OTHER RESOURCES OF MICHIGAN 95 



Wisconsin, and this fact is a sufficient reason for 

 the pressing of ^lichigan's claim to the territory west 

 of the Montreal River, resulting from the original 

 alleged erroneous survey of the interstate line at 

 that point. The mining properties are located at 

 Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield and other points in 

 Gogebic County, and up to IDIH had yielded an 

 aggregate of 95,607,671 tons of ore. 



In the iron industry, as in other mining opera- 

 tions, production is maintained at each mine for 

 a greater or less period of years and when ore bodies 

 become exhausted, the mine is abandoned and the 

 workings allowed to fill with water. In 1917, the 

 active iron mines in ^lichigan numbered thirty-four 

 on the ilarquette Range; eleven on the ^Menominee 

 Range; and twenty-two on the Gogebic Range. The 

 ores uncovered have varied greatly in texture, solidity 

 and chemical composition. They have been desig- 

 nated by such discriminating terms as hematite, 

 specular, magnetic and lamenite. On the Marquette 

 Range hard ores were found at Republic and some 

 other points, and were formerly much desired for 

 smelting purposes, while the soft ores were discarded 

 as unsuited to the furnaces. Improved smelting 

 methods have reversed the situation. The ores of 

 the Menominee and Gogebic ranges are soft hematite 

 in character. An analysis of the Michigan iron ores, 

 published in the report of the State Geologist for 

 1917, showed the following results as an approxi- 

 mate average for each range: 



