Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-11-04

Fighting the Germans With Stem shoveI.-
gebic ranges, in the states of Michigan and
Wisconsin. They have produced up to last
year about 800 100000 tons of ore The
mines at the west of the lake are all in
Minnesota, and they make that state the
great iron state of the union. The avail
able reserves are over 1000, 100000 tons
and the royalties which Minnesota will get
from them are enormous. The state is
now collecting large part of its revenues
from its taxes on iron. 1t is shipping about
two-thirds of all the ore used in Our mills
and most of this comes from the Mesab
mountain range, where l am writing. The
remainder is from the Vermllion and the
Cayuna ranges, at the north and south.
And now let us look at these mighty de-
posts of iron which lie here in the Mesabi
mountains. They are on the very apex of
North America, on the height of land half
way between the Gulf of Mexico and the
Arctic ocean, and on the roof of the con-
tinent east of the Rockies. Here at Hb
bng is the parting of the waters. OF the
rain that falls on the mountains some flows
into Hudson Bay, some goes into the Miss
issippi river and the Mexican gulf, and some
rushes down into Lake Superior and out
to the Atlantic over Niagara Falls Hibbng
is 1000 feet above the surface of the lake
and 1000 feet above the level OF the ocean.
1t is in the top of these mountains that
the forces of nature have created what
might be called river Of iron. The stream
flows from northeast to southwest. 1t is
about 10 miles long and from quarter OF
mile to three miles in width vt narrows
and widens. In some places it rises to the
surface of the ground, and in some it is 400
feet below. The deposit is not continuous
nor of an even thickness but altogether it
contains hundreds of millions of tons
The ore lies in great pockets which mi ght
be compared to the golden crown of de-
cayed tooth with Jagged points running
down below and filling the roots. A single
crown may be several hundred feet thick.
1t may cover 100 acres more and con-
tain ore to the amount of tens of millions
Of tons. The Hall-Hurst mine, with the
Mahoning mne which is really a part of
it, is great oval pit of more than 800 acres,
out Of which they took last year almost S.
100000 tons of excellent ore. Before 1900
there was not an iron mine in the world
that was producing one-tenth that amount
of ore in one year.
Today there are six mines in the Lake
Superior region, each of which annually
produces more than 100000 tons, and
within the past twenty years the Hall-Hurst
Mahoning mine alone has had product of
something like 100000 tons Sixty mil
lion tons of iron ore 1t is hard to appre-
ciate' what that means. 1t is enough to
make 100000 tons of steel, which at the
low price of $50 per ton would be worth
ST., 5OO,OOO.OOO dollars. A ton of steel will
make about 100 feet of rails OF sixty pound
to.the yard That ore, if made into single
rail, would form a streak of steel 100000
miles long, or enough to lay 100000 miles
of track. 1t could replace the iron in every
railroad in Europe and Asia. with several
thousand miles to spare. 1t could relay
every track in the United States and leave
enough over for all the railroads Of Africa
and Australia. Altogether,> the 100000
miles of track would reach from the earth