“… Tracking the Minoans across the lakes was one of the most thrilling moments of my discovery. A treasure trail of clues had already been leading me towards this island, whose geographical position is key to its importance. A large number of storage pits that still hold traces of corroded copper lead from the Keweenaw Peninsula to Beaver Island. I had read of a stone circle on the island. Apparently, the native Americans call it a ‘sun circle’. A native American elder had told Professor James Scherz that a mystical series of stone circles lay submerged in the northern reaches of Lake Michigan. The elder told Scherz that these stone structures were all linked by what he called ‘Thunderbird lines’. They all led to a large stone circle on Beaver Island. In the 1950s Scherz made a study of the ring, which is made up of 39 stones and is 121 metres (397 feet) in diameter. He concluded that it was built for astrological purposes. Here, at the heart of America, I was looking at a Minoan star observatory, a mini-Stonehenge. Far from leaving without trace, the ancient mariners had left behind something infinitely more precious, to me at least: a prehistoric document of exquisite precision…”
Further reading:
Old water levels and waterways during the Ancient Copper Mining Era (about 3000 BC to 1000 BC) by James P. Scherz, Prof. Emeritus, Dept. Of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Surveying and Mapping Section), University of Wisconsin, July, 1999
