Shipments of Lake Superior Iron-Ore. [Volume: 8, Issue: 6, 1890, pp. 317-322]

318

UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF

[VOL. 8,

In order to obtain some idea of this enormous output we may
compare it with that of the famous Cornwall ore hills, in Lebanon
County, Pa. The approximate production of this unique deposit
fron its opening in 1740 to, and including, the year 1884, was
6,808,873 gross tons, or very close to the shipments by lake during
the year 1889 from the Lake Superior region (viz., 6,810,103 tons),
or, to express it differently, practically as much iron-ore was shipped
from the Lake Superior mines in 1889 as was won from Cornwall
in nearly a century and a half. Within the past five years, however, the Cornwall ore hills supplied over 3,356,000 gross tons or
49 per cent. of the above yearly shipment, producing 769,020 gross
tons of this in 1889.
The Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob, and neighboring Missouri
mines, have produced about 5,000,000 gross tons of iron-ore up to
date, or only about 70 per cent. of the Lake Superior shipments for
one year (1889).
Including the all-rail shipments and the ore smelted in blastfurnaces near the mines, the 1889 output of the Lake Superior
iron mines was in round numbers 7,000,000 gross tons, and taking
the average furnace analysis as 60 per cent. of iron this would
produce 4,200,000 gross tons of pig-iron, or over 50 per cent. of the
total make of the country.
As most of the ore obtained from the Lake Superior mines is at
one time or other hauled over some of our various railroad systems,
it will be interesting to make up a statement showing wlat a large
volume of the business of the railroads the transportation of this
ore would make. Assuming an average of 500 gross tons to a train
(which is rather above the average), and allowing for locomotive,
tender and caboose, we find that it will require say 350,000 cars
or 14,000 trains, which, standing close together, will occupy over
2200 miles of track, or these trains would be over fifty-three consecutive days passing a given point, the trains moving at the rate of
20 miles per hour, and allowing five minutes headway between trains.
The largest shipping port of this region is Escanaba, Mich., the
balance of the mine product being forwarded from Ashland, Wis.,
Marquette, Mich., Two Harbors, Minn., Gladstone, Mich. (a new
port first used in 1888) and St. Ignace, Mich. The following
table will show the amount sent from and the percentages of output