St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-19
CRAzED ABOUT IRON.
Tnexhaustible Beds of Ore Be-
meath the Great Mesabi
Iron Range.
The Prospectors' Shafts In
Every Location Show Mill
ions of Tons.
Every New Shaft Sunk Adds
to Excitement and Value
Of the Find.
Two Lines of Railroad Will
Be in the New Range
by June.
Special Correspondence to the Globe.

Special Correspondence to the Globe.
DULUTH. Feb. lS.-The business pulse
of this city has attained an average of
los beats to the minute. In other words
the town is in a fever of excitement
over the MeSabi iron range and the de-
VelOpments made there in the matter of
ore finds. Stocks are in great demand,
and about all the conversation heard
around the hotels is in relation to the
STRIKES made at different locations
and what the stocks of the different
companies are selling at. Nearly every
train from the South brings prominent
Pennsylvania and Ohio capitalists and
iron men into the city to look the field
over, and by the time spring opens bust
ness OF every kind will be booming"
recalling the days OF the land excite
ment, when hotels charged full rates for
cots in the billiard rooms, and every
man, woman and child was engaged in
the pretty game of speculation, aud
when fortunes were made and
lost by mans boldness TO take
advantage of the situation or his
timidity which prevented him from
taking a flyer" 1t is no figure of
speech to say that everybody is talking
of the iron range and the chances OF
making money by judicious invest
meats. Just as the average Chicago
man gives the wheat pit ''whirr' the
Duluth nan puts little money
Into Iron Stocks
or else with others forms little syndi-
cate to control certain properties. That
this condition of affairs is fully war
ranted trip to the range and an in
spectiOn of the properties amply dem
onstrateS. Yesterday your correspond
ent, in company with about thirty
others, left Duluth on a special, the
guests of E. A. Humphrey, for Mesabi.
Leaving the union depot at a. M, a
speedy run was made over the Duluth
& Iron Range to MeSabi station, when,
after properly bundling up, the COM
pany loaded themselves into comfort
able sleighs and started for the range.
After a pleasant drive of about
twelve miles the Mckinley prop
erty was reached and a thorough
inspection made of it. Four pits
have been sunk here, the deepest show
ing about fifty feet of clear ore. Visits
were also made to the Pewabik. Hale,
Kanawba and Cincinnati properties.
Although work has only been in opera
ton at the latter since last August, a
greater stage of development has been
reached than at any of the others.
Eight pits have been sunk on this
property and every one shows marvel.
Gus results. The first one visited was
fifty-two feet in the ore, with no sign of
exhaustion, and the others show equally
good prospects. From the fact that all
of these pits have been sunk almost at
random, it is self-evident proposition
that there is vast underlying body of
ore. the extent or depth of which
Can Hardly BE Guessed
at. At the Cincinnati a number of the
party went down into the pit, among
them your cores ondent, and satisfied
themselves of the fact that the ore was
there in all its richness. The lowest
depth reached SO far is eighty
twenty to twenty-five feet from
the surface and being as yet
uneXhausted. In fact, the deeper down
1t goes the richer it becomes. Speci-
mems brought to the surface and exhib-
tied to experts were estimated as con-
tanning 81 to 65 per cent of iron, so that
1t will readily be seen that great find
has been made, far outrivaling the far
famed GOgebic range in Wisconsin.
LINZ OlllEI lGdG ulSCONCIl6S Ol
value, this was the result of accident
For the past twenty years the presence
of iron in the range has been known.
1t has been written about by geological
experts, and capitalists have been ap-
prOacfed by enthusiasts with view to
putting up money to make prospect,
but men with means were slow to en-
bark in what looked as improbable as
JasOn's famed search after the golden
fleece" so the soil was left unbroken,
and the disappointed fortune hunters
turned their attention to other and
seemingly more profitable fields of
labor or speculation. But mighty forces
were at work. The forces of a great
destiny, which, like everything else left
in the hands of an all-Wise Providence.
finally brings to those who wait the
cOnSumatiOn of their deserts. One
day
A Mighty Storm Arose
and in the mad play of the elements a
giant of the forest was leveled to the
earth. In falling, vast quantity of
soil was disturbed, and the subsequent
rains washed away and left exposed
valuable specimens of iron ore. These
were brought to the city by the fort
innate finder, anG an assay revealed the
fact that they were at least go per cent
of iron. Capitalist were ready to EN-
bark their money in what promised
such large returns, and pits were at
once put down in various localities in
what is known as the Hale properties,
with wonderful results. No. i, the first
pit visited, is in fifty feet of solid soft
ore, and the other eight show up
equally well.
A peculiar and at the same time graf
flying feature of the iron business here
is the ease and cheapnesS with which it
can be mined. From Is to so cents per
ton is the figure at which experts place
the cost of getting the ore out of the
ground. The iron formation follows
the dip of the country, though it ap-
pears to dip. little faster than the lat
ter. Thus at the Kanawba property the
iron begins about six to eight feet from
the surface, rendering it, so
the owners say, possible to mine
1t by the aid of a steam
shovel. At other properties, where it
begins little deeper down, by striking
1t on side hill it will be possible to
mine 1t with an open cut; and again
there are properties where the pits must
be called into requisition. At any
event, the cost will not exceed the lat
ter figure, and even IN this case, i. e.,
by the use of pits or tunnels, it may be
reduced. This latter appears to be the
method most favored by the
Men at the Mines.
Is they say that those Who attempt to