The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1901-02-15
On the Cast end.
Renewed Activity Near Me-
saba-O1d and New
Workings.
A RICH REGION PROVEN.

>-AAA
range is at present attracting much
attention from men exploring for
iron ore deposits, and is the scene
of greatest activity in the undevel-
oped iron ore region of Minnesota.
1t is a singular fact that it was in
this district that the first discover
les of ore were made in the Mesaba
range, though the development dur
ing the past eight or ten years has
been mostly in the central or west
ern part. Now the explorer is
again in evidence on the eastern
side of the range and the prospects
are that some large and very desir-
able deposites will be located. The
discovery of the Stephens deposit,
situated about eleven miles south
east of Biwabik, containing about
. 2O,O0oC00 tons of high grade ore, is
: the thing that has attracted iron
men in that direction and has en-
couraged them to give the eastern
! end of the range a thorough inves-
! tigation for ore. The explorations
in past years, in the early history of
the Mesaba range, was done in a
hurried and superficial manner.
Many experienced iron ore men are
convinced that the eastern end of
the Mesaba range is as likely to
yield large quantities of ore as the
western. The history of the eastern
end Of The Nesaba range is known
; by comparatively few.
The first explorations for iron ore
on the Nesaba range were made by
Colonel James B. Geggie of Duluth
during the latter part of the eight
les, in township SO, range IA. The
work was done within a stones
throw of the Nesaba station on the
Duluth & Iron Range road, a few
miles north of Allen Junction. The
colonel found a small quantity of
red 4henatite%o oEe, but stes lais4 a disap-
Pointment, afterward learned that
the government corner markings
had been moved by some lumber
men to take in timber which did
not belong to him, and he had been
discovering ore on another mans
land. Later Joseph Sellwood and
the late George c. Stone conducted
explorations on more extensive
scale in the same locality, and for
time Mesaba station was the active
business headquarters on the Mesa
ba range. The settlement consisted
of a single street with about 80
j buildings all told. There was
school house, a club house, a num-
. Der of bucket shops and couple of
j hotels. Speculation in mining
stocks was brisk and excitement
ran high there as elsewhere in this
! section. Mesaba station was one of
the busiest places for it's size in the
country. But the houses have long
since been vacant, for with the dis
covery of ore on the western part of
the Mesaba range there was a rush
in that direction. The history of
the Mesaba shows that iron ore
men are as eager and sanguine
about new districts as the prospect
or for the precious metals. Not
many months ago the Minnesota
Iron company purchased the vacant
houses at Mesaba station for a NOM
inal sum, and now they are all to be
reoccupied and new ones built to
accommodate a larger population
! than existed there during the earlier
explorations and development. At
I least one property will be shipper
: this season from Mesaba station,
and from that vicinity, within a
year or two, there will, in all proba-
bility, be a number of shipping
mines. The Duluth, Missabe &
Northern road is building an ex-
! tension from four miles south of
! Blwabik on the main line to the
Stephens property, which will bring
the eastern terminus of this road
we'll over into district hitherto
considered exclusively Iron Range
road territory. The extension is
eleven miles and will cost $500 600.
The work in places is very heavy,
and will require the handling of
2SOOOO cubic yards of material. The
extension crosses the Iron Range
road and the Embrass river. The
Nlssabe road bridges the Iron
Range tra,ks.
In the latter part of the eighties
and early nineties A. f. Humph-
reys, the McKinleys and other we'll
known figures in iron mining on
the Mesaba maintained Offices at
'Mesaba station, and controlled