Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

[warthog steve]

Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

A couple years ago,I read a book called the "Wall Of Silver Mine"written by a last name of Kellogg.This describes a silver mine up in the Keweenaw Peninsula between Calumet and Copper Harbor,Mi.It was supposedly shown to the author by another man,which he claimed in the book also held a stash of $10 gold coins.Last year Labor Day week;I was up in that area;and decided to nose around and ask some questions on the validity of this story.There is a road up near Copper Harbor that is called Brockway Mountain Drive-A winding,up/down paved road with some great views of Lake Superior and the surrounding forests.Theres a gift shop on a turnoff on that road,and I asked he guy running the place if he'd heard of it,he said "OH YEAH"...Then he said "up near MUD LAKE"....now,there is a Mud Lake on the map up there-AND its right in the middle of country that would have scared Lewis and Clarke if they'ed been there-ridges straight up and down;HUNDREDS of feet,one after the other-The whole area is a natural lightning rod,thanks to the metal in the ground-if that mine was at the bottom of a ridge,ya got in there;a storm came and a flash flood- Wild animals,(Bears,wolves)-To top it all off;author says the land its sits on belongs to some paper Co,and ARMED security patrols it regularly... After seeing where its supposedly at;my guess its gonna stay there -IF its there at all.......

 

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[mpostma]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

Nightwind,
The author of the book I met this year. He is getting pretty old, but still pretty sharp.

I had read the book, and then got a call that the author lives about 15 minutes away, and was coming over to sell and sign books.

Got a chance to sit and talk to him for about half an hour of so. He says the mine is off Cliff Drive South of the Phoenix Mine.

I had a good map with me, and he showed me about where he claimed the mine was. I get to the UP often during the summers, but haven't made a trip that far over since I met him.

He lives in Bellaire, MI. He loves to talk about it.

Still not sure if it's all true, and accurate, but it sure is interesting, isn't it?

Good Luck,
Mark

 

[seger98]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

Interesting story, my only question would be, why would a paper company have armed security gaurds out? I know of alot of paper company land, and I've never seen any armed gaurds out anywhere!

 

[mpostma]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

That is the first I've heard of the armed guards.
Mr. Kellog didn't say anything about that.

thanks,
Mark

 

[thompy]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

i will have to read the book, haven't heard about armed guards up that way though, didn't know of any actual silver mines there, thought they were all copper, even though alot of the copper has silver and gold, the white pine mine had enough gold with the copper to pay for the mine operations. though there was some to the south west past Ontonogan[silver city], where i had a ghost experience, i have a buddy out that way and I worked at Baraga for 5 years, planning to do some detecting around Mass and silver city this summer

 

[Mich. Wolverine]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

I would say this is a must read book for anyone interested in treasure hunting. You can't prove that this story is real unless you find the treasure, but it's hard not to think it is because of the historical reference. If it is there is a couple of things worth more than the gold. I won't give anything away for the people that want to read it. I would really like to meet this guy some day.

Wolverine.

 

[mpostma]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

Wolverine,
I think it could certainly be arranged to meet him. I wouldn't wait too long, he's pretty feeble looking now. Must be late 80s or so.
If you let me know I can get ahold of him. He still does book signings and so forth, but I think if we called him he would love to sit down and talk about it. I took an immediate liking to him, very nice guy.

Thompy,
The mine was supposedly worked by some very early miners that lived a winter or two with one of the tribes. The entrance of the mine caved in, and they had to dig an escape tunnel. They didn't survive the next winter...... There is certainly a lot of historical research in the book. It is a very enjoyable read. If you can't find one up there let me know, it is in every book store in this area. (Petoskey to Traverse City)


Good Luck and stay warm!
Mark

 

[Planet1mars]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

the book he is talking about has stuff in there about the mineing.. there is a lost gold cavern up there.. i read sailors who seen indians with so much gold on they didnt understand where they got it from, so it is possible for silver mines as well. my old lady girlfriends husband works with the paper mill he does some work up there and travels so i can ask him about any information and about the guards. if he knows

 

[thompy]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

mpostma that make sense, the Indians would bring out silver nuggets around silver city, and not willing to share the location. some were found to the east in the Hurion Mt's by an early logger, supposedly silver nuggets are allot rarer than gold ones.

 

[thompy]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

speaking of silver mines, there is one up the road from my folks, it never amounted to much, even though they did plent of digging, i have some of the quartz from the tailings piles, with fine hair line traces of silver running through, this was from the 1860's the gold mines that did somwhat better in the area date around the 1890's

 

[warthog steve]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

WOW!!!I passed right by Cliff Drive,when I was up there last Labor Day week on my motorcycle!!As for the armed guards,some woman a while ago told me that,not the author-She said she used to work up there,told me about the armed security-STILL,If anybody finds that;they are guilty of trespass-And guess who takes posession of it when ya get arrested?The owners of the land its on...

 

[grzbear]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

never ran into any armed guards up there, just teenagers smoking dope, whats fact or fiction? it is private property

 

[xdanthemanx]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

hey guys
well before you set out and waste a lot of time on this story, email me i'll send you file of a piece titled "Dissecting the wall of silver" by rex crouch..... This guy took the authors book and dug and dug to try to prove one piece of it to be true, he went through records trying to find one person named in the book to even exist, he also had a geologist do research based on the descriptions of the mine and a lot fo stuff
you need to read this piece of work as i agree with his claims, also the biggest note to pay attentiontoo
the so called author of the book of silver was flat broke, now if you knew where this was wouldnt ya be sitting pretty instead of writing a book claiming to know where a pile of money is?

dtm

 

[Planet1mars]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

There has to be a fw mines up there with gold or silver just have to think like a prsopector find it without getting into legal trouble

 

[thompy]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

well in the next few years there should be a few new mine going in, the companys are waiting for a final ok for kennycot to start it nickle, copper gold silver mine, they themselves have 6 other sites the want to open, there is a spot north of me that they are getting ready to mine gold, setting up the contracts for properties, they have done the surveys and still some sampling, but according to the drillers, this may be the biggest gold producer in the states in many years

 

[Planet1mars]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

i say let us go find gold and get a claim.. i go out there like the old days with a pick and bucket LOL

 

[thompy]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

i havent found any real gold yet, by buddy took some of the tailing and crushed it and did get a little after panning it out, i havent tryed that with mine. it seams that the gold is pretty much in the rock, or gold dust, i think most of it was pushed south with the glaciers

 

[grzbear]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

How true that is thompy--only gold i have ever found was 60 mesh---keep reading posts on the alaska gold forum--- SOMEDAY

 

[Urban Grund]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

I bought & read the book a couple of years ago after seeing it profiled on some Michigan outdoors show. Very interesting read for a Michigan treasure story. If it's true, what a find it would be!!! I've got to find that book & read it again. It's around the house somewhere. If I can locate it, someone close to Roseville could borrow it if they'd like.

 

[Planet1mars]

Re: Tale of the "wall of silver mine"up in the Keweenaw.....

I did find a map from 1827. its a miner map of michigan. its hard to make out i dont speak french but it looks pretty interesting on some areas just got to get translated.. when my daughter gets back this week ill ask her to help me she is studying french... ill get back to you all on this