The boulder was said to be five tones in weight and as large as a house.
And it was made of solid copper.
It reallywasmade of solid copper.
Curiously, no effort was made to relocate the treasure until nearly two centuries later.
A 19-ton piece of native copper displayed at the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum of Michigan Technological University.
It was far smaller than legends claimed it to be.
Schoolcraft also erred in his estimate, towards the lower end of the scale.
The actual weight of the Ontonagon Boulder was later found to be about 1,680 kilograms.
That copper boulder (pictured below) weights about 28 tons and is more than 90% copper.
Native Americans started exploiting this natural resource as early as seven thousand years ago.
It was only much later that the indigenous people learned the tricks of smelting to produce more refined copper.
A 4,260 kilogram float copper at Calumet in Michigan.
Photo credit:www.keweenaw.info
Another float copper monument at Michigan Technological University.
