The Ancient Use of Iron.—The question as to whether those vanished races of America had iron or steel has largely been answered in the negative. Yet there have been certain claims that steel and iron were once in use. Such claims may be founded on facts, but they have failed to establish conviction in the minds of many of our anthropologists. However, it seems to us that it takes a far greater power of imagination to believe that the matchless sculpture, architecture, and other feats of progress of the ancient Americans were attained without iron and steel than it does to concede the mooted question that they must have had these useful metals. The belief that ancient Egypt never knew the use if iron was rudely dispelled by the finding of an iron implement in King Tut-Ankh-Amen’s tomb.

Steel and iron oxidize very rapidly and are even more perishable than certain woods. The wonder is that, even if the early natives had used millions of tons of iron, we could even find a trace of it now. If gold, silver, or copper were as rapidly disintegrated as iron there would not have been found here the billions in gold and silver that the conquistadors shipped back to Spain. There would have been scarcely a trace instead of the El Dorado over which the Spaniards went money-mad.

While a well was being dug at Cincinnati, Ohio, at the depth of 80 feet the workmen came upon the stump of a tree three feet in diameter, which had ben cut off with a sharp-edged tool. The blows of the sharp instrument were still visible. Iron rust was still visible on the stump of the tree.

Atwater, in describing the ancient works on Paint Creek, Ohio, speaks of rows of furnaces of smith’s ship where the cinders lay many feet deep. He said that he was not certain whether they had burned brick or smelted iron, or both. At any rate a clay had been exposed to action of fire, remains of which were four or five feet deep, and iron ore was sometimes found in such clay.

Priest speaks of the remains of an ancient vehicle or wagon with traces of iron. He also informs us that the Shawanese Indians tell of a white race who inhabited this continent, and that they used iron in their civilization. He also speaks of part of a steel bow found in one of the Ohio mounds.

Bancroft says that iron ore is very abundant everywhere in Peru, but not iron or steel. He says, however, that there is a reason for believing that the natives once had iron and steel, or it is beyond the power of the imagination to conceive how they could produce such a perfect sculpture work without their use. A second reason for believing iron was once used is that they had a name for it in their native language.

Morse, the geographer, found in a subterranean wall in North Carolina, and in it he found iron ore, which indicated that the natives had used iron ore at least. As iron ore is easily smelted, and as they smelted other ores, it seems untenable to believe they had never smelted the former. It is practically impossible to smelt copper without at least getting an iron “Button.”

Dr. Shetrone, speaking of two civilizations that had once graced this land, and whom he calls “the mound-building and the non-mound-building aborigines,” says that they used very extensively a variety of iron ore called hematite. This mineral varies greatly in its physical properties, especially in color and hardness. It was used not only for the manufacture of implements and ornaments, but for producing paints and pigments. To quote: “In some localities, as in the coal measures of south-eastern Ohio and in West Virginia, hematite was available as a surface or subsurfact deposit. Elsewhere, as in the Iron Mountain district of Missouri and in the vicinity of Marquette, Michigan, the aborigines conduced mining operations, as in the case of copper, to obtain the mineral. The most noted prehistoric hematite mines are located in Franklin County, Missouri, where tortuous drifts were driven to considerable depths into the deposits of hematite and allied iron oxides.” He also found that they used meteoric iron for implements.”

. . .

Rapid Disappearance of Iron.—owning to the rapid oxidation of iron, whatever evidence there was once of its common use among the civilized forefathers of the Indian, it has so completely vanished that evidence of its once universal use is fragmentary and scarce. The absence of such evidence has placed a disparity between the claims of the Book of Mormon and the theories of many anthropologists. The Nephite record makes positive declarations; while all that the scientist can say at most is, “We haven’t as yet enough evidence to justify dogmatic assertions to the effect that the ancient Americans used iron.” It seems to us however that they must have known of it. Not to believe that the early aborigines knew and used iron and steel makes their glorious cities, temples, monuments, and architecture the enigma of the ages. The human imagination pales in its effort to conceive how such an unparalleled glory of greatness could have been achieved without the use of iron and steel.