In 1967 my buddy and I took our first Quetico canoe trip during the summer between high school graduation and the beginning of college.

While camped on That Man Lake on the Man chain in Quetico, we came upon the ruins of several old buildings. One building was partially standing and was chocked full of rock core samples from some sort of prospecting.

We had no idea what the core samples were for, or whom collected them.

Well, after all these years the mystery has finally been solved. A couple of years ago I was reading a book about resorts on the Gunflint Trail, which had a photo of a home made boat built by one resort owner. The caption stated that the boat had been fashioned after a similar craft that the resort owner had seen on That Man Lake in the 1950's being used by a mining company prospecting for silver.............So now I know where the core samples came from.

I have seen those samples. Odd to see them there but reflect the areas past.