——— rl 
Tron Ores of Minnesota.—IlWVinchell, 155 
Dr. Hanchett, in his report for 1864, states that he had 
seen samples of rich hematite from the vicinity of Vermilion 
lake, and had made an ineffectual effort to see the ore in 
place.* Mr. H. H.. Eames, however, in 1865, succeeded in 
reaching the spot, and his report for that year contains the 
first description of the Vermilion Iron range at any point.} 
Nothing further was known of this locality till 1t was re- 
ported on again by the State Geological Survey in 1878.% 
From that date to the examination of Prof. H. H. Chester 
‘(published in 1884), no further public knowledge was pos- 
sessed of the Vermilion range, although Prof. Chester’s ex- 
aminations were made in 1875 and 1880. Being for private 
parties, the information was not published until 1884.$ There- 
after the Minnesota reports contained almost annually some 
report on the Vermilion Iron range. 
The Mesabi Iron range was first noted by J. G. Norwood, 
of the survey of D. D. Owen, near Gunflint lake, in 1850. It 
was noted and reported by H. H. Eames at Prairie river, near 
the western extremity of the range in 1866.|| Midway _be- 
tween these extremes this range was discovered by the United 
States land surveyors, by reason of the magnetic character of 
the ore there contained in it. Exploration, however, did not 
turn out well at this point. The examinations of Prof. Ches- 
ter, in 1875, under the instigation of Mr. Geo. H. Stone, were 
directed to this part of the range, and his examination of the 
Vermilion range at this time was incidental, and was done by 
Geo. R. Stuntz and John Mallmann, who had been sent out 
by him. Prof. Chester’s report on that part of the Mesabi 
range was unfavorable, and nothing has transpired since to 
invalidate his conclusions. Other explorations followed, viz., 
in 1886, at Gunflint lake, and in 1888 at Mesabi station. Cap- 
italists also entered upon the range eastward from Prairie 
river, where experimental test-pits and shafts were sunk under 
direction of Mr. Eli Griffin. In the fall of 1890 the first im- 
portant discovery of iron was made, viz., the -Mountain Iron 
* Report of the State Geologist, AUG. H. HANCHETT, M. D., St. Paul. 1864. 
+ Report of the State Geologist, Henry H. a on the metalliferous 
region borderiug on lake Superior, St. Paul, 1866, p. 
{ Geological and Natural History Survey of 5, wad Ninth Annual Re- 
port. 1880, pp. 103 and 104. 
§ The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, Eleventh An- 
nual Report, 1884, p. 160. 
|| Geological Reconnoissance of the Northern Middle and other counties of 
Minnesota, by Henry H. Eames, State Geologist, St. Paul, 1866, pp. 35, 56. 
