Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-08-24
MODERN IRON MINING
ON THE MESABA RANGE
Several Former Grant County
Boys Making Records
Interesting Letter From the Herald's AS
sistant City Editor, Now on His
Summer Vacation

Since my arrival here l have often
thought that Herald readers might
appreciate a letter descriptive of the
Mesaba Iron range-the greatest iron
producing region in the world.
Magazine articles describing this Sec
tion are as rule vague and convey
bat a dim idea Of the immensely Of
this wonderful country that has
brought untold wealth to the state
and nation.
One sees evidence of the wealth of
this iron range shortly after leaving
Duluth on the trip here. All along
the railroad line the sidings are oc-
cupied for the most part by long
trains of open cars: these are the iron
cars, either full or. empty, that are
being hurried to and from the mines.
They are drawn by large engines,
over we'll graded and strongly con-
structed track.
The Mesaba range is in a district
about 100 miles long and which con-
tains 400 square miles Ali but ten
Of the 100 Mesaba iron mines are
located in st. Louis county, which is
about six times as large as Grant
county, Wis. The remaining ten are
in Itasca County. The six mines Of
the Vermilion range, which range is
located north Of the Mesaba, are all in
st. Louis County.
During the year 1908, ST. Louis
County mines shipped over %. 900, 600
tons Of iron ore, which was about two
thirds as much as was shipped from
Great Britain, Germany and Luxem
burg.
In 1907, there were but eleven iron
mines of the world that produced
more than million tons. Nine of
these were in the Mesaba range. One,
the Hull-Rust, reached the enormous
output of 2, 800, 1924 tons which figure
was increased nearly one million tons
by the same mine last year. This
wonderful property is capable Of
producing at the present time, 1,000 :
900 tons Of ore month.
It Is owned by the Oliver Iron Min
ing Company, the mining branch of
the United States Steel Corporation.
The Hull-R is included IN what is
known as the Hibbing district Of
which W. ], West, formerly of
DodgeviIle, Wis, is general super
intendent. Mr.. West is one of the
many boys of southwest Wisconsin
who is achieving great success on the
Mesaba range.
A large number Of the more i'm
portant properties on the range are
nmnad hv the much maligned steel
trueu, out nevertheless, independent
companies operate very successfully in
this section and there seems to be
absolutely no antagonism between any
of them.
The most important Independent
company operating on the Mesaba
range is the Republic Iron q Steel
Company. This company, like the
Oliver, operates coal mines, furnaces,
factories, boat lines etc. in various
states Of the union, as we'll as it's iron
ore properties, twelve of which are
located on the Mesaba, and four in
Michigan. My brother, Frank WeUb,
formerly OF Lancaster, is general
manager of the northern mines Of this
company. One of the properties be-
longing to this company is the Schley.
near Gilbert, and which will within
a short time have the deepest shaft on
the range. It's depth when completed
will be 600 feet. The average depth
Of the mines in this country, or rather
on the Mesaba range, is $50 feet. On
the Vermilion range, there are two
shafts-at the Soudan aud Pioneer
which are respectively 1850 and 400
feet deep. The mines on this range
are very old, and require a different
method of mining than that used on
the Mesaba. This is due to the fact
that the ore is very hard.
There are various methods of min
ing employed in this country. Tech
nically the methods are as follows j:
Open pit, steam shovel; open pit
milling slicing and square set. These
methods are somewhat difficult for a
layman to understand in detail. ]
will attempt to describe them.
Open pit mining is carried on where
the ore is soft and the 'overburden"
or covering of gravel, boulders, sand
etc. is not more than fifty or sixty
feet thick. Other conditions taken
into consideration in the selection of
this method are the size and shape
of the ore deposit, space and facility