The Fenwick "Papers"
Nipigon Historical Museum Archives
The News Chronicle, Lakehead Cities - Port Arthur - Fort William - Westfort - Schreiber - Nipigon
January 25, 1938 page 1
States Recent Discoveries Show Vikings at Beardmore 400 Years Before Columbus
By Canadian Press
Winnipeg, Jan 25 - Philip H. Godsell, noted author and Arctic traveller, yesterday declared recent discoveries in Canada indicated the Norseman actually penetrated Ontario in the eleventh century, more than 400 years before Columbus came to North American shores.
"A find that definitely links the hardy Vikings with the forests of Northern Ontario and proves the followers of Eric the Red and his successors penetrated into the heart of the North American continent was made on the Dodd mining claims North of Beardmore, 125 miles northeast of Port Arthur," Godsell stated.
During assessment work, a Norse axe, sword and shield handle were found. Mr. Godsell said they have been pronounced by competent authorities as genuine Norse weapons of the eleventh century.
Great Significance
Godsell, who mushed over Arctic trails for thirty years and was a Hudson's Bay factor in Northern Ontario, said the Beardmore find is of the greatest historical significance. It gives rise to innumerable conjectures as to how the Norsemen came to find their way into this remote area previously inhabited only by Ojibway Indians.
A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Mr. Godsell said he believed the wandering Vikings made their way through Hudson Straits, landed near the mouth of the Albany River, from which point they may have procured canoes from the Cree Indians.
Then they worked their way inland , up the Albany River and its tributaries, or the Pagawachewan River which the Revilon Freres Trading Company used for freighters only a few years ago.
Suggests Woodland Fight
Godsell continued:
"I can picture the Norsemen holding councils with the Redmen, accompanying them on deer and moose hunts in the forests of Northern Ontario and reverting to the barbaric life of earlier ancestors through force of circumstances; or perhaps the owner of these arms was a member of the band of Norsemen who penetrated further Westward and left behind them the Runic stone, found in 1933 at Sandy Hook, a Lake Winnipeg beach resort."
"Or Beardmore Ont. may have been the scene of some woodland fight between these hardy wanderers and Redmen who for the first time gazed upon the palefaces who were eventually their downfall. The Indians may have looked upon them as Weetigoes, cannibal spirits or visitors from another world."
Friday, 9 March 2012
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.
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.
Were Norsemen First to Reach Lake Superior?
From the Fenwick "Papers"
Nipigon Historical Museum Archives
January 23, 1937
The News Chronicle, Lakehead Cities Port Arthur Fort William- Westfort - Schreiber - Nipigon
By E. Ross MacKay, formerly of Port Arthur, now (1937) of Sault Ste. Marie
Some Evidence That They Were in This Territory Five Centuries Before Columbus Reached America
Did Norsemen reach the Lake Superior country six centuries before Champlain founded Quebec and Etienne Brule came to the St. Mary's Rapids? Five centuries before Columbus "discovered" America?
There are those who claim they did and now Dr. E. M. Burwash, who is conducting prospectors' classes in the Sault at the present time, tells of evidence which seems to bear out that theory.
About two years ago a prospector, J.E. Dodd, of Port Arthur , found in a gravel bed near Warneford on the Canadian National Railway, not far from Lake Nipigon, an iron sword, an iron axe and part of a shield, which investigation has shown to be definitely of Norse workmanship of the Viking period.
Mr. Dodd showed these articles to Dr. Burwash on the occasion of a visit by the latter to Toronto and on Dr. Burwash's suggestion they were sent to Dr. C.T. Currelly, curator of the Royal Ontario Museum at Toronto, as a result of whose investigation it has been established that they are of Norse origin.
