Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum

Last updated
Cliffs Shaft Mine
Cliffs Shaft Mine 2009d.jpg
Old headframe, built 1919
Location
USA Michigan location map.svg
Schlaegel und Eisen nach DIN 21800.svg
Cliffs Shaft Mine
Location in Michigan
Location Ishpeming
State Michigan
Country United States
Coordinates 46°29′28″N87°40′31″W / 46.49111°N 87.67528°W / 46.49111; -87.67528
Production
ProductsIron
History
Opened1868
Closed1967
Cliffs Shaft Mine
Built1880, 1919
ArchitectGeorge W. Maher
Architectural styleExotic Revival, Egyptian Revival
NRHP reference No. 92000832 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJuly 17, 1992
Designated MSHSMarch 14, 1973 [2]
Owner
Company Cleveland Cliffs

The Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum is a former iron mine, now a heritage museum, located on Euclid Street between Lakeshore Drive and Spruce Street in Ishpeming, Michigan. The museum, operated by "Marquette Range Iron Mining Heritage Theme Park Inc.", celebrates the history of the Marquette Iron Range. The site was designated a state of Michigan historic site in 1973 [2] and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. [1]

Contents

History

The Iron Cliffs Company was established in 1865 by a group of New Yorkers including Samuel J. Tilden. [3] They obtained property in Marquette County and opened their first mine, the Barnum Mine, in 1867. Two shaft, the "A" and "B" were sunk. The company obtained three more mine pits by 1870. In 1877, Iron Cliffs began exploratory drilling on this site overlooking Ishpeming. Drilling uncovered iron ore, and in 1879 the company opened the Cliffs Shaft, then known as the "New Barnum". [2] [3] A new boiler house and engine house were built on the site in the early 1880s. [3]

In 1888, the name was changed from "New Barnum" to the "Cliffs Shaft." [3] However, more changes were afoot: in 1891, the assets of the Iron Cliffs Company were merged with that of other iron companies in the area, including the Jackson Mine and the Cleveland Mine, to form the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, with William G. Mather as president of the merged company. [4] A new dry was built after a disastrous fire in 1901. The original timber headframes over the A and B shafts were replaced with concrete headframes in 1919; a larger modern "C" shaft and headframe was built in 1955. [3]

The mine was at one time the nation's largest producer of hematite, and shipped ore every year but one from 1887 until its eventual close. [2] Mining at this site continued until 1967, marking the end of underground iron mining in the area. [2]

The Cliffs Shaft mine complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. It is commemorated by a Michigan Historical Marker [5] In 1998, the former owners of the mine donated the majority of the property of the Cliffs Shaft mine to the nonprofit group so that a museum could be created there. The museum opened in 1999. [6]

Description

Headframe, c. 1919 just after completion Cliffs Shaft obelisk.jpg
Headframe, c. 1919 just after completion

Above ground, the Cliffs Shaft site covers 15 acres and includes three headframes and eight other buildings.

1919 headframes

The two 1919 headframes, mirror images of each other, [7] are unusual as a collaboration between mining engineers and a professional architect. [2]

In 1919, Cliffs Shaft engineers determined that the two wooden headframes atop their A and B shafts were deteriorating and would soon be unsafe. [7] When Cliffs Shaft engineers presented company president William G. Mather with proposals to update the headframes, Mather suggested that, because of the prominence of their location, the headframes combine practicality with architectural beauty. [7] The company retained George Washington Maher, a Prairie School architect from Chicago's Condron Company, to design the new headframes. [2] Maher came up with a distinctive obelisk-shaped, Egyptian Revival design for the headframes.

The company immediately began building the new headframes around the old wooden ones. [2] The new headframes were of reinforced concrete, with an interior measurement of 33 feet (10 m) square at the base, eventually tapering to 21 feet (6.4 m) square at the top. A pyramidal roof brought the full height to 96 feet 9 inches (29.49 m). [7] The structures are substantially similar, but mirror images of each other. The positions of interior beams were largely determined by available openings in the wooden headframes being built around. Work continued from July into December 1919.

1955 headframe

The third headframe was built in 1955 of concrete with metal facing. It was the first Koep Hoist built in the Western Hemisphere. [2]

Other structures

The site also includes the single-story stone boiler house and engine house (1880), the single-story brick dry house (1901–02), a laboratory (c. 1917), a brick blacksmith shop, and the brick mine office building. [2]

Underground

Underground, the Cliffs Shaft Mine was one of the largest iron mines in Michigan, containing 65 miles (105 km) of tunnels running to depths of 1,358 feet (414 m). [2] It continues to be one of the best-preserved examples of underground mining in the Marquette Iron Range.

