Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum
Encyclopedia
The Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum is a former iron mine, now a heritage museum, located on Euclid Street between Lakeshore Drive and Spruce Street in Ishpeming, Michigan
Ishpeming, Michigan
Ishpeming is a city in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,686 at the 2000 census. This is down from a higher population in the 1950s and 1960s when the economically supportive iron ore mines had a much higher employment level...

. The museum, operated by "Marquette Range Iron Mining Heritage Theme Park Inc.", celebrates the history of the Marquette Iron Range
Marquette Iron Range
The Marquette Iron Range is a deposit of iron ore located in Marquette County, Michigan, largely in and around the towns of Ishpeming and Negaunee. It is a smaller counterpart of Minnesota's Mesabi Range. The iron ore of the Marquette Range has been mined continuously from 1847 until the present...

. The site was designated a state of Michigan historic site in 1973 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1992.

History

The Iron Cliffs Company was established in 1865 by a group of New Yorkers including Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel Jones Tilden was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency in the disputed election of 1876, one of the most controversial American elections of the 19th century. He was the 25th Governor of New York...

. 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
Jackson Mine
The Jackson Mine is an open pit iron mine located northwest of intersection of Business Route M-28 and Cornish Town Road in Negaunee, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971...

 and the Cleveland Mine, to form the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, with William G. Mather
William G. Mather
William Gwinn Mather was an American industrialist.Mather was born in Ohio and attended Trinity College for his undergraduate and MA degrees. Mather headed the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company for 50 years from 1890 through 1940. During his tenure he consolidated several mining operations and...

 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
Hematite
Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...

, 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
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 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.

Description

Above ground, the Cliffs Shaft site covers 15 acres and includes three headframe
Headframe
A headframe is the structural frame above an underground mine shaft. Modern headframes are built out of steel, concrete or a combination of both...

s and eight other buildings.

1919 headframes

The two 1919 headframes, mirror images of each other, are unusual as a collaboration between mining engineers and a professional architect.

In 1919, Cliffs Shaft engineers determined that the two wooden headframes atop their A and B shafts were deteriorating and would soon be unsafe. When Cliffs Shaft engineers presented company president William G. Mather with proposals to update the headframes, Mather suggested that, because of the prominence of their location, the headframes combine practicality with architectural beauty. The company retained George Maher, a Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...

 architect from Chicago's Condron Company, to design the new headframes. Maher came up with a distinctive obelisk-shaped, Egyptian Revival
Egyptian Revival architecture
Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile during 1798....

 design for the headframes.

The company immediately began building the new headframes around the old wooden ones. The new headframes were of reinforced concrete, with an interior measurement of 33 feet square at the base, eventually tapering to 21 feet square at the top. A pyramidal roof brought the full height to 96 feet 9 inches. The structres are substantially similar, but mirror-images of each other. The positions of interior beams were largely determined by available openings in the wooden headframes being built around. Work continued from July into December of 1919.

1955 headframe

The third headframe was built in 1955 of concrete with metal facing. It was the first Koep Hoist built in the western hemisphere.

Other structures

The site also includes includes the single-story stone boiler house and engine house (1880), the single-story brick dry house (1901-1902), a laboratory (c.1917), a brick blacksmith shop, and the brick mine office building.

Underground

Underground, the Cliffs Shaft Mine was one of the largest iron mines in Michigan, containing 65 miles of tunnels running to depths of 1,358 feet. It continues to be one of the best-preserved examples of underground mining in the Marquette Iron Range
Marquette Iron Range
The Marquette Iron Range is a deposit of iron ore located in Marquette County, Michigan, largely in and around the towns of Ishpeming and Negaunee. It is a smaller counterpart of Minnesota's Mesabi Range. The iron ore of the Marquette Range has been mined continuously from 1847 until the present...

.

Museum

Visitors can see mining artifacts, photographs and equipment, as well as a chemical lab, blasting items, and the engine house with its air compressor room. Tours are available. The museum also displays the mineral collections of the Ishpeming Rock and Mineral Club.

External links

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