THE MINING OF IRON 8l 



of the country, moreover, that there have been originated 

 those novel methods of mine operation whicli have caused the 

 mineral world to open its eyes, together with those reductions 

 in costs which have enabled the American manufacturers suc- 

 cessfully to compete in the markets of the world. The history 

 of the Lake Superior district, therefore, represents the more 

 striking phases of the development of iron mining in America. 



Many estimates have been made of the capital involved 

 in mining the Lake Superior ore and transporting it by rail 

 and water to its various destinations; but even by the most 

 conservative figuring, the sum must be placed in the neighbor- 

 hood of five hundred million dollars. Upward of one half of 

 this great investment is represented by the one hundred 

 mines, which are now capable of turning out close to twenty 

 million tons of iron ore each year — a product which sells for 

 enough to pay the interest on the public debt of the United 

 States for over two years. 



The railroads which carry the ore from the mines to the 

 shipping ports on the upper lakes, and the docks where it is 

 placed aboard the vessels, have cost between fifty and sixty 

 million dollars, and the several hundred vessels employed 

 exclusively in ore transportation from upper to lower lake 

 ports could not be duplicated for three times that sum. 

 Finally, there are the elaborately equipped docks at lower lake 

 ports, where the ore is received, representing an investment 

 of close to eighteen million dollars, and the capital employed 

 exclusively in the railroad transportation of the raw material 

 inland to mills and furnaces adds pretty nearly double that 

 sum to the grand total. 



Twenty million tons, which constituted the yearly output 

 of the Lake Superior region at the opening of the new century, 

 is more than double the product of any other iron mining 

 region in the world during any single year in history. Loaded 

 in freight cars of the ordinary type, three railroad tracks would 

 be filled solidly from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. 



The Lake Superior iron mining district is divided into 

 five parts, or ranges, as they are termed in iron circles, namely : 

 the Menominee and Marquette ranges in the state of Michigan; 



Vol. 6-6 