Museum

Visitors can see mining artifacts, photographs and equipment, as well as a chemical lab, blasting items, and the engine house with its air compressor room. Tours are available. The museum also displays the mineral collections of the Ishpeming Rock and Mineral Club. The shaft site and museum are served by the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, a 47-mile (76 km) bicycle and hiking trail that covers much of the length of the Marquette Iron Range.

The Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum is the starting location for the Marquette Marathon. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ishpeming, Michigan</span> City in Michigan, United States

Ishpeming is a city in Marquette County, Michigan, United States. Located in the Upper Peninsula, the population was 6,140 at the 2020 census, less than it was in the 1950s and 1960s when the Iron ore mines employed more workers. A statue of a Native American figure, erected in 1884 in the small town square, is referred to as "Old Ish".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quincy Mine</span> United States historic place

The Quincy Mine is an extensive set of copper mines located near Hancock, Michigan. The mine was owned by the Quincy Mining Company and operated between 1846 and 1945, although some activities continued through the 1970s. The Quincy Mine was known as "Old Reliable," as the Quincy Mine Company paid a dividend to investors every year from 1868 through 1920. The Quincy Mining Company Historic District is a United States National Historic Landmark District; other Quincy Mine properties nearby, including the Quincy Mining Company Stamp Mills, the Quincy Dredge Number Two, and the Quincy Smelter are also historically significant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaft sinking</span> Process of excavating a vertical or near vertical tunnel from the top down

Shaft mining or shaft sinking is the action of excavating a mine shaft from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects, differ greatly in execution method from deep shafts, typically sunk for mining projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M-28 Business (Ishpeming–Negaunee, Michigan)</span> State trunkline highway business loop in Michigan, United States

Business M-28 is a state trunkline highway serving as a business route that runs for approximately 4.9 miles (7.9 km) through the downtown districts of Ishpeming and Negaunee in the US state of Michigan. The trunkline provides a marked route for traffic diverting from U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) and M-28 through the two historic iron-mining communities. It is one of three business loops for M-numbered highways in the state of Michigan. There have previously been two other Bus. M-28 designations for highways in Newberry and Marquette.

The Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad, is a Class III railroad U.S. railroad offering service from Marquette, Michigan, to nearby locations in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It began operations in 1896. The LS&I continues to operate as an independent railroad from its headquarters in Marquette.

The following is a list of Registered Historic Places in Iron County, Michigan. The list includes 79 structures and historic districts that are significant for their architectural, historical, or industrial/economic importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland-Cliffs</span> Cleveland-based steelmaking company

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is an American steel manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. They specialize in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. The company was the world's 25th-largest steel producer and the third-largest in the United States in 2022. It is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gogebic Range</span> Iron ore region in Michigan and Wisconsin

The Gogebic Range is an elongated area of iron ore deposits located within a range of hills in northern Michigan and Wisconsin just south of Lake Superior. It extends from Lake Namakagon in Wisconsin eastward to Lake Gogebic in Michigan, or almost 80 miles. Though long, it is only about a half mile wide and forms a crescent concave to the southeast. The Gogebic Range includes the communities of Bessemer and Ironwood in Michigan, plus Mellen and Hurley in Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ore dock</span> Transportation construction

An ore dock is a large structure used for loading ore onto ships, which then carry the ore to steelworks or to transshipment points. Most known ore docks were constructed near iron mines on the upper Great Lakes and served the lower Great Lakes. Ore docks still in existence are typically about 60 feet (18 m) wide, 80 feet (24 m) high, and vary from 900 feet (270 m) to 2,400 feet (730 m) in length. They are commonly constructed from wood, steel, reinforced concrete, or combinations of these materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Mather</span>

Samuel Livingston Mather was an American industrialist and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio. He co-founded Pickands Mather and Company, a shipping and iron mining company which dominated these two Great Lakes industries from 1900 to 1960. For many years Mather was that city's richest citizen and a major philanthropist, contributing more than US$7 million to community-based organizations in the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquette Iron Range</span> Iron ore deposit in Michigan, US

The Marquette Iron Range is a deposit of iron ore located in Marquette County, Michigan in the United States. The towns of Ishpeming and Negaunee developed as a result of mining this deposit. A smaller counterpart of Minnesota's Mesabi Range, this is one of two iron ranges in the Lake Superior basin that are in active production as of 2018. The iron ore of the Marquette Range has been mined continuously from 1847 until the present day. Marquette Iron Range is the deposit's popular and commercial name; it is also known to geologists as the Negaunee Iron Formation.

