The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-06-05
The EARLY History Of the Gogebic
Range.
The Iron Age.


standing of the range correctly and creditably
does not deal so fairly with the past history of
the range. The writer is evidently not gov
erned by any i'll will, but by incorrect informa-
ton, or any lack of information The state
ment | herewith send you is prompted by de-
sire to do honor and justcs to the man whose
persistent efforts resulted in opening up the Go
gebic range am not willing to see an injus-
tice done to Captain N. d. Moore while l have
the ability to correct it.
The writer of the article in labored manner,
seeks to give the world some new information
regarding the discoverer of the range, and en-
deavors to transfer that honor from Captain ND.
Moore to ''Old Dick Langford.'' Now, those who
are acquainted with the early developments of
the Gogebic range find nothing in regard to
Dick Langford having lived in the solitudes of
Northern Michigan fol- a great many years past
nor is there anything new in the fact that he
conscious that the country was evidently
rich i'll iron, but he is no more the discoverer of
the Gogebic range than are the scores of In
dams who also knew the same facts that Mr..
Langford knew. 1t is not true that Mr. Lang
ford ever took from the range specimens of
clean ore to Ontonagon, Rockland, HOughton,
or any other town III Northern Michigan. He
simply took what any other man could find to-
day iii various places, float and groupings indi-
eating ore deposits His knowledge of this fact
however, never did the world any good, and if
only Dick Langford and the Indians had known
of the existence or iron indications in that wild
& country the Gogebic range would be absolutely
unknown to the world to day.
1t is to Captain Moore, and to Captain Moore
alone, that the honor justly belongs for discov-
ering the iron deposits of the Gogebic range
He is the first man that ever showed to the world
clean, merchantable ore. The writer of the ar
ticle is very much mistaken in saying that it was
only little previous to 1884 that Captain Moore
heard of the Gogebic iron deposits. Let me
state to you as a matter of history that Captain
Moore explored this country in search of iron
ore as far back as 1872 and that while Superln-
tendent of the La Pointe Iron Company he en-
tered the lands of the Northern Chief Iron Com
pany and also the land section 16, which is
now known as the Colby mine. in the same year
Other lands entered by him in 1874 and
again in 1875. think, therefore, am warranted
in saying that had it not been for Captain Moore
the probabilities are that the Gogebic range
would be unknown to the world to-day. Lang
ford never looking for iron ore. He was an
eccentric character who enjoyed a wild life, and
was much more interested in locating occa-
sioualy valuable strip of heavy pine timber
than he was in iron matters
1t is claimed, you know, by the Norsemen-that
Left Erickson discovered America, but if he did
it never was known to the world and has never
done the world an iota of good: yet many would
like to take the honor from Christopher Column
and transfer it to the NOrseman, but the
universal sense of Justice in the world Will
always recognize Columbus the real diScOv
erer of the new world, and, although he never
set foot this continent, yet he was in truth its
discoverer, and the honor is all the greater be-
longing to him because he discovered it after
having spent years of hardship in theOrizing
apon what proved tobe great truth, and in the
heroic determination to prove or disprove his
theory, he discovered the New World.
Captain Moore made several journeys to the
Gogebric country and endured hardships which
few men could have lived through, and he did it
bee ause he had noticed after heavy showers all
the creeks and small rivers of that section were
red with the oxide of iron, and because he firmly
believed that there was immense deposit of
iron ore somewhere in that section, and he per-
sistent1y continued, and | may say heroically
continued his explorations and researches until
he discovered clean ore on Section 16 From that
time ON he became an enthusiast and it was
this enthusiasm that pnljStad NV attention and