Up for bid on eBay is an original (circa 1847) mining company stockholder manifest. According to the listing, this 19th century manuscript contains a full roster of individual shareholders in three companies engaged in early mining activities in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. All three companies, Lake Superior Copper Co., Northwestern Mining Co., and Eagle Harbor Mining Co., were founded in the 1840s, and were principal players in the early speculation and mining of the Keweenaw Peninsula, the northern-most part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Begun in 1842 and lasting until about 1850, this was the first copper boom in United States history. This original manuscript lists shareholders in the Lake Superior Copper Company [L.S.C.Co.] who simultaneously held shares in both the Northwestern Mining Company [NW.M.Co.] and Eagle Harbor Mining Company [E.H.M.Co.]. In all, nearly 150 different names are listed holding a total of 1200 shares of L.S.C.Co. stock, 250 shares of NW.M.Co. stock and 100 shares of E.H.M.Co. stock. A remarkable manuscript documenting the earliest mining companies in America's first copper boom.
"The Lake Superior Copper Company, which was the first that engaged in those mining operations that gave value to this [Keweenaw] district, opened its first mines on Eagle river in 1844. Under the very unfavorable state of things which then existed in the savage and uncivilized state of the country, and after two or three years' labor, they very unfortunately sold their mines, at the precise moment when they were upon the vein that now has been proved to be so very rich in copper and silver. The Phoenix Copper Company, formed of the remains of the Lake Superior Company, opened these mines anew...". [Report of Israel D. Andrews on the Trade and Commerce of the British North American Colonies, 1852].
"The present Phoenix Consolidated Company is the lineal successor of the Lake Superior Copper Company, the first regularly organized corporation to engage in Lake Superior copper mining. The Pittsburgh & Boston company begun actual mining on the Cliff property a few months before the Lake Superior company did its first work, but was organized later. The Lake Superior company located 21 square miles under permits from the War Department, and actual mining was begun Oct, 22, 1844...In 1847 the Lake Superior company had expended $98,790.50 and the shareholders were tired. In 1849 a reorganization was effected, and the Phoenix Copper Company took over the assets of the original corporation." [The Copper Handbook, 1900].
"Eagle Harbor Mining Company, [was formed] for the purpose of mining, smelting and manufacturing ores, minerals and metals in the upper peninsula of the state of Michigan." [Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan, 1847].
"Northwestern Mining Company was organized in 1845 and then reorganized in 1848. Work continued until 1857 and resumed again in 1863. All work ceased in 1865 and was absorbed by the Central Mining Company shortly after 313,000 lbs. of refined copper was recovered [from the mines]...Copper, silver, analcime, and prehnite can be found on the poor-rock piles." [United States Geological Survey, 1992].
