1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
99 
insurrection, and other cheerful experiences were 
encountered before they reached Sault Ste Marie. 
“Give Physic to the Dogs.” 
At one time the boat sunk to her upper deck, and 
was only saved from going to the bottom by a queer 
character who had been the butt of their jokes. 
Naturally they ceased calling him “ Old Saleratus ” 
after he had proved himself a skillful ship carpen¬ 
ter, and saved their wretched lives. Reaching the 
present site of Marquette, they erected a log build¬ 
ing, under the lead of a carpenter from Boston, 
and named it the Revere House, after the hotel of 
that name in the New England capital. Cholera 
and typhoid fever scourged the settlement, and 
when the physician, Dr. Rogers, a brother of the 
sculptor of the same name, and since a prominent 
practitioner in Chicago, was prostrated, the narra¬ 
tor became head nurse. We quote from his own 
story, as told in a private lecture to a few Marquette 
friends and neighbors : “ Dr. Rogers was very low 
indeed, unable to lisp a word, and to this fact I at¬ 
tribute the recovery of himself and associates, for 
as I knew nothing of medicines, I 
discarded them altogether. I com¬ 
menced rubbing and bathing the pa¬ 
tients, and Mrs. W. furnishing suita¬ 
ble food, the result was that in two 
weeks they were all convalescent. Dr 
Rogers often said afterwards, ‘if I 
could have told the fool what medi¬ 
cine to give, he would have killed us 
all.’” In 1847, two years after the 
existence of iron became known to 
the whites, the first forge was con¬ 
structed, not far from where Ishpe- 
ming now stands, and on the 18th of 
February, 1848, the first Lake Su¬ 
perior iron was made. Now over fifty 
mines, and twenty-one blast furnaces 
are in operation, and a million tons of 
ore are annually shipped from this 
region. There are five varieties of 
this ore, viz., soft hematite, specular 
hematite, black oxide, flag ore, and 
silicious ore. The ores lie-in foot¬ 
hills, or ranges from one- to five hun¬ 
dred feet high, and are covered with 
layers of earth and rock. As before 
stated, the main iron region is in 
Marquette Co., and within a range six miles wide. 
The Menomonee Iron Region. 
The second, or Menomonee iron range, being a 
comparatively new field, lies in the southern por¬ 
tion of Marquette and the northern portion of Me¬ 
nomonee Counties. The center of this region is 
fifty miles north of the Village of Menomonee, and 
fifty-five mile? south-west from Marquette. The 
Chicago and North Western Railroad Company has 
run a branch from the main line to one of the 
mines, and it is expected that the Menomonee region 
will soon be actively developed. When this is done, 
it is estimated that the inexhaustible ores of the 
Marquette and the Menomonee regions will together 
be fully ample to meet all the iron requirements of 
the United States. The Menomonee is a wild, pic¬ 
turesque country, with dense forests full of deer 
and other game, and swiftly flowing rivers and 
smaller streams abounding in trout and other fish. 
It is an attractive section for those who are fond of 
spending the summer and autumn months in the 
woods, where they can forget the cares of business 
in successful hunting and fishing. 
Eseanaba. 
Prior to the construction of the railroad from 
Green Bay to Ishpeming, the ore was mostly trans¬ 
ported to Marquette, and thence over Lake Superior, 
round through the St. Mary’s Ship Canal to Cleve¬ 
land, Ohio, and other distributing points. Now the 
ore is brought by rail directly down to Eseanaba 
and Lake Michigan, thereby securing a vast saving 
of time and distance in transportation. The track 
from Eseanaba to Ishpeming being a portion of the 
Peninsula branch of the Chicago and North Wes¬ 
tern, has an elevation of 850 feet, runs in a straight 
line for many miles, and lies on one of the finest 
road beds in the country. This road, or corpora¬ 
tion, prior to its consolidation with the Chicago and 
North Western, possessed land grants amounting 
to 700,000 acres. Another grant of 100,000 acres 
was subsequently given by the Legislature. About 
100,000 acres have been sold. The land sells at from 
$3.00 to $7.00 per acre. The ore trains are carried 
much of the way on the down grade by their own 
momentum. During 1878 they landed between five 
hundred and six hundred thousand tons of ore at 
Eseanaba, where it is worth about $4.50 per ton. 
The two docks through which the ore is transferred 
at Eseanaba from the cars to the vessels, cost near¬ 
ly half a million dollars, and are among the largest 
in the world. The larger of the two is 1,300 feet 
long, 37 feet wide, 33 feet high, and has pockets 
sufficiently capacious to hold 20,000 tons of ore. 
Eseanaba, which is situated opposite the Bay de 
Noquet, has a population of about three thousand, 
and is becoming a point of great importance. The 
water views about here are very picturesque. 
Sam’l J. Tilden’s Iron Mine. 
Returning to the Marquette iron center, we are 
able to count 20 different mines within a radius of 
eight miles around Ishpeming, which city has been 
built within a short time. Nine years ago, where 
there are now regularly laid out streets, and many 
fine buildings, there was nothing but a marsh. As 
one mine after another has been developed, popu¬ 
lation has been drawn hither. Many of the princi¬ 
pal business men are from the New England States. 
