America's First Metal Industry: The Old Copper Complex

The ancient Native Americans of the Great Lakes region were the continent's most prolific prehistoric miners. By 1000 BC, the surface of Michigan was dotted with pits and adits where they mined the region's rich copper deposits. Metal goods from the "Old Copper Complex" showed up as far away as Alabama. How much did they mine? What did they do with it? Why did they stop mining? Find out more in this episode of How Minerals Made Civilization!

#mineralresources #mininghistory #metallurgy #copper #ancientamerica #prehistoric #coppermining

[Jason-hgpc]

Copper can be "crease fractured", which is the name for folding a piece after it's initially hammered flat from its' natural state, then opening the fold, then repeating the process until what was the crease becomes the edge of a straight tear. Doesn't require heating, in fact heating copper only makes it more malleable.

[oldgiapetto]

I lived in UP for twenty years and knew many copper miners. I knew several who worked underground as "cutters"....that is, they cut up chunks of pure copper which were too large to extract. It was not unusual to locate and chop up lumps the size of you might want to lighten up when you infer that the old boys were exaggerating.

[Brent]

So many people that live in Michigan have never been in the UP. Some have never seen the bridge. The UP is so beautiful. I don’t know why they don’t go up there.

[michaelcharlesthearchangel]

Interesting to think that Copper was in the pool of amino acid chains from which life first emerged.

[JagdtygerA]

The copper celt style axes depicted at 11:33 into the video are nearly identical to similar ones used in Europe. There is also the fact that copper items shaped like an ox hide have been found in Mound Builder mounds and other places in North America have an identical shape as the full sized ox hide copper trade ingots found in copper age period sites in Europe and the Middle East. But the biggest question is where did the over 5 million pounds of copper go that was mined

[codyspendlove]

I am curious about the three copper artifacts shown @ ~7:36 - Can you tell me what museum these are in? or who found them/where they were found?

[badguy]

The mining of copper...digging the mines...extracting the copper ore....transporting the ore to refining locations...appears to be MUCH MORE than a few native Americans in the area could handle. These were hunter gatherers, whose time was pretty well occupied finding food, building shelters and just surviving. The copper they DID use was called "drift copper" and was found in seams on top of the ground. They didn't have to dig for it. They just had to chip it off the seam and pick it up! To say these same people had the time or even the inclination to dig THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of mines and extract and refine copper ore is asking alot.

[DustKingArchives]

The narrator skipped a kneeling. Annealing did take place in some cases they would like fires beneath areas that are dug out in the minds, and then they would start hammering away. The heat would allow the metal to come off more easily. There is proof of this because they find the burn marks the charcoal another things they find the fire pit. But annealing to take place because some of the blades work too well done to of been just hammered into shape.

[bobtail]

n nothing, good enough for who it's for, thanks for the vid

[riverraisin]

Ontonagon
Ahn-Tuh-Nah-Gun. Not Ahn-Tuh-NAY-Gun

[eagarde]

Native Americans did not practice Extractive metallurgy, they found copper in=situ