Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-08-02
The Iron of Maine,
Bangor News.)


Something like twice every year an ex-
pert metallurgist FOR an active employee
of the United States geological survey
makes an alarming discovery that certain
portions of Maine. are Just about as full
as they can stick with best iron ore.
which is fully ep;al to the choisest
Swedes iron. so cellei An a!fliction of
this kind is even now passin; through
the newspapers of Naine. Under ordinary
conditions another is due between now
and 1905.
So far as records .show there has not
been discovered d new deposit of iron
ore in Maine for the past 40 years or
longer. There is iron enough in Maine
perhaps enough to- build an all-iror
bridge from Mount Desert to Ireland.
Any how there is more iron ore in Maine
than will be mined within the next 800
years. DR.. c. L. jackson, who started in
to make scientific survey of Maine away
back in 1851 makes recom of hematite and
bog iron deposits in several counties In
particular he mentions the deposits at
katahdin Iron Works. which were work
ed out later There is iron ore in the
form of Sulphates and oxides between
BuCksport and Ellsworth. Maine, sutfi-
cieat to last Tie world for some years
Until of late the Sulphates have not paid
for reduction though Bradley the super
phosphate man of Massachusetts has
found this fools gold'' iorn valuable for
turning into sulrhuric acid. -.
What is claimed to be the largest and
most valuable deposit Of iron ore in
Maine is said to be in the eastern part
of ArUostool: county near the New
Brunswick border. This was discovered
and tested by Or. Charles H. Hitchcock
of Amherst College in 1851, when he was
Maine by order of the Maine legislature.
All through the exciting days of the Civil
War masy Maine men believed that
Maine was about to become the iron-pro-
ducinG center uf this continent, though
commercial developments have shown
that the real financial value OF all the
iron in Maine is not an applicable guam
tity at the present time.
Tie latest expert to tickle and natter
Maine with tale about the great wealth
to lie gained from Maine iron asserts that
these wonderful mines are not developed
for lack of capital, and intimates that If
Maine were not SO poor it might rival
Pennsylvania il its iron output. Now
this is not 50. If it could be shown to Il
fair certainty that the iron mines of
ArOostoOl< county were capable of yield
ing , or q per cent. on the Investment,
there is money enough in savings banks
and trust companies of Bangor. Maine,
drawing 81 per cent. interest, to build an
iron-producng city as big and as eXren-
sive as the new city of Gary, Indiana,
which the steel trust is now constructing.
Maine has money enough to finance
any safe industry. The trouble with
operating Maine iron mines is not a
lack of iron, or of money, but "a lack
of coal. without which the iron ore
cannot be made available for market
purposes. The introduction of quick
lime among bog iron ore for removing
the phosphOric acid has revOluntion-
lied the iron industry within the
past quarter of a century. Iron can
be Produced so cheaply now that it no
longer pays to haul coal any distance
for its reduction. AS for using wood
for giving the required heat, as was
the custom at Katahdin Iron Works,
that method involves far too much ex-
pense. Half a century ago there were
more than score of iron mines in ac-
tive operation in New England. To-
day our memory does not recall one
The last to go out Of business was a
fine mine in the town Of Charlemont
Mass, right against the entrance to the