Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-08-15

within soc, under, favorable operating
1t win be recalled. that to this, cost
should be added the shipping charges
and all of those factors that have
been! excepted.
MIR. Van *Barneveld's estimate was
made in 1912. and the cost Of every
thing connected with the mining in
dustry has advanced at least 30 per
cent on ap average, In some cases
increases have been considerably
more and in some cases less:
The Missabe Range lies in North
ern Minnesota, about 80 miles north
of Duluth. It extends northeasterly
from near Grand, Rapids on the,>Mis-
sissippi river Nor a distance Of 100
miles to near Birch Lake, where it is
covered by large gabbre flow
which forms the base OF tha Keweena-
wan series. The same iron formation
appears again along the north shore
of Lake Superior, but as far as known
this portion does not contain any
workable iron ore bodies.
Ore was. first discovered on the
Nissabe Range in the fall of 1890,
near the. present Mountain Iron
mine, The first ore from this range
was shipped from this mine over the
Duluth, Missahe & Northern railway
in 1892 The total shipment during
that year amounted to 4,24S tons.
A Train $4,000 Miles Long.
If all: the ore that has been mined
on the Missabe range were loaded
into 50.ton ore cars and made up into
one train, it would have length of
about $4,000 miles, nearly 10000 miles
more than the distance around the
earth at the equator. The shipment
for the season of 1916 was 100000
tons. AS matter of comparison it
may be stated that the total ore ship
ped from the Lake Superior district
since the opsning< of the Marquette
Range in 1874 is III, O00, 900 tons. In
the year 1916, which was the banner
year in ore production, the shipment
&C, 100000 tons.
The ore from the mines is loaded
directly, by steam shovel from the
open pits or at the shafts from under
ground workings, into railroad cars
for transportation to the ore loading
docks at the lake ports. These rail-
road cars are of steel, "a feet long
8 feet inches wide and have a ca
pacity of 100000 pounds. The cars
are usually taken to an ore assem-
bling yard and then made up into
trains consisting of about SO cars
each. The length of haul from the
mines to tie docks varies from 60 to
100 miles. Some of the engines
used to haul these ore trains are of
the Mallet type. An idea of the size
of them can be had from the follow
ing: The length of the wheel base
for the engine and tender is 81 feet
inches; the weight of the engine and
tender is 100000 pounds
The ore docks vary in length from
900 to 1900 feet and are built 60 to 80
feet high in order that boat can be
loaded by simply running the ore
trru chutes out of the different
pockets in the dock directly into the
boat Some of~the new type of ore
docks cost as much as 100000.
The new steel concrete dock, with the
approach of the Duluth, Missabbe &
Northern Ry., at Duluth cost nearly
three million dollars. There are 20
ore loading docks in the upper Great
Lakes District.
A Ship Loaded in rs Minutes.
| The usual time of loading an ordin-
ary sized boat say Of 10000 tons, is
six hours. The steamer was loaded In
| Superior in September, 1911, with
1886 gross tons in rs minutes actual
loading time. The unloading of these
boats takes considerably longer, but
at Conneaut the W.sP. Palmer unload
led 1900 tons of ore in 2 hours and
So minutes. This, of course, is a rec.
| ord and the average time of unload
ing would, be considerably longer.
Goes to Lake Erie and Chicago.
The greater portion of the ore from
the Lake Superior district is shipped
| to ports on Lake Erie and South Chi
cago where it is unloaded and distrf;
buted to the furnaces. Only little
ore is smelted in the Lake Superior
district At the present time there
are about 400 boats used in the ore
carrying trade. The capacity of this
fleet is estimated, around 55,000,000
tons of ore season.
This is in addition to the transpor'
tation of coal and grain. Some of the
later type boats have length vary.
ling from Cos to 617 feet and width
from 60 to 81 feet, capacity from 49,.
900 to $4,000 gross tons. All of the
boats in the iron trade are built OF
steel.