Norse Battle Axe
The sword is a short bladed weapon, about fifteen inches long and two inches wide, with a groove on each side. It had an iron cross hilt, with an iron knob at the top and probably a woodedn handle. The axe is a typical Battle-axe, Dr. Burwash reports, with a broad curved face and a narrow back, through which a small hole had been punched to take the handle. Of the shield all that is left is the handle, the rest of it having disintegrated and fallen to pieces when Mr. Dodd picked it up.
The idea that Norse adventurers, who settled in Greenland in the tenth century and explored the coast of Labrador, Nova Scotia and possibly as far south as Massachusetts, may also have penetrated as far inland as Lake Superior is not a new one. There are certain old copper workings on Isle Royale which appear to indicate that that is a possibility. For one thing, the Indians of this part of the continent displayed no skill in metal working before the advent of the whiteman, whereas the Norsemen, crude though their methods were, had for centuries been working in iron and other metals.
Runic Inscriptions
Then, too, markings have been found on stones in various parts of the continent which have been identified as Runic inscriptions and which seem to show that Norse travellers reached the interior of the continent. One was found a short time ago in Manitoba. One found a few years ago in Minnesota was interpreted to mean that Norse adventures had travelled overland from Hudson's Bay.
Ten years ago Prof. Oluf Opsjon read markings on a stone found within the city limits of Seattle as giving an account of a battle there in 1010 between Norsemen and natives, in which twelve Norsemen had been killed, the stone marking their burial ground. Other investigators throw doubts on all the Runic inscriptions.
It is all interesting speculation. Eric the Red, sailing from Iceland, discovered Greenland in 982 and established a settlement there. In 986 Biarni, setting out from Iceland to go to Greenland, got off his course and skirted what is thought to have been the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador before reaching his destination. In 1002 Leif, son of Eric the Red , set out from Greenland to seek the lands Biarni had reported seeing. It is he who gives the first account of Helluland, believed to be Nova Scotia, and Vinland, believed to be in the region of Massachusetts. After him came his brother Thorvold and then another brother Thorstein, and after them Thorfinn Karlsefni, who spent three years on his voyage and whose son Snoore is believed to have been born in what is now Nova Scotia in 1020.
"Fresh Water Seas"
According to the American Geographical Society of New York one of Thorfinn's hunting trips took him up the St. Lawrence and Dr. Burwash points out that one old account of the Norse adventurers speaks of five fresh water seas, which would correspond to the Great Lakes. This story of the "five fresh water seas" was, says Dr. Burwash, dismissed as incredible, but the weapons found near Lake Nipigon by Mr. Dodd will give a new interest to the whole theory.
The Norsemen, the Vikings were a remarkable people. From what we know as Scandinavia there went forth men who occupied the Hebrides, Caithness, Northern Ireland; raided England and gave it a king in Canute; occupied Normandy, from which came another King of England, William the Conquerer; founded the Russian monarchy at Novgorod; established a kingdom in Sicily. Perhaps they were the first Europeans to see Lake Superior, though Etienne Brule remains the first whiteman whose visit is definitely known.
Nipigon Historical Museum Archives
January 23, 1937
The News Chronicle, Lakehead Cities Port Arthur Fort William- Westfort - Schreiber - Nipigon
By E. Ross MacKay, formerly of Port Arthur, now (1937) of Sault Ste. Marie
Some Evidence That They Were in This Territory Five Centuries Before Columbus Reached America
Did Norsemen reach the Lake Superior country six centuries before Champlain founded Quebec and Etienne Brule came to the St. Mary's Rapids? Five centuries before Columbus "discovered" America?
There are those who claim they did and now Dr. E. M. Burwash, who is conducting prospectors' classes in the Sault at the present time, tells of evidence which seems to bear out that theory.
About two years ago a prospector, J.E. Dodd, of Port Arthur , found in a gravel bed near Warneford on the Canadian National Railway, not far from Lake Nipigon, an iron sword, an iron axe and part of a shield, which investigation has shown to be definitely of Norse workmanship of the Viking period.
