Copper was definitely king. I’ve even read that copper miners were allowed to keep the small amounts of gold they found because it was really little more than trash that got in the way of the real money.
amazing . there were more europeans in n.a. before columbus than indians want to admit.
I know a professor at Tech. He said that if they could only find a way to mine that copper that those mines would still be up and running. Copper is soft, so they tried coal mining equipment-it gummed it all up. They try to blast it and it simply expands and then contracts and doesnt break out. The only way was to dig it out basically by hand and that is labor intensive. That and the mines are to far down for open pit mining.
Its all still there. Waiting for someone to take the chance. Calumet came within a couple votes, or so, short of becoming the MI state capitol.
Would I live up there? HELL NO! GD it snows from Oct to May. I think the record is 384 inches up there. They actually use ladders to get down on top of their roofs to shovel them off. Only the Finlanders are ornery enough to live there.