The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-01-03
Company Has Hundreds Of Tons
IN Stock; Ignorant Of Value
SUPPOSED RUBBISH REmunERAIvE
CONCERN MAKES CONTRACT TO
DISPOSE OF STUFF" AND
MAKES MILLIONS.

| in 1857, when the iron industry of the
Lake Superior region was practically
in its infancy, a young man by the
name of Stephen R. Gay arrived at
Marquette from Lime Rock, Mass, to
superintend the erection of the Pho.
neer furnace at Negaunee for the old
Iron Cliffs company. The fact that
this plant was called the Pioneer has
in later years caused it to be referred
to as the first furnace in the region,
when, as a matter of fact, it was not.
Furnaces older than the PIONEER were
located at Collinsville and Forestville,
near Marquette, both settlements long
ago in decay, and had been in opera
ton for years before the foundation
was laid for the Pioneer stack.
Gay had been in Negaunee nearly
two weeks when an incident occurred
which in effect completely revolution
lied the iron industry of the upper
country. Gay was prodigious work
er, and after his arrival at Negaunee
he was not seen anywhere for fort
night except at the furnace site. On
Sunday, however, he walked over to
the mine of the Jackson Iron COM
pany, which was located within a
stones throw of where he had his men
at work, and struck up an acquaint-
ance with Captain Henry Merry, mine
superintendent and manager of the
property, who died at Cleveland, Ohio,
some months ago The two men spent
several hours inspecting the work
ings. and were engaged in cOnversa-
ton just outside the office prior to
Gay taking his departure.
Very Much Mistaken.
How much ore have you in your
stock piles?" questioned Gay. looking
toward several big heaps of yellowish-
red material. =
"Ore, That's not ore," replied Cap
tain Merry THAT is what we call
paint rock; it's a sort of red clay.
mixed with sand and rock, and it's SO
plentiful that we don't know where to
dump the stuff after We get it out.
I've built roads with it, filled in sink
holes and ravines, but we don't seem
to be able to get rid of it,"
Gay did not continue the conversa-
ton and went away. The next day,
however, he entered into contract
with the Jackson Iron company where
by he was to pay it at the rate of so
oil no ovf
from the paint rock" that then lay
on the surface at the mine, after it
had been shipped to the furnace. The
contract allowed Gays company 20
years in which to remove the so-called
paint rock.
Iron in "Paint Rock"
The Jackson Iron company, none of
it's men, nor anybody in the district,
for that matter-except Gay, of course
had any idea that there was iron in
the paint rock" and it was generally
thought that Gay had forced his con-
Germ into a mighty poor DEAL To make
a long story short, the paint rock"
proved to be almost the richest ore
ever mined on the Marquette range.
1t was not the richest, but it assayed
on an average of from 60 to IS per
cent in metallic iron. The contract
made with Gay cost the Jackson Iron
company a great many thousands of
dollars, out it also showed it the way
of making additional thousands in soft
ore mining.
AT that time nothing but hard ore
was being mined in the Lake Superior
country, and nothing whatever was
known of soft, or what is now called
hematite ore. Explorations made in
those days we're wholly for hard ore,
and Stephen R. Gay was the first man
to develop the real wealth of the iron
region. The amount of hematite that
Gay bought for the Iron Cliffs COM
pany from the Jackson company at
the rate of 50 cents a ton for the iron
extracted is not known now. However,
there we're hundreds of thousands Of
tons of it, and the purchasing COM
pany made several fortunes on the
DEAL
Built Many Roads.
The so-called paint rock was SO
plentiful that the Jackson company
built great many roads in the vicin-
ity of Negaunee and made fills as
deep as so feet in many places with
the ore as it came from the mine. At
the time of Gays visit the question
of getting rid of the stuff was a seri-
ous problem with the company, and
the contract was welcome relief un-
Ill it was discovered what Gay was do
ng with the ore and the result of the
assays became known.
This is story of the early days, as
old by Peter White of Marquette
hat illustrious pioneer of the Lake
Superior iron region-during the
course of conversation in which he
upon the remarkable
;rowth of the iron industry during the
asst half century.