Mr. Dodd showed these articles to Dr. Burwash on the occasion of a visit by the latter to Toronto and on Dr. Burwash's suggestion they were sent to Dr. C.T. Currelly, curator of the Royal Ontario Museum at Toronto, as a result of whose investigation it has been established that they are of Norse origin.
Norse Battle Axe
The sword is a short bladed weapon, about fifteen inches long and two inches wide, with a groove on each side. It had an iron cross hilt, with an iron knob at the top and probably a woodedn handle. The axe is a typical Battle-axe, Dr. Burwash reports, with a broad curved face and a narrow back, through which a small hole had been punched to take the handle. Of the shield all that is left is the handle, the rest of it having disintegrated and fallen to pieces when Mr. Dodd picked it up.
The idea that Norse adventurers, who settled in Greenland in the tenth century and explored the coast of Labrador, Nova Scotia and possibly as far south as Massachusetts, may also have penetrated as far inland as Lake Superior is not a new one. There are certain old copper workings on Isle Royale which appear to indicate that that is a possibility. For one thing, the Indians of this part of the continent displayed no skill in metal working before the advent of the whiteman, whereas the Norsemen, crude though their methods were, had for centuries been working in iron and other metals.
Runic Inscriptions
Then, too, markings have been found on stones in various parts of the continent which have been identified as Runic inscriptions and which seem to show that Norse travellers reached the interior of the continent. One was found a short time ago in Manitoba. One found a few years ago in Minnesota was interpreted to mean that Norse adventures had travelled overland from Hudson's Bay.
Ten years ago Prof. Oluf Opsjon read markings on a stone found within the city limits of Seattle as giving an account of a battle there in 1010 between Norsemen and natives, in which twelve Norsemen had been killed, the stone marking their burial ground. Other investigators throw doubts on all the Runic inscriptions.
It is all interesting speculation. Eric the Red, sailing from Iceland, discovered Greenland in 982 and established a settlement there. In 986 Biarni, setting out from Iceland to go to Greenland, got off his course and skirted what is thought to have been the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador before reaching his destination. In 1002 Leif, son of Eric the Red , set out from Greenland to seek the lands Biarni had reported seeing. It is he who gives the first account of Helluland, believed to be Nova Scotia, and Vinland, believed to be in the region of Massachusetts. After him came his brother Thorvold and then another brother Thorstein, and after them Thorfinn Karlsefni, who spent three years on his voyage and whose son Snoore is believed to have been born in what is now Nova Scotia in 1020.
"Fresh Water Seas"
According to the American Geographical Society of New York one of Thorfinn's hunting trips took him up the St. Lawrence and Dr. Burwash points out that one old account of the Norse adventurers speaks of five fresh water seas, which would correspond to the Great Lakes. This story of the "five fresh water seas" was, says Dr. Burwash, dismissed as incredible, but the weapons found near Lake Nipigon by Mr. Dodd will give a new interest to the whole theory.
The Norsemen, the Vikings were a remarkable people. From what we know as Scandinavia there went forth men who occupied the Hebrides, Caithness, Northern Ireland; raided England and gave it a king in Canute; occupied Normandy, from which came another King of England, William the Conquerer; founded the Russian monarchy at Novgorod; established a kingdom in Sicily. Perhaps they were the first Europeans to see Lake Superior, though Etienne Brule remains the first whiteman whose visit is definitely known.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
The Beardmore Relics, THE FENWICK "PAPERS"
On April 2, 1993, Mr. Fenwick of Thunder Bay, sent the Nipigon Museum his collection of newspaper clippings from 1937 to 1948 as he researched the story of the Beardmore Relics. He was told that the Nipigon Historical Museum had a copy of the "relics" and thought we might be interested.
These old newspaper reporters had a wonderful curiosity themselves and published more 'magazine' style articles than the sketchy stories we read in today's papers ...as seen in the Isle Royale post... the first of the "Fenwick papers".
