CHAPTER 18
READING THE STORY OF THE STONES AS PRINTED ON THE PAGES OF THE EARTH’S SURFACE
IN GENERAL iron ore reconnoissances where much territory must be covered and frequent long marches made, little attention is paid to anything but outcropping rocks. In this way alone it is possible almost beyond a doubt easily to determine whether a region contains an iron ore formation. This statement is predicated upon the fact of a reasonable frequency of rock exposures. In a land of tundra, and stream and glacial drift, more care must be exercised.
Such a section is not attractive to the ordinary prospector. Sometimes it is the case that glaciers have cut off and picked up extensive iron ore lenses and transported them for hundreds of miles. When the travel has been for a long distance, the ore is lost amidst the other glacial cargo or dissipated by water action upon lateral or terminal moraines.
It may be possible that in some instances the ore may be carried for only a short distance and dumped in large pockets. Some keen geological observers contend that the iron ores of Michigan and Minnesota have been carried from the Lake Superior north shore in Canada in this manner. Interesting speculation if nothing more.
When an iron ore region is found, more careful work is necessary in order to define the length, width and direction of the iron formation. Still more care must be given in order to find the richer concentrations that do not extrude obviously.
To learn the boundaries of the iron formation, the territory may be cut into sections, roughly mapped and then gone over expeditiously with eye for outcrops, and the dial compass and dipping needle for under-ground evidence.
The search for “shipping” ore, that is ore that can be marketed to a profit, is most compelling, and in its prosecution hundreds of millions of dollars have been expended. The prospector does much preliminary work, which is sometimes rewarded. He follows every creek and even searches the river shores and especially at gorges, where rock formations are exposed. Ravines, gullies between hills, and every depression that is touched by running water may yield rich returns in knowledge. Cavities left by the overturned stumps of trees and the material clinging to their roots, may give up secrets never told before. A windfall in a forest in an iron ore country may expose as much ledge and formation as could otherwise be done by the expenditure of thousands of dollars. Classification and study of the pebbles in a stream bed should not be neglected.
I think the greatest charm of prospecting is not the hope of finding wealth; it is the life in the clean, unhurt out-of-doors. God is in the lakes and streams, in the sky and stars, in the hills and valleys, in the throat of birds and even in the ululations of wolf, owl and frog, in everything, of everything—Everything.
Time after time I have come upon a little lake set as a jewel in the hills that adorn nature’s wedding ring to heaven, the circle of the horizon. No human eyes, perhaps not even those of the stream-haunting aboriginal north man, had ever beheld it.
Then always I would kneel down on the escarpment and whisper a word of praise to God, or I would raise my eyes to heaven, drop my tump line to my chest, lift my hat and let my soul pour out in mute and helpless thanksgiving. I wish I could tell just how I felt at such times; better yet, I wish every one might feel the same thing. No poet’s ecstasy or musician’s rhapsody could be half so sweet, it seems to me, unless they are much the same.
Lying at night on the rocks with only the starry heavens above me I seemed sometimes to hear with Pythagoras the music of the spheres.
Prospecting in the north country is hard or easy, depending upon the prospector, his thoughts, his desires, his heart, his whole being. If he is so constituted that he can see and feel the divinely raptured solitudes, his life will be biggened and he will develop within himself those rich things of spirit that are worth more than even all the iron ore in the world; also he may find the iron ore.
I do not think I have reminded you, as having a bearing upon the selfish side of the proposition, that the iron ore of the world is worth more in dollars and cents than the combined value of all the diamonds, gold and silver. After manufacture, it possesses a greater money value than all the wheat in the world. But it is so big and common and near that it is not appreciated particularly any more than are pure air and sunlight.
I am writing these things down because of my previously stated belief that more iron ore exists and will be discovered in the future than has been found in the past. North of us lies the vastest unexplored territory in the world. I refer to the Dominion of Canada. It is rich, and where it is untouched by man, it is clean. There is not a drop of unwholesome water nor any poisonous insects nor reptiles between Lake Superior and the aurora borealis. In summer there are mosquitoes, black flies and noseeums, but these are only trifles to the real man. Even the poor Indian and Esquimo become immune to them, and then why should not the white man with his alleged superiority, if he really has the goods. To young men of courage and resource the limitless North offers the cleanest fight in the world, and if you win, the fruits of victory are plenteous and satisfying.
This cannot be said of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where exist the largest and richest iron ore deposits in the world, and where much ore will be found that is not known of now, because the possible districts are nearly all held by private owners. The great iron and copper companies have had visions, and have bought extensive holdings wherever there is a chance that values exist. I suppose there are two sides to this state of affairs, but I must confess that I think it is all wrong.
Even the lumbermen, who bought the public domain for a dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, reserve the mineral rights when they sell. Undeveloped wealth of this kind has been easy to hold so far. Frequently it has paid no tax at all and it never has paid enough. In Minnesota, before the Mesaba Range was discovered and even afterwards before the range had been mapped with any accuracy, lumbermen cut off pine and then abandoned their timber lands to the State. In quite a few instances valuable iron ore has been discovered upon these lands, from which the State receives a very considerable income in royalties.
When the United States Government survey was made in the Lake Superior country, any mineral values that were in evidence along the survey lines were faithfully reported. There was not much value then to tempt them not to do so, because the country was new and without transportation facilities and generally undeveloped.
Since that time a great deal of important geological work has been done by the Government, and by the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota and others. This work has had particular economical purposes.
Such distinguished names as Douglas Houghton, Brooks and Pumpelly, Charles Wright, Irving, Smythe, Lane, Winchell, Chamberlain, Seaman, Van Hise, Leith, Hotchkiss, Merriam, Allen, Coleman, Miller and others are familiar to those who are interested. At a time when most of these men could have turned their knowledge into money, they have been ethical to an extent that is most praiseworthy. I do not know one of these who took advantage of his chance to make a profit; not a single quack among them.
Dr. R. C. Allen was the state geologist while I was governor of Michigan. I asked him why he did not endeavor to trace the Gogebic Range across the Wisconsin boundary southward. To the west across the Montreal River, the Gogebic Range takes the name of the Penoka. It has not yet been very productive of commercial ore bodies. I thought that to the south or southwest of Sunday Lake and Wakefield there might be values. Dr. Allen had been thinking along the same line and had even done a little work. He went into the field work there more eagerly.
Soon he was approached by Chicago land owners who had the title to a wide area under examination. Dr. Allen came to me at once and asked me to advise him what to do. He greatly wished to see such drilling done as would expose the formation, but he did not wish to engage in private work for others while employed by the State; nor did he desire directly or indirectly to give data that belonged to all the people of the State to these few persons, in advance of his reports, which would convey the knowledge to the public.
I told him to talk the matter over with the land owners and see if he could not get them to do drilling that would be of value to both the public and themselves. He succeeded in this.
The same question must have come to other state geologists many times. Their uniform attitude of unselfishness and fidelity has impressed me deeply, and has helped me to higher planes of thought. Their fine character has not been known or appreciated by the public at large.
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