Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

"The

The Marquette Journal of June 20, 1857, says: number of buildings now in progress of erection is nearly double that of last year, while the railroad and manufacturing interests are contributing their mighty impulse to expand our dimensions and importance. At the Jackson mountain the miners have uncovered a perpendicular wall of some 160 feet in length and about 50 feet high. The ore thus exposed is of the very best quality, and, by putting in a large blast a quantity can be thrown out of from 100 to 1000 tons."

EAGLE RIVER. This town, as a copper-mining depot, is second only to Ontonagon; it is situated on one of the loveliest spots on the shore, and possesses an excellent harbor. Six miles distant is the celebrated Cliff, North America, and several other mines. We visited the two former, and were astonished at the numbers of immense masses of pure copper, weighing from three to eight tons each, lying on the ground ready for shipment, and had the pleasure of seeing one weighing six tons hoisted out of the Cliff mine, These masses are somewhat unwieldy, and are carted from the mines to the lake, and then hoisted into the holds of steam propellers. The stamping mills are an object of interest to visitors; here the ore is well crushed and washed; it is then packed in kegs ready for shipment. In 1856, the value of the copper exported from Eagle River was estimated at about $1,000,000.

EAGLE HARBOR is steadily increasing in size, and in shipments from its copper mines. It has an excellent harbor, and is one of the usual stopping-places of the steamboats, on their way to and from the head of the lake.

COPPER HARBOR is situated on the eastern limits of the copper range; near it is Fort Wilkins, a place of delightful summer resort, of considerable reputation, under the direction of Dr. Livermore.

BAYFIELD is situated on the shore of Lake Superior, opposite or near the Apostles' islands, in La Pointe county, Wisconsin, eighty miles below Superior. When we visited this place in June, 1856, not a house, or a clearing, marked the spot of the future city; now it has a population of several hundred inhabitants, many good substantial buildings, including a large hotel, a pier four hundred feet long, besides a large steam saw-mill, and a well-edited weekly newspaper, called the Bayfield Mercury. It is surrounded with a rich agricultural country, containing vast undeveloped resources of minerals, and the finest varieties of timber; it possesses a most excellent harbor, and is connected with St. Paul by a good wagon road. The Bayfield branch of the St. Croix and Lake Superior Railroad terminates here, and is now under survey. The traveller cannot help contrasting this young and rising place with the ancient settlement of La Pointe across the bay. One was settled by French, Half-Breeds, and Indians. But Bayfield shows plainly what the energy and activity of the American race can accomplish.

LA POINTE, one of the oldest towns in the Northwest, was first settled by the French Jesuits and traders in 1680. It is situated on Madeline, the largest of the Apostles' islands, four hundred and twenty miles west of the Sault Ste. Marie. The air of vigorous life belonging to the new settlement is wholly wanting here; everything looks old and worn out; the dilapidated pickets that formerly enclosed the place, its ruined fort, the old Fur Company's buildings, some of them still standing, and the lazy, careless air of the few French traders, and the half-breeds lounging about the wharves, present quite a sorrowful contrast with the bustle and business of many other points on Lake Superior.

Dr. Owen says:-"As a site for a town, and especially

as a place of resort for health and pleasure, La Pointe offers advantages beyond any portion of the main land in Wisconsin. As a fishing station it is unrivalled. The bays and creeks of the numerous islands and main shore are amongst the best fishing-grounds on the whole lake for trout, siskawit, and white fish, or lake shad. It lies on a magnificent bay, nearly three miles across, and is capable of containing at anchor, secure from all winds, a numerous fleet of the largest class vessels. La Pointe was originally selected by the adventurous traders of the Northwest Fur Company, as the most eligible site for a depôt and tradingpost in the Northwest Territory; and was, for a long time, their principal rendezvous, and the centre of their extensive and wide-spread operations. It is not only one of the most commanding and accessible situations on Lake Superior, but it presents one of the most agreeable and picturesque lake scenes the tourist can well imagine.

"Lake Superior has, at times, not only the varied interest, but the sublimity of a true ocean. Its blue, cold, transparent waters, undisturbed by tides, lie, during a calm, motionless and glassy as those of any small, secluded lake, reflecting, with perfect truth of form and color, the inverted landscape that slopes down to its smooth, sandy beach. But when this inland sea is stirred by the rising tempest, the long sweep of its waves, and the curling whitecaps that crest its surface, give warning, not only to the light bark canoe, still much used along its shores, but also to sloop and schooner and lake steamer, to seek some sheltering haven. At such times, craft of every description may be seen running before the wind, or beating up against it, all making for the most favorite harbor on the lakethe sheltered bay of Madeline island."

La Pointe is often mentioned in connection with many of the early Jesuit missionaries. Here was the scene of

the labors of Allouez, of the distinguished Marquette, and of an Indian battle between the warlike Dakotas and the Algonquins, in which the chapel of the Holy Spirit, erected by these devoted missionaries, was destroyed.

BAY CITY and ASHLAND are points of note a few miles from Bayfield, at the head of Chegwomigon Bay, and were laid out in the fall of 1856. Each has its pier, stores, and buildings, and possesses a commodious harbor, with a depth of water from twelve to thirty feet. In a few years they will be connected with Milwaukee and Chicago by railroads. GRAND ISLAND CITY is opposite the island of the same name; its harbor is pronounced by Schoolcraft to be one of the best in America; it was recently laid out by a company formed in Philadelphia, who are actively at work constructing a pier, saw-mill, hotel, and other buildings, and opening a road to Little Bay de Noquet, on Green Bay, a distance of about forty miles.

BUCHANAN, BURLINGTON, ENCAMPMENT ISLAND, BEAVER BAY, ENDION, SAXON, HIAWATHA, and GRAND PORTAGE, are all flourishing towns on the north shore of Minnesota, and some of them numbering their hundreds of inhabitants.

DU LUTH, at the head of the Bay of Superior, is rapidly growing in importance; a large amount of lumber is manufactured here; it was laid out in 1856, and now contains several hundred inhabitants. Extensive quarries of fine blue granite have been discovered and worked recently, a short distance from this place, and as they lie about one hundred and fifty feet from the Bay of Superior, will be easily shipped to market. The discovery of this supply of stone will be the commencement of a new era in building in this section of country.

CHAPTER V.

THE EARLY SETTLER OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

THE progress and prosperity of the new towns and settlements bordering on this magnificent lake have been almost marvellous; yet Nature has not been easily won, or her treasures gained without a contest worthy of their merits. Those who have viewed the first openings of some of these towns, must have been impressed with the comfortless, lonely, and even dreary look of the early settler's small log cabin. In the centre of a dense forest, the first footprints of civilization in this wilderness were to be recognized only by the felled trees and decaying boughs which mark the site of his labors to obtain a home in that distant wild. He seems not unlike the sinking mariner clinging in desperation to the wreck of a frail bark, beaten by the surging waves, which threaten every moment to engulf him. Every morning the same boundless forest greets his eye, and his only hope against its encompassing him forever, lies in the axe resting on his strong shoulder, and the indomitable courage and noble resolution throbbing in his bosom. His heart beats as he recognizes in the many beauties of nature by which his every step is surrounded, the beneficent hand of an All-wise Creator, who has guided his wandering feet to these highly-favored shores, and he resolves, by perseverance and industry, there to establish his home.

The settler has a cabin, though apparently cheerless and

« AnteriorContinuar »