Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-06-27
Steam Sh0veler at Work in Iron
Mines.
MEsABA RANGE is UNIQUE
There Machinery Is Employed That
Outdoes the Labor of Many Men
Mighty Factor in the De-
veiopment of Great
Industry.


The best paid miner In the world
never descends shaft, penetrates
drift or works with pick and shovel.
Nevertheless in three hours be mines
and loads as much ore as a score
Of his underground brethren handle In
three days. He Is employed on the
Mesaba range of northeastern Mime
sofa, the only district in the world
where it is possible to scoop iron ore
from enormous pits, as If 1t were
sand
Strictly speaking, he is not miner,
but a steam shovel engineer, or shovel
runner" to use the vernacular or his
calling If he were missing from the
ranks of the steel trusts employees
this country would quickly lose its
dominance in the iron industry. 1t is
mainly through his efforts that the
Mesaba range is able to furnish fully
two-thirds of the iron ore output OF
the United States.
Previous to 1892-the year that the
first shipment of ore was made from
the Mesaba range-the shovel run
ner's sphere of usefulness did not ex-
tend far beyond ditch digging AT
that time the national govern nent had
no large canal in process OF excava-
ton, and work for the steam shovel
men was scarce. Consequently the
discovery that the huge leyiathan de-
signed to shovel dirt could be put to
the more profitable use Of mining iron
ore came IS pleasant sunrise to the
shovel runner and his era OF prosper
ity was begun.
On the Mesaba range iron ore is
spread out in vast horizontal beds,
sometimes within twenty feet of the
surface. The Oliver Iron Mining COM
pany, as the mining branch of the
United States Steel corporation is
called, first buys or leases a tract OF
land, of forty or eighty acres. as the
case may be, and by means OF dia-
.Aond drill determines approximately
the extent and tonnage of the ore bed.
The timber and underground are
then removed from the tract and the
ground prepared for the shovel run
ner, whose first work is to strip the
overburden" or surface covering of
dirt and gravel The overburden may
be from 20 to 100 feet deep and sew
eral months work is required before
the vast field of soft, red ore is ex-
posed to the suns rays
After network of steel rails has
been laid for the ore trains to travel
upon the services of the shovel runner
and his crew are again needed. This
time mining is begun in earnest The
big dipper of the steam shovel SCOOPS
the ore out in FIVE ton loads and
dumps it into cars holding fifty tons
each. In three hours one shovel will
mine and load over $500 tons.
Six or seven switching trains are
often passing and repassing the steam
shovels at the same time. No time
must be lost in loading the empty ore
cars and dispatching them to the
docks at Duluth. Superior or Two Har-
bors.
Panama is sometimes called "the
land of steam shovels," but it is an
interesting fact that last year in st.
Louis county, Minnesota, these huge
machines removed yardage of strip
ping material and ore equal to the
total excavation required for the big
ditch"
The shovel runner receives good
pay, drawing from 1925 to $3.50 month
ly. Under him is crew of six men
the craneman, fireman and four pit
men. The first named is second only
to the engineer in skill. The crane
mans duties are to guide accurately
the ponderous steel arm carrying the
dipper. The pitmen prepare the road
and lay the track upon which the
steam shovel stands.
The open pit mines of the Mesaba
range gave new impetus to the in
dustrial progress of the United States
after the panic of 1893. Today they
furnish vastly profitable business to
three railroads and send an annual
freight tonnage through the 800" far
greater than that of the Suez canal
The steam shovel has been a mighty
factor in the development of a great
industry, and its skilled engineer is
entitled to large share of the credit.
He is one of the most important cogs
In the complicated machinery of the
United States Steel corDora.ion