Michigan Iron Industry Museum

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Michigan Iron Industry Museum Negaunee MI Michigan Iron Industry Museum.jpg
Michigan Iron Industry Museum Negaunee MI
Historic forge site from grounds of museum Jackson Iron Company SiteNegaunee MI A.jpg
Historic forge site from grounds of museum

The Michigan Iron Industry Museum, a branch facility of the Michigan Historical Center, is a community museum serving the heritage of the Marquette Iron Range on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The museum is located in Negaunee, a town built atop the geological strata of the iron range near Marquette. [1] Until recently, Negaunee was a one-industry town that centered on the mining of iron ore. The Negaunee region served as the center of U.S. iron ore production from about 1880 until approximately 1900, when this role was taken over by iron mines on Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range. The Michigan Iron Industry Museum opened in 1987 close to the Carp River Forge site on the Carp River where Michigan iron ore was first forged in 1848. [2]

Admission to the museum is free, and the museum is open year-round. The museum also serves as the focal point for the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, a 47-mile (76 km) bicycle and hiking trail that presents a look at some of the key sites of human and geological heritage on the Marquette Iron Range. [3] [4]

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

Marquette is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquette County. Located on the shores of Lake Superior, the city is a major port, known primarily for shipping iron ore. The city is partially surrounded by Marquette Charter Township, but the two are administered autonomously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Peninsula of Michigan</span> Northern major peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan

The Upper Peninsulaof Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac. It is bounded primarily by Lake Superior to the north, separated from the Canadian province of Ontario at the east end by the St. Marys River, and flanked by Lake Huron and Lake Michigan along much of its south. Although the peninsula extends as a geographic feature into the state of Wisconsin, the state boundary follows the Montreal and Menominee rivers and a line connecting them.

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

Marquette County is a county located in the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 66,017. The county seat is Marquette. The county is named for Father Marquette, a Jesuit missionary. It was set off in 1843 and organized in 1851. Marquette County is the largest county in land area in Michigan, and the most populous county in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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

Ishpeming is a city in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,470 at the 2010 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">K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base</span> Airport

K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base is a decommissioned United States Air Force (USAF) installation in Marquette County, Michigan, south of the city of Marquette. Near the center of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the base operated for nearly forty years and closed in 1995. The county airport, Sawyer International, now occupies a portion of the base and has scheduled airline flights and some general aviation activity.

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

Negaunee is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,568 at the 2010 census. The city is located at the southwest corner of Negaunee Township, which is administratively separate, in the Upper Peninsula. The city is home to a luge track. The name Negaunee comes from an Anishinabemowin (Ojibwa) word nigani, meaning "foremost, in advance, leading," which was determined to be the closest Ojibwa translation for "pioneer". Within the city limits is Teal Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron Range</span> Iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada

The term Iron Range refers collectively or individually to a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Despite the word "range", the iron ranges are not mountain chains, but outcrops of Precambrian sedimentary formations containing high percentages of iron. These cherty iron ore deposits are Precambrian in age for the Vermilion Range and middle Precambrian in age for the Mesabi and Cuyuna ranges, all in Minnesota. The Gogebic Range in Wisconsin and the Marquette Iron Range and Menominee Range in Michigan have similar characteristics and are of similar age. Natural ores and concentrates were produced from 1848 until the mid 1950s, when taconites and jaspers were concentrated and pelletized, and started to become the major source of iron production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M-35 (Michigan highway)</span> State highway in Michigan, United States

M-35 is a state trunkline highway in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of the US state of Michigan. It runs for 128 miles (206 km) in a general north–south direction and connects the cities of Menominee, Escanaba, and Negaunee. The southern section of M-35 in Menominee and Delta counties carries two additional designations; M-35 forms a segment of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour, and it is the UP Hidden Coast Recreational Heritage Trail, which is a part of what is now called the Pure Michigan Byways Program. Along the southern section, the highway is the closest trunkline to the Green Bay, a section of Lake Michigan. The northern section of the highway turns inland through sylvan areas of the UP, connecting rural portions of Delta and Marquette counties.

<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 4.841 miles (7.791 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 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">Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum</span>

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 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

<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 Ironwood in Michigan, plus Mellen and Hurley in Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Road 492 (Marquette County, Michigan)</span> County road in Marquette County, Michigan, United States

County Road 492 is a primary county road in Marquette County, Michigan. The road serves as an alternate route between Negaunee and Marquette. Several historic sites line the roadway as it runs south and parallel to the main highway, U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) and M-28, through the Marquette Iron Range in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The path of the road runs near tracks of the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I). The locally created Iron Ore Heritage Trail will follow CR 492 through Eagle Mills and Morgan Meadows upon completion. The western terminus of the county road is on US 41/M-28 in Negaunee and the eastern end is in Marquette next to Lake Superior.

<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.

Carp River is the name of several rivers in the U.S. state of Michigan.

Carp River is a 21.9-mile-long (35.2 km) river in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The Carp River is formed by the outflow of Deer Lake in Ishpeming Township north of Ishpeming at 46°31′58″N87°40′01″W in the Upper Peninsula.

<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">Carp River Forge</span> Historic abandoned iron forge

The Carp River Forge is an abandoned iron forge located along the Carp River on the grounds of the Michigan Iron Industry Museum, at 73 Forge Road near Negaunee, Michigan. It was the first forge constructed in northern Michigan; the site was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It is also known as the Jackson Iron Company Site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter White (Michigan politician)</span> American politician

Peter White was one of the original settlers of Marquette, Michigan. He was a banker, businessman, real estate developer, and a philanthropist; and was involved in a number of the area's iron mining-related businesses, including acting as a director the Cleveland Iron Company. White served in many local and state public offices, including postmaster, county clerk, school board member, state representative and senator, and as a member of the state library commission and a Regent of the University of Michigan. Poet William Henry Drummond said of White, "the trail Peter White has cut through life is blessed by acts of private charity and deeds of public devotion that will serve as a guide to those who follow in the footsteps of a truly great, and above all, good man."

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.

References

  1. "Michigan Iron Industry Museum" . Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  2. Reynolds, Terry S. (January 1989). "Iron In the Wilderness: The Michigan Iron Industry Museum". Technology and Culture. 30 (1): 112–117. doi:10.2307/3105434. JSTOR   3105434.
  3. Marquette County. "Iron Ore Heritage Trail". Travel Marquette County. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  4. Denny, Brittany (June 23, 2015). "Iron Ore Heritage Bike Tours". UP Matters. Marquette, MI: WJMN-TV . Retrieved October 12, 2022.

Coordinates: 46°31′18″N87°33′53″W / 46.5217°N 87.5646°W / 46.5217; -87.5646