Mine: Negaunee Mine, Negaunee, MI

Various → Negaunee Mine → Closed

Operated for 62 years.

From: 1887

Location: Part of NW Sec. 5, part of E 1/2-NE Sec. 6 of T47N-R26W, and part of SW Sec. 32 of T48N-R26W

Owned by: Oliver Iron Mining Co, then Cleveland Cliffs Company in 1908.

Produced: Iron Ore, soft, red, non-Bessemer. Crushed.

Method: Underground, worked by stoping and slicing method. Depth 1,317 feet.

Railroad connection: LS&I to Presque Isle dock. C&NW to Escanaba dock.

Until: 1949

Lifetime Production: 14,000 tons shipped from 1871 to 1872.

Photo Info: An early view of the substantial Negaunee Mine. Note the extensive ground rail as well as trestles leading to the temporary ore piles. [MINART]

Notes

This mine was located directly east of the City of Negaunee, north of CR 480 and south of the former Maas Mine.

Time Line

1873 to 1878. Idled.

1887. Opened.

1909. Shared its air supply with the Maas Mine.

1914. January 12. An underground fire in the Negaunee Mine killed one man at the 6 1/2 level of the No. 2 shaft. The pumpman was the only man in the mine when the fire started and he telephoned to the engine house. The other pumpman was on the surface at the time eating his lunch. He descended the shaft to go to a station 100 feet below the missing pumpman. He told the engineer he would return if he found the smoke too thick. But no word was heard from him again and he is now somewhere in the mine and a victim of the smoke. A rescue crew entered the mine equipped with oxygen helmets but they did not succeed in finding the man. [CN-1914-0112]

1936. The Cleveland-Cliffs company begins moving 30 houses which they own, from the east end of Lincoln, Main, Case and Park streets, to make room for the westward expansion of the Negaunee mine. They have created a new residential district between the LS&I railroad tracks and US-41, east of the Baldwin Kiln road. The houses are set up on blocks and moved on three large rollers pulled by a tractor. The contractor is employing a crew of 15-20 men and is using two tractors. [EDG-1936-0727]

1949. Mine exhausted.

1950. Shaft being deepened for use in hosting from Bunker Hill and Athens mines.