The Old Buck Lead Mine

Old Buck was a Ho-Chunk Indian who spoke broken English well enough to deal with his white neighbors.

He lived in the area that we would now call Illinois, but present-day Wisconsin and Iowa were also part of his stomping grounds.

Moses Meeker, was qualified to write "Early History of [the] Lead Region of Wisconsin" because he was active in lead mining in the 1820's. The title of Meeker's recollection, of course, is problematic, because, first of all, our current state boundaries were not yet established at that time and also because lead mining went on, not only in present-day Wisconsin, but also in present-day Illinois and Iowa.

[caption id="attachment_7994" align="aligncenter" width="577"] An artist's conception of Galena [Illinois] after Indians stopped working in the mines.[/caption]For the most part, Meeker capably describes the early days of lead mining in Wisconsin. My only complaint is that he is somewhat inexact or inconsistent on page 281.

There were about five hundred Indians; their women quite industrious miners, but their men would not work.

He must have meant that to be a relative statement because he later tells us that "Old Buck was reputed to be the best miner among the Indians" (and Old Buck, of course, was a man).

Old Buck discovered a lead deposit less than two miles from where Galena, Illinois now stands. He and his wife and their friends worked that spot for fifteen years. It must have been a particularly good place to mine. On page 281-282 Meeker states that Old Buck sold his mine to Colonel J. Johnson in 1833 for $300. Johnson continued to operate The Old Buck Lead Mine for a number of years.

Was Old Buck cheated by Johnson? Well, looking back on it now, we might guess that he was. But in those days, whites engaged in maneuvers that forced Natives out of the mining industry. White technology was used as an economic weapon. So by paying Old Buck real money for his mine - even if it wasn't what we'd call "full value," the colonel was probably being more ethical than a lot of the other whites were in the pre-statehood lead mining days.