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The Cleveland Cliffs Iron Mine Co.
The Iron Cliffs Company established in 1865 by a group of New Yorkers including Samuel J. Tilden. 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". A new boiler house and engine house were built on the site in the early 1880s.
In 1888, the name was changed from "New Barnum" to the "Cliffs Shaft." 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. 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.
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. Mining at this site continued until 1967, marking the end of underground iron mining in the area.
The Cliffs Shaft mine complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. It is commemorated by a Michigan Historical Marker 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.
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). It continues to be one of the best-preserved examples of underground mining in the Marquette Iron Range.
Administrative History
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the iron and steel industry was the foundation of the industrialization of the United States. The iron ore mining industry provided the raw materials that fed this industry and shaped the historical development of the Upper Midwest of the United States.
The Cleveland Iron Mining Company was one of the pioneering producers in the Lake Superior Iron Mining District by 1890. In 1850, the Michigan legislature chartered the Cleveland Iron Mining Company with operations centered in Ishpeming, Michigan.
Over the next 40 years, many more iron mining companies formed, failed, or merged into the Cleveland Iron Mining Company.
In 1891, the Cleveland Iron Mining Company and the Iron Cliffs Company merged to become the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company (CCI). After the merger, CCI began to form or acquire a number of companies to carry out its different functions. The component companies were classified as a constituent, allied, or associate firms. Constituent companies were those whose capital stock was entirely owned by CCI. Allied companies were those in which CCI owned part of the capital stock. Associated companies were those in which CCI owned no capital stock, but which were operated by CCI. In 1914, CCI reorganized and consolidated these companies, ending the business operations of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, the Iron Cliffs Company, and the Jackson Iron Mining Company.
Prior to the reorganization and full consolidation in 1914, the constituent companies were listed as:
Cleveland – Cliffs Iron Company, Cleveland Iron Mining Company, Iron Cliffs Company, Jackson Iron Company, Pioneer Iron, Company Munising Company of Ohio, Bay Mills Land and Lumber Company, Central Land and Timber Company, Grand Island Steamship Company.
Among the allied firms of the Cleveland – Cliffs Iron Mining Company before and after the reorganization were the following:
Bunker Hill Mining Company, Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railway Company, Munising, Marquette, and Southeastern Railway Company, Munising Paper Company, Munising Woodenware Company, Cliffs Chemical Company, Upper Peninsula Land Company.
CCI organized its lumbering activities into the various operations and jobs which may be identified by either the name of the contractor or by the operation number. Whether cut by the Lumbering Department or outside contractors, the Land Department was in charge of the sale of forest products and kept a varying percentage of the stumpage price of those products. CCI established the Land Department in 1896 to be responsible
Sources:
https://uparchives.nmu.edu/CCI/CCI_FindingAid_Printable.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20150402100539/http://geo.msu.edu/extra...