Iron Mining Heritage Explored
“How can you live up here and not wonder about the scattered company towns, the abandoned buildings, the slag piles (waste rock), or holes in the ground, the people who still mourn loved ones lost in the mines?” Joan Hauer, mining history student.
Eighteen curious seniors participated in the History of Mining on the Penokee-Gogebic Range class offered by Fe University this fall at the Iron County Historical Museum and at old mine sites on the Range. Presenters Paul Sturgul and Richard Thiede discussed the history beginning with the geologic events that resulted in some of the purest iron ore in the world and ending with the closure of the last mine in 1966. Students learned about the discovery of the ore by US geologists and about the speculators who developed the mines and then took their riches elsewhere to build places like Julliard, Colgate University, Colby College, Harvard, and more, leaving only deteriorating evidence on the landscape.
Over the years between 1848 and 1966, more than 500 mine shafts and exploration sites dotted the area from Mellen, WI to Lake Gogebic, MI. In that time 325,000,000 tons of direct ship ore, (the purest grade), were extracted from holes almost a mile deep and shipped away to build railroads, bridges, ships, tanks, skyscrapers and fortunes. The value of that ore would be approximately 104 billion dollars at today’s prices.
The mining process was crude and dangerous in the 1800’s when the first mines were built. But that didn’t stop speculators from excavating exploratory shafts deep in the earth. Some came up empty . . . some found the mother lode . . . some lost their lives.
Following Thiede’s explanation of the geology of the Range, Paul Sturgul presented a wealth of information about the people of the area, Europeans from many countries, who settled here to speculate and to work in the mines. They came in droves from countries like Finland, England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Poland, and Cornwall, lured by the prospect of the American Dream. At one time 30,000 people lived here in communities surrounding individual mines, called locations, consisting of homes, schools, churches, and stores, all interconnected with railroad lines.
Many of those miners’ houses exist today. Montreal, where there were once 700 homes, is in the Federal Historic Preservation Program. When the railroads were built in the late 19th century mining and logging began in earnest. Hurley and Ironwood, bustling with activity, became business and entertainment hubs. But eventually the purest grade ore was mined out or was too deep and dangerous to retrieve, so the last mine closed on February 14, 1966. The last of the miners were all laid off on that date, and life on the Range changed
forever.
After the mines closed, the mine owners and investors left, taking all the wealth with them. That is a lesson to remember. If mining companies return to extract the low grade ore remaining on the Range, they must leave a fair share of the wealth behind. The last day of the class included explanations of the priceless artifacts in the museum and a tour of eight mine sites. Shafts, now either caved in or filled with water and abandoned mine buildings were visited. The only remaining headframe is located at the Plummer Mine in Pence.
Bruce Cox, Wakefield author and owner of Agogebic Press, writes, “Tens of thousands of men worked in the iron mines of the Gogebic Range between 1884 and 1966, and there is a tremendous potential for attracting tourists to the area where their grandfathers once lived and worked.”
Several students remarked that though they have lived here all their lives, they never realized the extent of the mining boom surrounding them. Fe U student Tim Lutgen had this to say, “I think learning about our past is critical to shaping our future. Although I have visited and now live in the area for over 60 years, I had absolutely no idea of the graft, corruption, environmental damage, and human exploitation that occurred during the mining years. I also believe that understanding the Geology of the area was extremely helpful to understand why the various types of mines were created and why some were so dangerous. This course gave me a better appreciation for the precious area that we live in and I hope that Paul & Dick’s efforts will help to record these events in history before they fade into oblivion.”
Fe University and instructors Sturgul and Thiede would like to recognize Bruce Cox for his thorough research and to encourage readers to visit the museum where his series of books are available for purchase.