The miners, who comprise the bulk of the popula¬ 
tion, are mainly from Sweden and other European 
countries, and make excellent citizens. They sup¬ 
port schools and churches, and are generally free 
from the vices which prevail in some mining re¬ 
gions. The mines nearest to Ishpeming are the 
New York, Lake Superior, Barnum, and the Cleve¬ 
land. The New York mine is better known through 
the country as the Tilden mine, Mr. Sam’l J. Tilden 
being now almost the sole owner. There is an in¬ 
teresting story connected with the opening of this 
mine. Nearly twenty years ago, a Mr. A. R. Har¬ 
low was the head clerk for the adjoining Cleveland 
mine. On adjusting the taxes one year he discov¬ 
ered that forty acres on which the Company had 
been paying taxes as a part of its property did not 
belong to the Company. He purchased this strip 
of land for a small sum, and afterward leased it for 
a period of years to the New York Iron Mining 
Company, organized in 1865, with Mr. Tilden at its 
head. Subsequently Mr. W. L. Wetmore assumed 
the management of the mine, Mr. Tilden furnishing 
the funds. Differences arose between them, were 
carried into the Courts, and are still unadjusted. 
A Tour Underground. 
We descended the ladders to the mine and groped 
about the dark passages, under the guide of a miner, 
who seemed to have a morbid relish for designating 
spots where various workmen had been killed at 
different times. “ Here,” said he, as we entered 
one chamber about twenty feet high, “ a man was 
killed the other day by a piece of rock falling from 
the ceiling and striking him on the head.” On our 
inquiring if there was danger of any other pieces 
dropping, he replied: “ Oh, yes, they are liable to 
drop at any time; we all have to take our chances.” 
After this cheerful announcement, we did not tarry 
very long in that quarter. But there was a sad 
story of some poor fellow’s death connected with 
every division of the mine we entered. I have 
visited mines in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but 
there was a feeling of insecurity and danger here 
which I had not before experienced. Still there is 
a fascination about the life for the miners, and 
they rarely exchange it for other avocations. As 
we entered one tram-way, we could hear the sounds 
of the miners’ blows far in the bowels of the earth. 
Following the sounds, we crawled through a very 
narrow passage for a long distance, and emerged 
into an opening where the miners were at work 
upon a new vein of ore, and preparing blasts. Wa¬ 
ter was trickling down the sides of the passage, 
the air was cold and damp, the lights feebly flick¬ 
ered, the half-dozen workmen begrimed and 
bronzed with dirt, presented an un¬ 
natural appearance, and we were very 
glad to retrace our steps and ascend 
to the surface of the earth. The large 
ehambe”s of the mine from which the 
ore has already been taken, are di¬ 
vided by strong pillars of ore, which 
have been left to support the over¬ 
hanging walls. The veins extending 
eastward have been pretty well work¬ 
ed down to the line of the Cleveland 
mine. There is believed, however, to 
be an abundance of ore extending 
westward under the surface on which 
the buildings connected with the mine 
now stand. Ten thousand tons of ore 
were taken out of the mine during the 
first year it was opened (1864), and the 
aggregate product up to the present 
time has been nearly a million of tons. 
How $40,000 was Made. 
While the adjoining mines sold the 
ore produced during the past year, 
Mr. Tilden held on to his for better 
prices. It is computed that the ad¬ 
vance in prices so far has made 
a difference to him of forty thou¬ 
sand dollars. Three engines are used in hoisting 
the ore. Formerly seventy-five horses were em¬ 
ployed. Now the work is almost entirely performed 
by machinery. Formerly over 150 men were en¬ 
gaged about the mines. The number is now con¬ 
siderably less than a hundred. They work from 
seven o’clock a. m. until six o’clock p. m., and 
average all the way from $1.25 to $1.75 per day for 
their labors. Some months they make more than 
this ; as, for example, in last September, when their 
daily earnings averaged $1.96. All the work is 
done by contract. A man takes a contract to get 
out the ore, say at $1.80 a ton. The Company sup¬ 
plies the steam-power for hoisting the ore; the con¬ 
tractor bears all the other expenses. To one gang 
of men he pays so much for “ drilling,” and to 
another so much for “ filling.” The ordinary prices 
are $1.15 a ton for drilling, and 15 cents for filling. 
It is possible to break between three hundred and 
four hundred tons of ore and rock at a single blast. 
Concerning' Nitro-Glycerine. 
Powder, dynamite, and nitro-glycerine are aTt 
employed in the mines about Ishpeming. Owing to 
the hardness of the rock, nitro-glycerine is almost 
wholly used at the Tilden Mine. Furthermore, it 
breaks the rock into much smaller pieces than does 
powder. This dangerous material does not, as is 
commonly supposed, explode from contact with 
fire, but from concussion; you can run a red-hot 
poker througu a can of nitro-glycerine without ex¬ 
ploding it. So we were assured by a mine Super¬ 
intendent. I would not advise any one to try the 
experiment. The miners become very careless in 
handling it, and our guide did not add any to the 
pleasure of our trip through the mine, by stopping 
as he did to pick up and examine for our benefit, 
half-empty cans of nitro-glycerine. These cans hold 
about two quarts each. Not long ago, while a con¬ 
siderable quantity was being transferred from a 
THE TILDEN IRON MINE IN THE LAKE SUPERIOR IRON REGION. 
