The PELICAN GIRL

The Fenwick "Papers"
Nipigon Historical Museum Archives

The News Chronicle, Lakehead Cities, Port Arthur - Fort William - Westfort - Schreiber - Nipigon

January 5, 1938 page 4

This Country 18,000 Years Ago

Scientists may someday be able to make the definite statement that this Lake Superior country and the immediate west, on both sides of the present international border line, was the home of the oldest civilization in America.

It is well known that Isle Royale has given up tools and implements indicating the presence of a race of industrious people will in advance of the Indians.

From Minnesota now comes word that ground in that state has yielded the oldest human remains ever found on this continent. The body of a pre-historic girl, found near Pelican Rapids, has been dated as from 18,000 to 20,000 years old. The estimate is made from the soil in which it was found.

If this be true, Minnesotans and others of the immediate territory can sniff at the descendants of the continents first settlers, at the old families of Europe, the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and the rest of them. They arrived late.

Besides eternity, the 18,000 years represented by the finding of this girl's remains, is as nothing. Yet beside 18,000 years the known history of Lake Superior country is practically as nothing. The thing which would be most interesting of all would be to know what this territory looked like in those long ago days, how it was wooded, how many people were here, how they lived and how they occupied their time.

No doubt, like the present residents, they thought it was a fine country. And it may be, they didn't have to worry about depressions or elections.