These old newspaper reporters had a wonderful curiosity themselves and published more 'magazine' style articles than the sketchy stories we read in today's papers ...as seen in the Isle Royale post... the first of the "Fenwick papers".
Monday, 5 March 2012
ABDUL THE TAME MOOSE
This moose was "rescued"on the end of May, 1949, in the ditch between the CPR tracks and the highway about a quarter of a mile east of the Jackfish River Bridge just east of Nipigon.
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Best and June and Tom Jeffery were out for a drive in the evening when they saw this baby moose wandering along the ditch. After watching it for some time, Tom and Sue got out of the car and walked over closer. It seemed to be lost and weak from hunger. Tom went down in the ditch and put his arms around the four legs and carried it up on the road. It struggled to escape and made quite a noise, but still no sign of the mother.
After waiting and looking for the mother, it was assumed that she must have been killed, perhaps by the train as it was beside the main line of the CPR.
This is why it was felt that this action was a "rescue" instead of a "capture".
The baby moose was carried to the car and placed on the floor in the back seat, where Tom held it so it would not struggle and hurt itself. I guess it was both tired and hungry, because it layed on the floor as quiet as a pet dog.
It was taken to Don Gapen's Chalet Bungalow Lodge, and fed a mixture of canned milk and water, with a baby bottle and nipple.
It, being a boy moose, was named "Abdul".
An enclosure of wire was made, and Don and the Lodge staff fed Abdul with the bottle and nipple for quite some time.
After a month it was tame enough to be let out of the pen and have the freedom and run of the Lodge area.
It was quite a pet and certainly a big tourist attraction around the Chalet Bungalow.
Late in the fall, Don Gapen moved to the States for the winter and Tom and Jack Best made frequent trips out by snowshoe and skiis to be sure Abdul had a good supply of food.
He stayed around the Chalet Bungalow Lodge all the next summer and grew a stubby set of horns.
It gave many a tourist a surprise after booking in to the Lodge during the dark of night, to be rushing to the toilet early in the morning and meet a moose on the pathway. I wonder how many did not get to the toilet in time?
By the second fall, Abdul had grown to be a beautiful healthy young bull moose, with quite a nice set of horns. He was also getting quite possessive of the area around the Lodge, and did not make too much effort to move out of anyone's way.
He stayed around the Lodge the second winter and made frequent trips out to the Department of Highways area.
Many people drove out on weekends from as far away as Thunder Bay and Geraldton to see this tame moose and fed him numerous quantities of cakes and cookies. Now a moose just cannot digest very much of this type of food, and one Monday morning Abdul was very sick to his stomach. He was found frozen to the ground beside the Department of Highways garage and almost dead.
Highways Department contacted Mr. Whitfield, the local Conservation Officer, who decided he would have to shoot poor Abdul. Tom heard about this and convinced Mr. Whitfield not to shoot the moose for at least another few hours. Then he contacted R.C.M.P. Corporal Hector Hartly and the R.C.M.P. Constable Dan Morriseau and told them of the situation.
Tom, Dan and Hector all met at the Highways' garage with a length of garden hose, a funnel and some grease and a pail of soapy water. They then proceeded to give Abdul an enema.
It worked quickly and he relieved himself of a mass of pastry which by then resembled a pail of glue. He was then chopped out of the ice and pulled into the garage, covered with blankets and a good fire started in the huge heating stove.
The next morning Tom found him up on his feet, but was walking on the knuckles of his hind feet. Being an old teamster, he knew this was due to a cold in the kidneys, so went up to Thompson's Drug Store and purchased 2 bottles of Sweet Nytre. This was given to Abdul, some brush was gathered for food and more fire put on.
The next morning Abdul walked out of the garage, a little weak, but quite alive and very hungry. He immediately started feeding on the small trees and shrubs.
During the summer months Abdul started wandering away from the Lodge for several days at a time, but always came back for a visit. He was now three years old.
That fall he was last seen in the Ozone area.
