Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-04
SOME WAYS Of MINING
Different Methods Employed on
the Mesaba Range.
ORE HOISTED UP A SHAFT
Removing Top Layer of Earth Fifty
Feet Thick.
MACHINE EASILY CONTROLLED
Stevenson Mine Looks Like the Grand
Canyon-Excavation of Corun-
dunn for Sand Paper.
ORE HOISTED UP A SHAFT
MACHINE EASILY CONTROLLED
RY WILLIAM f. RTIS.
SuecaI Correspondence Of The Star and the Chicago
Rncnrl- Hernld.

% The star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
HIRBING. MINI. September &c. 1901.
The westernmost mine on the Mesaha
iron range is called the Hawkins" in
honor OF the man WHO furnished the money
10 develop Il. II belongs to William Deer
ing and his sons Charles and James Deer
ing. who bought ii before the consolidation
Of the DaerinE Harvester Company with
the MCCo-miCks. The ore is shipped to
Joliet and Milwaukee. where the behring's
have furnaces The land uron which the
mines stand IS owned by Frederick Weyer-
hauser. tn lumber king, who cut off the
timber and leased the mineral rights for
thirty years to- man named Crosby on a
royalty Of 20 cents q ton upon all the ore
he took out Of it. Mr.. Hawkins furnished
the money to develop the mine and re
leased il to the DcCTings for thirty years
for "a bonus o. S2rNcpu cash and royalty
Of - cents a ton on the or. Up to last
year they had taken ont about 10000 IONS.
after working under ground for four years,
when they decided to strip the soil off the
top of the ore bed. Having done that they
Will he able TO produce half million tons
a year without the slightest difficulty.
Several mines on the Mesaba range are
worked under ground with shafts and drifts
and tunnels. ike those of the anthracite
coal mines and the silver mines of the west.
and the ore is hoisted in huge steel buckets
up the shafts to the railway and dumped
Ia railway ears at the top.
That is the most expensive method of
mining. 1t costs twice much the
steam shovel plan that have hitherto de-
sCrihcd and which generally prevails upon
the MCsaha range. Underground mining
is not reSorted to except in cases where the
lies deep that locomotives and rail
way cars cannot be taken down to the ore.
Ore Hoisted Up Shaft.
Another method may be seen in the Mon
roe and Tener mines, in the middle of the
Mrsaba range, where the ore lies eighty
feet or more below the surface so deep that
IL is not practicable to build d railroad into
the pit. The miners have dug a hole about
$40 yards wide. ,Oin yards long and 40 feet
deep. whit+I looks like the crater of vol
Cano. The walls are honeycombed with
caves and tunnels and drifts where the ore
has been taken out and il appears in all
kinds of brilliant Colors, running from a
vivid yellow to a deep chocolate. a shaft |
has been sunk from the railway station to
the bottom OF the pit and a tunnel has been
pierced to il. The ore is loaded into cars
which are hauled through this tunnel and
dumped into Dig steel buckets holding five
six tons, which are hOlsted to the
face and emptied into chutes which carry
II to the cars. AS fast a is filled IL
IS hauled away and added to the train that
stands waiting side track. As soon as
thirty cars are loaded the train starts for
the ore docks at Duluth. The Monroe and
Tener mine belongs to the steel trust, and
with present facilities has an output of
5000 tons day.
Another method, where the pit is too
deep TO permit of railway grades. is to dig
out the ore with a steam shovel. dump it
into ears and haul them with steel cables
up incline to the surface. where they
are emptied into chutes, which convey the
ore to the railway cars. This method is in
operation at the Leonard mine. the
town of Chisholm, which belongs to few
officers of the Great Northern railway. 1t
is one Of the smaller mines Of the range
but contains very fine grade of ore, lying
in solid body of about eighty acres and
varying from 40 to 40 feet In thickness
II is concealed by a stratum of clay and
earth about eighty feet thick. which makes
1t impossible to run railway switch to the
level If the ore. Already about seven hun
dred thousand tons have been taken out
and according to the measurements % the
experts, at least nine million tons lie in
place.
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