IRON 



295 



Iron furnaces were built in Virginia and Massa- 

 chusetts in the 1600's, and before the Civil War 

 furnaces using local iron ores were producing in 

 most of the Eastern States, as reported in early vol- 

 umes of Mineral Resources of the United States. 

 Quantitative data on production for the early period 

 of American history are scarce, but in 1854, produc- 

 tion of iron was about 657,000 tons. This probably 

 required approximately 1.5 million tons of ore. 



Iron-ore production increased slowly prior to the 

 Civil War, but between 1870 and 1917, it more than 

 doubled in each 15-year period. Annual production 

 has reflected trends in the business cycle and pe- 

 riods of high wartime demand, as indicated in 

 figure 38. 



The rate of growth of domestic iron-ore produc- 

 tion has been greatly changed by the increase in 

 imports, as shown in figure 35. 



The significance of iron-ore production in the Lake 

 Superior region is evident in the record of ore ship- 

 ments. Production from the Marquette iron Range 

 began in 1854, from the Menominee Range in 1877, 

 and from the Gogebic Range in 1884; by 1890 the 



Lake Superior mines furnished 56 percent of the 

 total output. The first shipments from the Mesabi 

 Range were in 1893, and with a few years the Me- 

 sabi Range attained a position of dominance that 

 has been maintained to the present. By 1907, 80 

 percent of the national production was from the 

 Lake Superior region. Total production through 

 1970 from this region exceeded 4,000 million tons, 

 two-thirds of which was from the Mesabi Range. 



Iron-ore shipments in the United States since 1910 

 have exceeded 4,350 million tons, of which about 81 

 percent has been produced and shipped from the 

 Lake Superior region (Aim and Trethewey, 1971; 

 Am. Iron Ore Assoc, 1970; see also data in U.S. 

 Bur. Mines Minerals Yearbooks 1932-70 and U.S. 

 Geol. Survey and U.S. Bur. Mines Mineral Resources 

 of the United States 1910-31). The Southeastern 

 States produced about 8 percent, the Western States 

 about 6 percent, the Northeastern States about 4 

 percent, and the rest of the United States about 1 

 percent. 



Prior to about 1950, most of the material mined 

 and shipped from the Lake Superior region was of 



1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 19701971 



Figure 38. — Iron-ore production in the United States and in the Lake Superior region of the United States, 1875-1971. 

 Data from U.S. Geological Surv€y and U.S. Bureau of Mines Mineral Resources of the United States (1882-1931) and 

 from U.S. Bureau of Mines Minerals Yearbooks (1932-70) and Commodity Data Summaries (1972). 



