2023 Indigenous Site
In June through August of 2023 a team of archaeologists, faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students from Michigan Technological University excavated both Historical, European, remains and Indigenous, pre-European contact, remains. These excavations were undertaken as both a teaching opportunity and as an effort to better understand the very complex past of the Delaware Mine Property. Excavation units were opened in the north end of the Kelly and Hogan Veins, and a 19th century refuse pit was also excavated.
The 2023 archaeology season at Delaware focused on the excavation of the Kelly Vein, called this by the prospectors of 1845 the vein was primarily excavated by the Indigenous inhabitants of Delaware approximately 4000 years ago. Hammer stones and charcoal were recovered providing proof of the labor-intensive work done here. At the south end of the vein is a test pit from 1845, and another Indigenous vein excavated in the conglomerate rock.
The Site
Excavations were undertaken following a modified natural stratigraphy protocol. In other words, the excavator of a specific layer will remove the fill until a change is noted in the fill; perhaps color, composition, etc. at which time a new layer is defined. However, if a specific layer is deeper than 10 cm it is then arbitrarily split into another layer for an additional 10 cm. If the layer is thicker than 20 cm the process is repeated as many times as needed. All excavated materials were screened, ¼ inch mesh. Samples were taken for floatation to recover biological remains (none were found). All measurements were taken from a site datum located at the southeast corner of the excavation area. Along with level and feature forms the students maintained daily notebooks and the site director and the PI maintained separate exaction notebook records, all paper copies are archived at the Delaware Mine site.​
​The main excavation in the Kelly Vein, a name assigned by the Europeans in the 1840s, was the far northern end of the vein the excavation unit was 4 meters by 2 meters. The unit, which is open for viewing, was excavated to the level at which the Indigenous miners stopped digging ranging from 1- 1.7 meters deep. As this was dug in solid bedrock the original miners would presumably have excavated using the so-called fire cracking of rock method in which the rock face that is being worked is heated by a fire and then a hand-held, or bipod and cord supported hammer stone is used to crack out the heat fractured rock. Based upon Delaware Digs experimental work it is possible to remove about 16 times more rock after fire cracking compared to just hammering upon unheat-treated rock. Results from the current experiments which while incomplete, are yet the most extensive experimental archaeological work yet undertaken, it requires about 1 kg of wood to heat 0.5 kg of rock.
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Documenting the Site
The primary non-excavation work undertaken in 2023 was a very detailed surface survey of the area of primary focus, north of the current access trail west to the boundary of the Delaware Mine property and east of the present driveway/road, the northern limit of survey was the steep side of the Keweenaw Ridge. The survey was done with great and overlapping care as a training exercise for the students taking part in the 2023 program. A total of 32 features were noted, mostly depressions were found in this area of no more than 4 acres. The vast majority, 28 are considered probable Indigenous mine pits, probable as they have not yet been dug. The other features include a 1920s Calumet and Hecla, the owners of the site at the time, core drilling site, and other unidentified features.
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Excavating the grounds
A series of excavation units, all backfilled at the end of the 2023 field season, were dug in the Hogan Vein, again this is the European name. The units ranged in size from 2 meters wide which barely covered width of the vein to a 1-meter-wide unit which easily covered the 0.5-meter-wide Indigenous trench at that location with a final 2 m x 2m unit placed in a 3m x 4m depression. The total length of the varying width excavation was 8 meters. The Hogan Vein, unlike the Kelly Vein which runs nearly straight north-south, is not straight, rather it angles, irregularly, to the south east eventually taking a pronounced turn to the east shortly after it crosses the present access path, then the vein runs under the current driveway , emerging on the other side where shortly thereafter is was buried under a 19th century poor rock pile, eventually emerging and heading south again.
In the Hogen Vein excavation similar to the Kelly Vein hammer stones were found both grooved and ungrooved, a total of 18 were recovered. The most interesting were a set of three unused hammer stones found on the side of the northernmost unit at what was the surface level of the ground when the trench was dug, apparently abandoned or forgotten by the miners in the past.
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Results
The first result of the 2023 excavations is what an impressively long period of activity is represented by the limited work that has been done. 3800 BP to AD 1920s! There are few locations in the world with such a documented, long history of copper extraction. It is also completely possible that as further work is done at Delaware the starting date could be pushed back. Other locations in the Keweenaw date back to over 7000 years ago.
A second result from 2023 is the remarkable density of activity in a small area. This is particularly significant when one considers that in the specific area investigated in 2023 no European era copper was recovered; admittedly significant quantities were recovered within a few hundred yards to both the east and west. So, what is different about this area? If one accepts that the Indigenous miners of the past were sensible, logical people why dig two major trenches and dozens of pits moving in total hundreds of cubic yards of material, much in hard rock, bedrock formations. When the experimental fire cracking results are considered not just hundreds of tons of rock were moved, but thousands of tons of wood was cut and burnt. There must have been significant copper present, or they would have moved to another location. As the later Europeans found nothing at this location one possibility is that the copper, float, vein and conglomerate was rather near the surface making this a very attractive location for early miners, but less so for those of the European period as it had been removed. This is a conclusion that obviously can’t be proved, but it fits neatly with the abundance of early work.
Some of the images and information used is cited from Professor Carl Blair​, Delaware Mine site Archeologist
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