Fred Rydholm is a local historian up in Marquette. He has written a few Michigan-related books in the past, but his newest one will contradict what most of us have been taught about history. His new book is entitled “Michigan Copper - The Untold Story.”

As a boy he saw the ancient copper mines on Isle Royal and wondered where the 10 - 15 million pounds of copper went that was mined in ancient times. Rydholm thoroughly researched this question until he came to the conclusion that Europeans were here before Columbus’ “discovery” and had mined the copper for trade.

Fred Rydholm has come across numerous unexplainable findings across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Some of which were dolmens located atop Mount Huron and other mountains along Lake Superior that follow ancient canoe routes. Stone tablets with strange characters and writing on them were found in Newberry and in the Escanaba river. Such findings led Rydholm to dig deeper into the copper mystery and arrive at his conclusions.

Rydholm’s other book is “Superior Heartland — a backwoods history” which is an Upper Peninsula history that took two volumes to tell. I would very much like to find those books in addition to his current one, “Michigan Copper - The Untold Story.” All of the Michigan history books I have read really don’t tell much about the history of our Upper Peninsula (which is a shame) so my knowledge has been limited.

You can read all about Fred Rydholm’s newest book at The Mining Journal.