The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-02-10


$4,000 ransom.
turned before We started, but the mean
ling will be clear if explain. You see
1.-THE contractor, John Wolfe, had beer
lpromiSed bonus if he completed the
railroad so that train could run over
it by Aug. l, 1884. He finished the jot
in time, all right, and it was originally
Iplanned to make the run to Soudar
on July 81, which would have left him
one day to spare. But that date fell or
Friday, which was considered unlucky
and so Thursday, July 80, was chosen
as the day for the trip"
When did you ship the first ore, Mr.
Owens?" his interrogation asked.
| 1.-THE first cargoeS of iron ore were
shipped from our dock at Two Harbors
on Aug 18 and 49, The ore was taken
by the Steamer Hecla and her towbarge,
. the Ironton. The steamer took 1927
tons and the barge, 1891 tons. Both
was hemp, since there was no steel cable
in those days. The ore was shipped
to G. H. and S. P. Ely at Cleveland
and the voyage, if my memory is cor
rect, took about ten days. Among the
other early cargoes was 900 tons which
was shipped on the Steamer Wilson to
the Illinois Steel Co. at Chicago"
1.-The ore from the Soudan Mine looks
different and is much harder than most
other ores. Did you have any trouble
in selling it?" Mr. Owens was asked.
Eyes, the company had real struggle
Chemical analysis showed that it had
high iron content and was low in
phosphorus, but it looked different and
furnace operators seemed to require a
long time to get used to it.
1--WE had two kinds of ore: first grade,
known as Tower Y Bessemer,, and sec
ond grade, known as Red Lake I re-
call time-I was then superintendent
of docks-when the furnaces claimed
! they were not receiving the right
quality of ore. I nearly lost my position
tunately it was discovered that the two
grades had been inadvertently mixed
at the mines"
1T must have taken pretty careful
planning to have had the ore dock and
the required railroad equipment ready
for shipping by the time the railroad
was completed" the interviewer sug-
gested.
You have hit upon an important
point there" Mr.. Owens replied. THAT
planning went back to the time that
Charlemagne Tower, ST., of Philadel-
phia, was persuaded to invest three
million dollars in the enterprise
George c.. Stone, a Massachusetts, man
who had come west early in life, was
the only one who really interested him
in the project. Mr.. Tower never visited
the properties but sent his son, Charlie
magne Tower, Jr., and his son-in-law
Richard H. Lee, to develop them
Charlemagne Tower, Jr., was elected
president of the Duluth & Iron Range
Railroad Company, while Mr.. Stone was
made vice president and treasurer.
1.-TWO Harbors was selected as the
terminal of the projected railroad for
two reasons. It was the closest to the
mines of all possible sites on Lake
Superior. 1t had two bays with clay
bottom-a rare thing along the north
shore of the lake where rocky bottom
is the rule. One of these harbors
Agate Bay, was chosen as site fol
docks. The other, Burlington Bay, il
still undeveloped.
1.-THE only thing that stood agalns
Two Harbors was that it had no raj
connection with the rest of thu
country"
"But, I presume materials and sup
plies were shipped there by boat" tn,
interviewer suggested.
Eyes, that's true, but it wasn't a.
simple to do that as it sounds" MI
Owens replied. 81 well recall tn,
trouble we had in bringing our frs
locomotive to Two Harbors. The en-
: CINE was No. 8, nicknamed the 'Thre
: Spot" and it had moved all the wa
from the Baldwin shops at Phila
delphia to Duluth under its own power
) 1t was a wood burner originally in
tended for use in Brazil but bought b.
us because we could not wait for late
delivery.
!. AT Duluth-it was July Is, 1883-w
: had tugboat and scow waiting for tn
: engine. The tug, the Ella G.. Stone
] was named after the daughter o
D George C. Stone. The scow had bee
D built especially to receive the loco
! motive, with rails running the lengt
r of her
e 1.-The cowcatcher and tender we're de
e tached from the locomotive and trans
e ferred to the scow separately. The en-
e CINE was loaded on the scow by wha
is now called an apron. The engin
: was run out to the end of a dock an
e the scow was anchored about 20 f
:, beyond. The dock was about 8 it. aooy
!, the water and the scow about 4 f
: Timbers were then laid down from til