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Best and June and Tom Jeffery were out for a drive in the evening when they saw this baby moose wandering along the ditch. After watching it for some time, Tom and Sue got out of the car and walked over closer. It seemed to be lost and weak from hunger. Tom went down in the ditch and put his arms around the four legs and carried it up on the road. It struggled to escape and made quite a noise, but still no sign of the mother.
After waiting and looking for the mother, it was assumed that she must have been killed, perhaps by the train as it was beside the main line of the CPR.
This is why it was felt that this action was a "rescue" instead of a "capture".
The baby moose was carried to the car and placed on the floor in the back seat, where Tom held it so it would not struggle and hurt itself. I guess it was both tired and hungry, because it layed on the floor as quiet as a pet dog.
It was taken to Don Gapen's Chalet Bungalow Lodge, and fed a mixture of canned milk and water, with a baby bottle and nipple.
It, being a boy moose, was named "Abdul".
An enclosure of wire was made, and Don and the Lodge staff fed Abdul with the bottle and nipple for quite some time.
After a month it was tame enough to be let out of the pen and have the freedom and run of the Lodge area.
It was quite a pet and certainly a big tourist attraction around the Chalet Bungalow.
Late in the fall, Don Gapen moved to the States for the winter and Tom and Jack Best made frequent trips out by snowshoe and skiis to be sure Abdul had a good supply of food.
He stayed around the Chalet Bungalow Lodge all the next summer and grew a stubby set of horns.
It gave many a tourist a surprise after booking in to the Lodge during the dark of night, to be rushing to the toilet early in the morning and meet a moose on the pathway. I wonder how many did not get to the toilet in time?
By the second fall, Abdul had grown to be a beautiful healthy young bull moose, with quite a nice set of horns. He was also getting quite possessive of the area around the Lodge, and did not make too much effort to move out of anyone's way.
He stayed around the Lodge the second winter and made frequent trips out to the Department of Highways area.
Many people drove out on weekends from as far away as Thunder Bay and Geraldton to see this tame moose and fed him numerous quantities of cakes and cookies. Now a moose just cannot digest very much of this type of food, and one Monday morning Abdul was very sick to his stomach. He was found frozen to the ground beside the Department of Highways garage and almost dead.
Highways Department contacted Mr. Whitfield, the local Conservation Officer, who decided he would have to shoot poor Abdul. Tom heard about this and convinced Mr. Whitfield not to shoot the moose for at least another few hours. Then he contacted R.C.M.P. Corporal Hector Hartly and the R.C.M.P. Constable Dan Morriseau and told them of the situation.
Tom, Dan and Hector all met at the Highways' garage with a length of garden hose, a funnel and some grease and a pail of soapy water. They then proceeded to give Abdul an enema.
It worked quickly and he relieved himself of a mass of pastry which by then resembled a pail of glue. He was then chopped out of the ice and pulled into the garage, covered with blankets and a good fire started in the huge heating stove.
The next morning Tom found him up on his feet, but was walking on the knuckles of his hind feet. Being an old teamster, he knew this was due to a cold in the kidneys, so went up to Thompson's Drug Store and purchased 2 bottles of Sweet Nytre. This was given to Abdul, some brush was gathered for food and more fire put on.
The next morning Abdul walked out of the garage, a little weak, but quite alive and very hungry. He immediately started feeding on the small trees and shrubs.
During the summer months Abdul started wandering away from the Lodge for several days at a time, but always came back for a visit. He was now three years old.
That fall he was last seen in the Ozone area.
Friday, 2 March 2012
ISLE ROYALE
From the Lakehead Cities The News Chronicle January 2, 1937 page 4
THE MYSTERY AND FASCINATION OF ISLE ROYALE
Port Arthur people as a whole fail to realize that within sight of their homes , on a clear day, is one of the most interesting as well as one of the most mysterious of islands in the world.
