Menominee Iron Range

MENOMINEE IRON RANGE

MENOMINEE IRON RANGE, one of six iron ore ranges adjacent to Lake Superior. About two-thirds of the iron ore produced in the United States comes from these ranges. Three of them are in Michigan and three in Minnesota. Part of the Menominee Iron Range extends into parts of northern Wisconsin. Of these six ranges, the Me-nominee is the second to have been developed—the Marquette Range is the oldest. The other iron producing areas in Michigan include the Gogebic Iron Range, which also extends into Wisconsin, and the Marquette Range.

The Menominee Range is situated mainly in the valley of the Menominee River, which lies on the boundary between the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin. That iron was located here seems to have been known before the Civil War, but mining dates back only to the 1870s. The Breen Mine was opened in 1872, and other locations opened soon afterward. Active shipments, however, had to await construction of a branch of the Chicago and North Western Railroad from Powers, Michigan, on the main line of the Peninsular Division, which reached the district in 1877. The best outlet for the range was at Escanaba, on Little Bay De Noc of Lake Michigan, to which the North Western constructed a direct line. The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad also penetrated the region and shipped ore over the Escanaba and Lake Superior line until it reached a pooling agreement for shipment over the North Western. Mines were opened at Vulcan, Norway, Iron Mountain, and Iron River, Michigan, and at Florence, Wisconsin. The most remarkable producer was the Chapin Mine at Iron Mountain, which produced nearly 26 million tons of iron ore from its opening in 1879 to its closing in 1934. Most of this ore reached Lake Michigan at the ore docks at Escanaba. From there, bulk freighters carried the ore to lower lake ports. Between 1854 and 1972 the Michigan part of the Menominee Iron Range produced 297,883,000 long tons. Wisconsin produced considerably less—887,000 tons in 1972 as compared with 2,533,000 tons from the Michigan area of the range.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boyum, Burton H. The Saga of Iron Mining in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Marquette, Mich.: John M. Longyear Research Library, 1983.

Hill, Jack. A History of Iron County, Michigan. Norway, Mich.: Norway Current, 1976.

Temin, Peter. Iron and Steel in Nineteenth Century America. Cambridge, Mass.: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1964.

L. A. Chase / h. s.

See also Iron and Steel Industry ; Mesabi Iron Range .