more a source of income than an object of religious practice.  In fact, Eldred did plan on returning for his purchase the following summer, but financial conditions in Michigan which was still feeling the effects of the Panic of 1837 required his attention and he was unable to return to claim his boulder.  The fact that the great copper boulder presently resides in Washington D.C. in the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian is a good indication of how highly this “national treasure” as it was referred to by Sec. of War John Porter was regarded.  There are several versions of how the copper boulder came to be in Washington, and the reader is cautioned that the following narrative is the locally accepted account of the story of the removal of the great boulder.

 

            James Kirk Paul, native of Virginia, early citizen of Chicago, and veteran of the Black Hawk War of Illinois was engaged in lead mining at Platteville, Wisconsin when he heard the stories making the rounds of the mining areas about the great riches to be found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Paul was 28 years of age and was looking for an opportunity to establish some permanency in his life.  Accompanied by one Nick Miniclerque, a half-Winnebago who was fluent in the Ojibway language, Jim Paul made his way to the mouth of the Ontonagon River, arriving by canoe on or about May 1, 1842.  He had undertaken his journey from southern Wisconsin for the specific purpose of stealing the great copper rock from the Indians before anyone else did it!  Paul’s soul purpose was to sell the boulder for its mineral value, plain and simple.