Hiram B. Crosby worked as a lawyer in New York City between 1871 and 1883. In September 1872, he embarked for Michigan's Upper Peninsula as part of a prospecting party examining the geological potential for iron ore mines near Iron Mountain. His travelling companions included two Englishmen, parliamentary representative Robert William Hanbury (1845-1903) and Walter Williams, as well as Harvard University Professor Raphael Pumpelly (1837-1923), and John T. Howard of Brooklyn, New York. A support team led by Michael Casey of Marquette, Michigan, accompanied the group, including three wagon drivers from Menominee (Robert Bartlett, Edwin Quimby, and Dick Wreath), as well as four "Chippeway Indians" (Henry Santano, Sam De Nannie, Charles Normangobble, and John Adams). Three additional Native Americans, Negauneeseek, Sturgeon, and Killikinick, joined the party at the "Bad Water" Indian village.
From the guide to the Hiram B. Crosby journal, Crosby, Hiram B. journal, 1872, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
