The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-11-22
GREAT IRON DEPOSITS
OF THE MESAB| RANGE
INTERESTING STORY OF DlScov.
ERY-WAR VALUE OF MINES
TO THE GOVERNMENT.

regions of Minnesota and has written
mendous operations which supply ma
terial for the great guns, ships and
munitions of war SO important are
these operations that they are con-
Quoted under the protection of the
government, soldiers standing guard
from the mine until the ore is deposit
ed on lake steamefs to be conveyed
to the great steel plants of Illinois,
Ohio and further east His descrip-
ton of these great iron deposits, the
manner in which they are worked, the
prosperous communities supported by
them and the revenue they contribute
toward local and state government is
most interesting story Equally in
terestng is the story of the discovery
of these great deposits and their sub
sequent development, from which the
following is taken:
When Discovery Was Made.
1t is now sixty-seven years since
iron was known to exist in this part
of the world. A little was shipped
from the edge of the Mesabi mountains
In 1850, and at the close of our civil
war a government geologist reported
that there was ore of value in several
places back of Duluth, A few years
later the Vermilion range was found
to contain iron, and Jay Cooke and
l.. t,tA ,,f hn npih nr "a n ~
railway organized the Minnesota Iron
company with capital of $4,OOO,0OO.
Then Jay Cooke failed and nothing OF
importance was done until 1882, when
by the aid of a state grant of swamp
lands, the Duluth and Iron range rail-
road was built 70 haul out the ore.
At about the same time Charlemagne
Tower, the father of the former am
bassador to Germany, invested in the
mines and in 1883 the first important
shipment of ore from Minnesota to
Cleveland was made This amounted
to $4,000 tons, and is was the father
of the millions of tons which have
gone down to the ports of Lake Erie
this year
What Weyerhauser Missed.
The first millionaires of this part of
the world made their money out of
lumber. Among them was Mr.. Weyer-
hauser who might be called the John
d. Rockefeller of the lumber industry
of the great northwest He had bought
the timber from a large part of the
Mesabi range and had paid more than
a million and a half dollars for it.
He was offered the land as well, the
whole tract being priced to him at
100000. He refused it, notwith-
standing his surveyors had told him
how the needles of their compasses
indicated the presence of iron there.
Since then the ore from that hundred
thousand dollar tract has already
yielded more than half a billion dol
lars and the values still in the ground
are ten times as great. Had Weyer-
hauser bought the tract his estate
might now be the richest of the world.
Discovery of Mesabi.
1t was two lumbermen who first dis
closed the enormous value of the
Mesabi iron range These were the
Merritt brothers, who, as the story
goes, found ore in the roots of fall
len tree which had ripped up the earth
around it. They set a crew of men to
digging and the result was the Noun
tain Iron mine, which now belongs to
the steel trust and is operated by the
Oliver Iron Mining company. 1t has
produced many million tons of ore, and
its output has amounted to tens of
millions of dollars. The Merritts also
discovered the Biwabic mine which
commenced shipping ore about twenty
five years ago. 1t has produced vast
quantities of ore, and its output in
1915 was more than $4,000 tons. The
total ore product of the Mesabi range
up to the present has been consider
ably over 400,000,000 tons that of the
Vermillion range has exceeded 49,
100000 tons and that of the Cayuna
range more than 100000 tons, All
of these ranges lie in Minnesota and
they are among the largest producers
of the world today. 1t is claimed by
the expert biologists that this state
has something like billion tons of ore
yet in sight, which is more than three
and one-half times the amount that
has already been mined.
Iron in Wisconsin and Michigan.
In addition to the Minnesota de-
posits are the iron ore bodies of Wis
consin and Michigan, on the south side
of the lake. These We're the first to
be operated. and in 1915 they were
still producing more than 100000
tons. The first iron ore about Lake
Superior was discovered just about
seventy-two years ago. The man who
found it was Philo Everett, who had
come from Jackson, Mich, to prospect
the southern shores of the lake. He
had fallen in with a couple of Indians,
wins offered to guide him to noun
tain of iron. They travelled six weeks
when the Indians pointed back to
black hill in the distance, saying that
they dared not go near it for fear of
the evil spirits they believed always
lowered about il, Philo Everett con-