Mine: Foxdale Mine, Humboldt, MI

Began → Foxdale Mine → Became

Operated for 6 years.

From: 1899

Location: SE-NE Sec 3; SW-NW, N 1/2-S 1/2 and SW-SW Sec 2 and E 1/2-NE Sec 10 oif T47N-R29W

Owned by: Victoria Iron Company, then the Bird Iron Company in 1901. Operated by Bird Iron Co. (Oglebay, Norton & Co. former agents). Then Republic Steel Corp since 1935.

Produced: Iron Ore

Method: Underground, non-Bessemer.

Railroad connection: DSS&A to Marquette; MILW to Escanaba.

Stamp Mill/Pellet Plant:

Until: 1905 - exhausted.

Lifetime Production: 31,447 tons between 1901-1905.

Notes

Time Line

1899. The Foxdale mine has been un-watered, and mining will be resumed just as soon as miners can be found. The scarcity of skilled mine labor has grown more acute and for every idle man there are twenty jobs awaiting him. [DFP-1899-0806]

1901. Ole Hager, who has been putting up some buildings at the Foxdale mine, returned to Crystal Falls today. [DD-1961-0720]

1902. The Foxdale has had a very checked career. It has passed from the hands of one exploring company to the other and was kicked around on the market for several years until secured by the present operators (Bird Iron) who set to work at once to explore it in a systematic manner. The Foxdale lies in the hard ore formation of the Marquette range. The Humboldt district of the Marquette range. The Humboldt district is one of the oldest districts of the range and was explored and mined in the days when exploration and the winning of ore was confined to the deposits that outcropped and when an ore measure pinched, the mine was abandoned instead of a search being made.

The Foxdale is a hard ore property and adjoins the old Barron mine on the south. The lease covers two forties lying along the Barfron line on the south and on the run of the formation. The shaft is sunk about 100 feet south of the Barron line, up against the side of the large bluff that stands out to the south of the railroad track.

There is a surface of about 50 feet of sand then the shaft which is down right at this point penetrate a small lens of ore and passed through it. The ore dips at an angle of 60 degrees and to follow it down, the Captain changed the shaft to an underlay pitch at this point and continued it to a depth of 150 feet. A drift was run off to catch the ore but a new lens was met with and the operators were content to work on what ore they had. [DD-1902-0531]

1935. Deemed an undeveloped reserve owned by the Republic Steel Corp. Includes old Foxdale mine, E 1/2-NE Sec. 10 which opened in 1901.