The Pyne Mine was a vertical shaft iron ore mine operated by the Woodward Iron Company and located near the Lacey's Chapel community outside Bessemer, Alabama, in Shades Valley. It was, along with Woodward's Songo Mine, one of only two shaft mines dug in the Birmingham District, and the last ore mine to operate in the region, closing in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mather Inn</span> United States historic place

The Mather Inn is a hotel in Ishpeming, Michigan. The inn served as housing for the cast of the classic 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder, and was the place where Duke Ellington composed the movie's score. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1976 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Mine</span> United States historic place

The Jackson Mine is an open pit iron mine in Negaunee, Michigan, extracting resources from the Marquette Iron Range. The first iron mine in the Lake Superior region, Jackson Mine was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The Lake Superior Mining Institute said, the mine "is attractive in the iron ore region of Michigan and the entire Lake Superior region, because of the fact it was here that the first discovery of iron ore was made, here the first mining was done, and from its ore the first iron was manufactured." Multiple other mines soon followed the Jackson's lead, establishing the foundation of the economy of the entire region. The mine is located northwest of intersection of Business M-28 and Cornish Town Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland Mine Engine House Number 3</span> United States historic place

The Cleveland Mine Engine House Number 3, also known as the Brownstone Engine House, is a building located at 601 Division Street in Ishpeming, Michigan. It was built to house engines hoisting ore from various Cleveland Mine locales, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron County MRA</span> United States historic place

The Iron County MRA is a Multiple Resource Area addition to the National Register of Historic Places, which includes 72 separate structures and historic districts within Iron County, Michigan, United States of America. These properties were identified and placed on the Register in 1983, with the exception of one property that was placed on the Register in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elcor, Minnesota</span> Ghost town in Minnesota, United States

Elcor is a ghost town, or more properly, an extinct town, in the U.S. state of Minnesota that was inhabited between 1897 and 1956. It was built on the Mesabi Iron Range near the city of Gilbert in St. Louis County. Elcor was its own unincorporated community before it was abandoned and was never a neighborhood proper of the city of Gilbert. Not rating a figure in the national census, the people of Elcor were only generally considered to be citizens of Gilbert. The area where Elcor was located was annexed by Gilbert when its existing city boundaries were expanded after 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowen Consolidated Colliery</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Bowen Consolidated Colliery is a heritage-listed former mine at Station Street and Second Avenue, Scottville, Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia. It was established in 1919. It is also known as No. 1 Underground Mine and Bowen Consolidated Coal Company Colliery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 December 2009.

The Iron Ore Heritage Trail is a 47-mile (76 km) bicycle and hiking trail in Michigan that presents a look at some of the key sites of human and geological heritage on the Marquette Iron Range. Trailheads are located at the Marquette Welcome Center in Marquette, and in Republic west of Marquette. The trail, which has a comparative change in elevation of 1,000 feet (300 m) covers much of the length of the Marquette Iron Range, a historically and commercially significant range of hematite and magnetite mined for more than 150 years as iron ore. The trail celebrates the geological and human heritage of the Marquette Iron Range, which dominated U.S. iron ore production from approximately 1880 until about 1900. Many of the buildings visible from the trail date back to this period of Victorian architecture. Additional focal points/parking lots for the trail are located at midpoints at the Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee and the Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum in Ishpeming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure is a heritage-listed group of mining infrastructure on the Mount Isa Mine Lease, Mount Isa (locality), City of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia. They comprise the Lawlor Shaft & Winding Plant, the Urquhart Shaft and Headframe, the Mount Isa Mine Experimental Dam, and the Mount Isa Mine Power Station. They were built from 1924 to c. 1963. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 February 2005.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Michigan State Historic Preservation Office (n.d.). "Cliffs Shaft Mine". Historic Sites Online. Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Archived from the original on June 1, 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Schuster, James (May 8, 2002). "Cliffs Shaft Mine 1867–1967 (100 Years)" (PDF). SS3230: Archaeology of Industry. Michigan Technological University. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  4. "Cleveland Iron Company". abouthegreatlakes.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2011. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  5. Michigan Historical Commission (1973). Cliffs Shaft Mine (Michigan Historical Marker). Ishpeming: Michigan Historical Commission. S0398. Archived from the original on 2006-03-25. Retrieved 2006-08-30 via Michigan Historical Marker Web Site.{{cite sign}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. United States Geological Survey (1999). "The Mineral Industry of Michigan" (PDF). Minerals Yearbook. Reston, VA: United States Geological Survey.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Hayden, J. Ellzey; Eaton, Lucien (1922). "Building Reinforced-Concrete Shaft Houses". Proceedings of the Lake Superior Institute Annual Meeting. Vol. 22. Lake Superior State Mining Institute. pp. 124–134 via Google Books.
  8. Kwapisz, Nathan (September 1, 2022). "NMU students prepare for Marquette Marathon". University Wire. Carlsbad.