 Copper would have been especially useful to ancient man as it was much stronger than gold, hard enough to be made into useful items such as fishhooks and woodworking tools, but still soft enough to be easily shaped, unlike meteoric iron.The same deposits of native copper on the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale were later mined commercially.From 1845 until 1887, the Michigan Copper Country was the leading producer of copper in the United States.