It is Isle Royale, regarded principally as a summer resort characterized by cool weather from the surrounding waters of Lake Superior and the home of moose which have lately been so numerous that they consumed all the available food and thus necessitated steps to move them off to the mainland so they would not starve to death.
Isle Royale has much more than that. It has had a history which even the scientists have been unable to reveal. The mystery is in the evidence of occupation left by some prehistoric race or races. Some of things these people left behind must have come , it is believed, from far off sections. Who carried them and their purpose is among the things unknown.
Question after question concerning this island which is part of the State of Michigan, closer to Canada than to any other main land and reached from this country as well as from Minnesota, remain unanswered.
The island is full of historic lore - abandoned copper mines, empty logging shacks, weed-covered gravestones.
Scientists still do not know why there was no copper in use among the Indians when the country was found, and yet there are ancient copper mines there which were undoubtedly worked by aborigines of the island.
They do not know how long ago those mines were worked, nor by what races.
They have found thousands of hammer stones, and they are still unable to explain why none of the rocks from which they are made are found on the island.
They have found an obsidian "point" - knife, ax, arrowhead - on the island, yet they know that obsidian cannot be obtained nearer than Yellowstone Park.
They have found a chalcedony point, and they know that chalcedony must have come from Ohio or Illinois.
No quartz implements have been located, and scientists wonder why, because there is plenty of quartz on the island.
Bones have been discovered. Yet the skulls show a thicker bone structure than that of either the Indian or the white man, and only give scientists another problem.
Historians wonder why Ben Franklin, in the Treaty of Paris in 1773, stipulated that the island should belong to United States. Some say he had heard reports of copper being found on the island, and his experiments with electricity made him deem this important.
Historians wonder, too, why recent Indians were in awe of the island and only journeyed there after dances, appeals to the spirit and ceremonies on the Canadian shore.
They hazard the guess that this fear may be the same which prompted the primitive copper seekers to abandon their mines after digging huge pits with labour comparable to that involved in erecting the pyramids. Or it may have been a storm on some far-off day while the tribe was en route to the island, or a sweeping pestilence - or only tradition.
THE GEOLOGY
The island occupys a northeast and southwest position fourteen miles from the nearest Canadian shore. It is forty-four miles long, varies from three to nine miles in width and is the largest island owned by the United States in The Great Lakes.
Within those 205 square miles of area are more than 25 inland lakes, occupying twelve square miles. About it are hundreds of small islands with rocky coasts.
Geologists believe the island, or islands, were formed by ancient lava flows, placed one on the other. The lopped-off edges of those flows form long ridges parallel with the length of the island, and extending from end to end.
Only twelve to fourteen inches of humus, foresters say, is on the island for trees to dig their roots into. So when fire ate through the woods, it easily killed the roots and felled the trees.
The birds on the island are those of the mainland on both sides of the lake. Animals include those of Northern Michigan and sub-Arctic Canada, notably the Canadian Lynx, the timber wolf, the woodland caribou and , of course, the moose. The woodland caribou , it is said, is found nowhere else in the United States.
During the summer the island is one of the beauty spots of the world. Steamers make weekly visits from Duluth, Port Arthur and Houghton. Tourists hunt greenstones, the only semi-precious stone found there or in Michigan.
During the winter the island is desolate. A fisherman, or some island "character", may shovel himself in for the long Winter and wait for the cracking ice to tell him it is time to face the world again, but it is otherwise deserted.
The most feesible form of transportation during the close season of Navigation is the airplane. The ice forms on the lake it is true but often, due to water and wind action leaves cracks or open spaces along the shore. Last Winter (1936) when the Newaygo Company was operating timber camps, Al Cheesman made a number of flights from his Port Arthur base. The Newaygo Company quit the island after bad forest fires spoiled the timber lands last Summer.
END of Article
THE MYSTERY AND FASCINATION OF ISLE ROYALE
Port Arthur people as a whole fail to realize that within sight of their homes , on a clear day, is one of the most interesting as well as one of the most mysterious of islands in the world.
