Though Governor Cass did his best to
overcome this prejudice, for years settlers preferred to gather
mainly about Detroit, leaving the rich interior to fur-traders.
When enlightenment eventually came, population poured in with a
rush. Detroit--which was a village in 1820--became ten years
later a thriving city of thirty thousand and the western terminus
of a steamboat line from Buffalo, which year after year
multiplied its traffic. By the year 1837 the great territory
lying east of Lake Michigan was ready for statehood.
Almost simultaneously the region to the west of Lake Michigan
began to emerge from the fur-trading stage. The place of the
picturesque trader, however, was not taken at once by the prosaic
farmer. The next figure in the pageant was the miner. The
presence of lead in the stretch of country between the Wisconsin
and Illinois rivers was known to the Indians before the coming of
the white man, but they began to appreciate its value only after
the introduction of firearms by the French. The ore lay at no
great depth in the Galena limestone, and the aborigines collected
it either by stripping it from the surface or by sinking shallow
shafts from which it was hoisted, in deerskin bags.
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