IRON MANUFACTURE. 453 
first, the trial at the Clay Furnace with the native ores mixed, or the 
Lake Superior ores alone, demonstrated fully their great value. Grad- 
ually becoming more generally employed in Northern Ohio, they have 
now replaced the use of the native ores almost entirely ; the latter, ob- 
tained in small quantities, are employed only by some few furnaces in 
small proportions. Over the rest of the State the Lake Superior ores 
are now largely employed, as at Steubenville, Wheeling, Columbus, 
Zanesville, etc., their higher cost than the native ores being compen- 
sated by their much larger percentage of iron, purity and improvement 
in the character of the iron produced. Excepting the iron districts of 
the Tuscarawas Valley, Hocking Valley, and of the Hanging Rock 
region in Southern Ohio, the Lake Superior ores are now the main 
dependence of the iron manufacture in the State, with the addition that 
on the Ohio River and in Central Ohio assistance is derived to some 
extent from the Missouri ores, which are similar in character. The 
advance in the use of the Lake Superior ores may be best comprehended 
by inspecting the shipments from the Lake Superior ports, of which 
the greater proportion passes through Cleveland, Western Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio being the chief consumers. Thus the first shipment in 
1856 was represented by but 7,000 tons, while in 1870 the shipments 
were 856,471 tons, and a total since 1856 of 3,771,939 tons, and 25 
years later the output of the Lake Superior mines, in 1881, was 
2,336,335 gross tons, and probably 3,000,000 tons in 1882. 
For convenience in the study of the present iron industry of the 
State, the various points of manufacture may be separated into regions 
whieh, though somewhat. arbitrary in their division, individually 
present such peculiarities of ore, fuel, or position as will warrant their 
separate consideration. 
These regions may be enumerated as follows: 
1. Northern Ohio, or the region of the Mahoning Valley, which 
is distinguished by the use of the celebrated Brier Hill or block coal 
In the raw state, and the almost exclusive employment of the Lake 
Superior iron ores. The chief points of manufacture in this region are 
at Cleveland and vicinity, Akron, and in the valley of the Ma- 
- honing River, from Warren, Niles, Youngstown, etc., to the Penn- 
sylvania line. Though not forming part of the view of the Ohio iron 
industry, mention should properly be made here of the manufacture in 
the adjoining region of the Shenango Valley, in Pennsylvania, at 
