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John Mitchell, Author
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"In the summer of 1982, I found a stock certificate hidden under a drawer of an antique cabinet I had purchased in Calumet, Michigan. The certificate was for 200 shares of the Eagle River Mining Company dated May 29, 1854. As a serious antique collector and journeyman historian I was delighted with the find, for it was older by many years than any other paper document I owned. The stock was issued at a
time when Michigan's copper boom had just begun.
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The Soo Locks were being built and would open to shipping in 1855, uniting the upper Lakes and making large scale export of the heavy metal from the road-less wilderness possible. Census records show that there were only 100,000 people in all of Michigan at the time, with the average head of a pioneer household less than twenty years old. It seems you had to be young and tough to risk living in 1854 Michigan.
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As enamored as I was with the stock certificate, I could not guess how it would go on to influence the course of my life. When I examined it closely, I noticed nearly thirty circular marks scattered on the map showing the location of the Eagle River claim. The index on the certificate referred to the circular markings as the sites of 'ancient mines'.
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I was taken aback, for I thought I knew Great Lakes history well through my pursuit of antiques. Yet, I'd never heard of ancient mines in Michigan. I began to dig through libraries for information on these people, a culture we know today as the Old Copper Indians. Research into the Old Copper Indians opened my eyes to the richness and depth of Great Lakes history. The interest in study the fostered has grown into a full time career."
Mitchell's interest in history began in the third grade, when he wrote his first book, a description of Civil War battles. Later, as owner of Leelanau Architectural Antiques, he studied the economic and historical forces which brought wealth, and subsequently antiques, to the Great Lakes region. Mitchell was born and raised in Orchard Lake, Michigan. He attended Birmingham Brother Rice High School and in 1975 received a degree in American Literature for the University of Michigan.
In the last decade, Mitchell has worked in as a speaker and Writer in Residence in over two hundred schools throughout the Great Lakes region. He has developed and effective series of lectures and workshops which use history to focus on the writing process. He is an approved writer with the Creative Writers in Schools program, a residency series sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs. Mitchell has also worked under grants for the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Foundation, and various grant and fund raising efforts of participating schools and libraries.
John lives near Northport, Michigan, with his wife Ann Marie, and two sons, Matt 17 and Drew, 12.
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Click here to read about the illustrator
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