It is Isle Royale, regarded principally as a summer resort characterized by cool weather from the surrounding waters of Lake Superior and the home of moose which have lately been so numerous that they consumed all the available food and thus necessitated steps to move them off to the mainland so they would not starve to death.
Isle Royale has much more than that. It has had a history which even the scientists have been unable to reveal. The mystery is in the evidence of occupation left by some prehistoric race or races. Some of things these people left behind must have come , it is believed, from far off sections. Who carried them and their purpose is among the things unknown.
Question after question concerning this island which is part of the State of Michigan, closer to Canada than to any other main land and reached from this country as well as from Minnesota, remain unanswered.
The island is full of historic lore - abandoned copper mines, empty logging shacks, weed-covered gravestones.
Scientists still do not know why there was no copper in use among the Indians when the country was found, and yet there are ancient copper mines there which were undoubtedly worked by aborigines of the island.
They do not know how long ago those mines were worked, nor by what races.
They have found thousands of hammer stones, and they are still unable to explain why none of the rocks from which they are made are found on the island.
They have found an obsidian "point" - knife, ax, arrowhead - on the island, yet they know that obsidian cannot be obtained nearer than Yellowstone Park.
They have found a chalcedony point, and they know that chalcedony must have come from Ohio or Illinois.
No quartz implements have been located, and scientists wonder why, because there is plenty of quartz on the island.
Bones have been discovered. Yet the skulls show a thicker bone structure than that of either the Indian or the white man, and only give scientists another problem.
Historians wonder why Ben Franklin, in the Treaty of Paris in 1773, stipulated that the island should belong to United States. Some say he had heard reports of copper being found on the island, and his experiments with electricity made him deem this important.
Historians wonder, too, why recent Indians were in awe of the island and only journeyed there after dances, appeals to the spirit and ceremonies on the Canadian shore.
They hazard the guess that this fear may be the same which prompted the primitive copper seekers to abandon their mines after digging huge pits with labour comparable to that involved in erecting the pyramids. Or it may have been a storm on some far-off day while the tribe was en route to the island, or a sweeping pestilence - or only tradition.
THE GEOLOGY
The island occupys a northeast and southwest position fourteen miles from the nearest Canadian shore. It is forty-four miles long, varies from three to nine miles in width and is the largest island owned by the United States in The Great Lakes.
Within those 205 square miles of area are more than 25 inland lakes, occupying twelve square miles. About it are hundreds of small islands with rocky coasts.
Geologists believe the island, or islands, were formed by ancient lava flows, placed one on the other. The lopped-off edges of those flows form long ridges parallel with the length of the island, and extending from end to end.
Only twelve to fourteen inches of humus, foresters say, is on the island for trees to dig their roots into. So when fire ate through the woods, it easily killed the roots and felled the trees.
The birds on the island are those of the mainland on both sides of the lake. Animals include those of Northern Michigan and sub-Arctic Canada, notably the Canadian Lynx, the timber wolf, the woodland caribou and , of course, the moose. The woodland caribou , it is said, is found nowhere else in the United States.
During the summer the island is one of the beauty spots of the world. Steamers make weekly visits from Duluth, Port Arthur and Houghton. Tourists hunt greenstones, the only semi-precious stone found there or in Michigan.
During the winter the island is desolate. A fisherman, or some island "character", may shovel himself in for the long Winter and wait for the cracking ice to tell him it is time to face the world again, but it is otherwise deserted.
The most feesible form of transportation during the close season of Navigation is the airplane. The ice forms on the lake it is true but often, due to water and wind action leaves cracks or open spaces along the shore. Last Winter (1936) when the Newaygo Company was operating timber camps, Al Cheesman made a number of flights from his Port Arthur base. The Newaygo Company quit the island after bad forest fires spoiled the timber lands last Summer.
END of Article
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