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Copper Lands of the St. Mary’s Canal Mineral Land Co. Shaded Red.
[Detroit?, ca. 1860]. Hand-colored lithograph, 12.25” x 16.25”. With manuscript annotations. Includes related notes on a fragment of separate paper. CONDITION: Good, some loss to right margin, old folds, light edgewear, a few minor ink stains. A scarce map of copper lands in the southwest of Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan, showing tracts of land for sale by the St. Mary’s Canal Mineral Land Co. as well as the landholdings of a number of other mining and land companies. The Keweenaw Peninsula, known as “Copper Country,” is the northernmost part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Projecting into Lake Superior, Keweenaw was the site of America’s first copper boom. An annotation below the title of this map reads, “Lands for sale marked thus [a shaded and crosshatched square].” The use of red indicates lands owned by the St. Mary’s Canal Mineral Land Co., and three manicules point to three property areas (shaded and crosshatched) that were for sale by the company, two of which are labeled “L & B,” evidently the initials of the buyer. Shown are a multitude of mining and land companies and their properties (shaded a range of different colors), including Pittsburgh & Boston Mining Co., Copper Falls Mining Co., Hudson M’G Co., Lawrence Land Co., Dana Mining Co., and others. Details populating the map include bodies of water, roads, mines, towns, and a swath of area entitled “Trap Range.” This range is named after the works of ancient miners and has a length of 150 miles through Keweenaw, Houghton, and Ontonagon Counties with a varying width from four to seven miles. A scale appears below the title. After building the Soo Canal (known as the “Linchpin of the Great Lakes”) in the Saint Marys River, which opened Lake Superior to regular shipping traffic by connecting Lakes Superior and Huron, the St. Mary’s Falls Ship Canal Co. received as compensation 750,000 acres of land in Michigan’s mineral district from Congress. In 1860, the company transferred its mineral lands, among the richest in the world, to the newly chartered St. Mary’s Canal Mineral Land Co. The latter company was organized in 1860 and its stockholders consisted chiefly of the controlling group of stockholders in the St. Mary’s Falls Ship Canal Co. In the spring of 1860 the Mineral Land Co. transferred 1,650 acres of its holdings to the Albany & Boston Mining Co. in exchange for 5,000 shares of the latter corporation’s stock. The primary shareholders in the Albany & Boston Mining Co. were the same eastern group of individuals who controlled the Mineral Land Co. and the Ship Canal Co. In 1864, the Mineral Land Co. sold most of its iron lands in Marquette County (some 38,000 acres) to the Iron Cliffs Co. for half a million dollars. Another sale took place in 1865, when the quarter section of copper land on which the Calumet & Hecla Co.’s famous mine would later be located was sold to that company for $60,000. The Mineral Land Co. sold much of its property in 1865 and 1866. In 1901, the company was succeeded by the Saint Mary’s Mineral Land Co., which was then sold to the Copper Range Company. Another known map relating to the present company’s operations is Map showing lands of St. Mary’s Canal Mineral Land Co. [Detroit: St. Mary’s Canal Mineral Land Co., ca. 1870]. OCLC records only one copy, at Yale. Yale’s copy also bears manuscript annotations, and features a manuscript title on verso: “Eagle River & Cliff Mine District.” A scarce map relating to America’s first copper boom. REFERENCES: Barnett, Le Roy G. “Publications of the Saint Mary’s Falls Ship Canal Company and its Immediate Offspring,” Michigan Historical Review, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Central Michigan University, Spring 2017), pp. 85–98; Neu, Irene D. “The Building of the Sault Canal: 1852-1855,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 40, No. 1, 1953, pp. 25–46; Neu, Irene D. Erastus Corning: Merchant and Financier, 1794–1872 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1960), pp. 151–14; “The Ancient Copper Mines of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula” (2012) at Star Myth World online.
Item #8893
Price: $950.00
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