Where Our Iron Ore Comes From. [Volume: 8, Issue: 3, 1889, pp. 195-200]

196 UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF [VOL. 8,
The Lake Superior region is by far the largest producer of
iron ores in the United States. The total output for 1888 was
5,023,279 gross tons equivalent to about forty per cent. of all
the iron ores mined in the country. The entire output of this
interesting region is very close to 41,000,000 tons, divided as
follows: The Marquette range produced from 1854 to, and including 1888, 27,130,419 tons, the Menominee range from 1877
to, and including 1888, yielded 8,594,037 tons, the Gogebic
range from 1884 to 1888 inclusive, is credited with a product of
3,586,876 tons, and the Vermilion range in Minnesota has
shipped from 1884 to, and including 1888, 1,498,209 tons. We,
therefore, find that of the total amount of ore won from the Lake
Superior region, the Marquette range has contributed 66.5 per
cent., the Menominee range 21.00 per cent., the Gogebic range
8.8 per cent, and the Vermilion range 3.7 per cent.
The year 1888 shows a larger output for the Marquette range
than any other year since its opening, the increase over 1887
being 61,482 tons, and out of the seventy-four mines on the
Marquette range forty-one were active, producing 1,921,525
tons of iron ore, equivalent to 38.3 per cent. of the 1888 product of the Lake Superior region. Out of these active mines,
three produced over 200,000 tons each, three between 100,000
and 200,000 tons, and five between 50,000 and 100,000 tons.
The Menominee range contributed 34,304 tons less in 1888
than it did in 1887, the total for 1888 being 1,165,039 tons obtained from twenty-two mines out of thirty-six on the lists. Of
these mines one exceeded an output of 200,000 tons, four produced between 100,000 and 200,000 tons, and four gave products
of between 50,000 and 100,000 tons. The Menominee range
yielded 23.2 per cent. of the total of the Lake Superior product
for 1888.
The Gogebic range which, in 1887 outstripped the Menominee
range and took second place as a producer, excelled its previous
record by 134,497 tons, producing a total of 1,424,762 in 1888,
or 28.9 per cent. of the Lake Superior output. This ore came
from twenty-one mines out of a total of thirty-four on the list,
one of which yielded in 1888 over 400,000 tons, and one over
200,000 tons, two over 100,000 tons, and three produced 50,000.tons and over.