p. 11 | A COPPER PICKAX FOUND

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 14, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 20.

A COPPER PICKAX FOUND.

An extremely interesting relic of bygone ages has just been dug up on the shore of Lake Gogebic, Northern Michigan, by A. C. Hargraves of that locality. It is a pickax of tempered copper that had apparently been used in prehistoric times by people dwelling along the lake. The metallic part of the pick is twenty-three inches long and about half an inch thick. It tapers to a point at either end, and is as finely tempered as a piece of tool steel. At the center is a place where the tool was bound by thongs to a handle of wood. It is so hard that a steel file makes no impression on the copper. The art of tempering the red metal is unknown at the present day. Occasionally tempered copper knives have been dug up in this region, but this is the largest tool ever found.