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    Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range
    Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range
    Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range
    Ebook174 pages1 hour

    Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range

    By Matthew Liesch and Ironwood Area Historical Society

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    About this ebook

    Situated on the south shore of Lake Superior, the Gogebic Iron Range of Michigan and Wisconsin exudes a strong sense of place. During the 1880s, a mining boom lured settlers, investment, and controversy. Investors from Milwaukee, Chicago, and Cleveland hoped to become rich, but many were pulled into scams or poorly managed mines and ended up losing their money. After iron stocks crashed, mining investors were more cautious. Many mining locations were abandoned, but towns such as Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield, and Hurley grew. For over 80 years, iron mining gave the Gogebic Range distinctive ethnicity and settlement patterns resulting in its unique cultural landscapes. The physical setting enhances the drama of the Gogebic. Lake-effect snowfall results in picturesque yet harsh winters, and thundering waterfalls have long attracted visitors.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateOct 30, 2006
    ISBN9781439616901
    Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range
    Author

    Matthew Liesch

    Matthew Liesch has a master's degree in historical geography from the University of Wisconsin�Madison. Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range features almost 200 photographs from Michigan and Wisconsin during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Supplemented by antique maps and newspaper headlines, this book explores life and landscape during the mining era. Even though Gogebic mines long ago stopped shipping iron ore to the port of Ashland, mining memories linger on.

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    • 5/5
      An unexpectedly good book.Arcadia's publishing model is built on pictures; it's quite clear that the editors are not especially concerned about text and other editorial content . So it's a pleasant surprise to find a book with a coherent design, thoughtful analysis, and useful captions.This book is "based on" Liesch's Masters Thesis at UW-Madison, so (as you'd expect) he knows his material. Occasionally the thesis peeks through, but in the main the book is a well-selected set of photographs documenting the boom and bust life of the mining district.Nicely done.

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    Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range - Matthew Liesch

    manuscript.

    INTRODUCTION

    Lake Superior’s shores have yielded vast amounts of minerals, from pre-Columbian copper deposits to present-day amethyst and gold mines in Ontario. These deposits occur in large swaths called ranges. Geographer Donald Meinig tells us that during the industrial revolution, the largest shift in the American iron and steel industry was the increasing dependence on ores from Lake Superior. Throughout the country, railroads were expanding and iron was being used more to support buildings. As the demand for iron increased, speculators sought to develop new mineral regions. During the late 1800s, this growing demand resulted in the development of the Menominee, Gogebic, Vermillion, and Mesabi Ranges. Of these ranges, the Gogebic experienced an unusually high amount of speculation.

    Geologically, the Gogebic Range extends from Lake Gogebic, Michigan, westward through a small portion of Bayfield County, Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, the area was originally known as the Penokee, a misspelling of the Ojibwe word Pewabic. The term Gogebic stems from the discovery of ore on the Western Upper Peninsula, but the name soon came to encompass the Wisconsin side as well. On the far western end of the range, where mining was not commercially successful, the term Penokee remains common. Scientists and surveyors noticed iron ore in Wisconsin during the 1840s. In 1856, the Wisconsin and Lake Superior Railroad planned towns at Ironton (now Saxon Harbor) and Penokee Gap, the current site of Mellen. Financial problems prevented these town sites from developing during the 1850s. Copper explorations came and left during the 19th century, but no copper of commercial value was extracted.

    The waters of the Gogebic Range generally drain to the northwest and empty into Lake Superior. They are not navigable, so the range required railroad lines for efficient transportation. Once iron ore interest grew, railroads built track there. The Milwaukee, Lakeshore, and Western Railroad reached the range around 1884, stimulating land speculation and a dramatic rise in property values. The Gogebic was widely perceived at that time as a region of optimism and hope. The range burst from relative obscurity into the arena of public attention in the mid- to late 1880s because of its rich deposits of ore suitable for processing under the Bessemer method.

    The Gogebic garnered much attention during this time. The more frequently a place name is mentioned, generally the more prominent role it may acquire in social memory. During the Gogebic’s mining boom, the name Gogebic became powerful enough to grace company names both on the range and off, examples of the latter being the Gogebic Mining Exchange in Chicago and the Gogebic Investment Company in far away Unionville, Connecticut. The name Gogebic clearly came to mean something to the general public.

    Newspapers powerfully represented the Gogebic Range. For example, on Sunday, June 27, 1886, the Milwaukee-based Yenowine’s News told tales of small investors from Milwaukee striking it rich on the range. It reported the following:

    Rev. A. A. Hoskins, who has been the pastor of a small south-side church at a salary of $500 a year, is selling stock and property for mining companies, and in this way has made probably $25,000 the past three months. He got his start by mortgaging his little house and lot, and investing his all in Gogebic. He resigned his pastorate some months ago, and is now a regular boomer. Two young men named Hayes left Madison a few years ago to practice law at Ashland. They nearly starved to death until they became interested in Gogebic. Only last week they were offered a cool million dollars for their interests in a mine.

    The article does not mention any specific companies or mines; rather, it was one of many spreading the idea that small investors could get rich by investing in a geographical region. Through stories such as this, the Gogebic came to symbolize hope and optimism.

    During the rush, downtown Milwaukee was abuzz with rumors of riches in the Northland. Several Milwaukee-based periodicals focused on promoting the Gogebic’s development. Stock exchanges opened in Ashland and Milwaukee just to handle the burgeoning number of Gogebic stocks. In addition to iron, rumors swirled around the possibility of rich deposits of gold, silver, and copper. The short-lived Gogebic Explorer touted gold deposits, none of which turned out to be commercially viable.

    In the spring of 1887, the speculative bubble burst. The initial Gogebic boom ultimately led to general disillusionment, followed by periods of cautious optimism. There was still ore to extract, but investors became wary of losing money. Investors’ lowered confidence depressed stock prices, bankrupting legitimate mining companies as well. In order to survive, the best mines were consolidated within the largest and strongest companies. During the 1890s, the consolidation of mines and companies was led by people such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.

    The Gogebic has been a place of booms and busts stretching from 1884 to 1967. Population hopes and dreams on the range have fluctuated wildly over time as the mines have either prospered or been abandoned. Cities grew due to the mining speculation. By 1890, six years after settlement began, Ironwood and Hurley were home to more than 10,000 residents. Ironwood, Michigan, is the largest city on the Gogebic Range. The Montreal River cuts through the center of the range, dividing the two states. Just to the west of the boulder-strewn river is the city of Hurley, Wisconsin, the largest city on the Wisconsin side. Wakefield, Bessemer, and Montreal also grew. Many other settlements, known as mining locations, developed around mine sites. Economic opportunity lured immigrants to the range. Census data reveals that in 1910, 47 percent of the range’s population had emigrated from Europe and Canada. Finns and Italians were the two largest ethnic groups. As the range developed, community organizations flourished, with social networks customarily divided along ethnic lines.

    During the 1800s, newspapers issued grand statements about the future of their town, a process known as boosterism. Newspaper editors often gave fanciful reasons as to why their town was destined to become greater than other competing towns. Boosterism occurred throughout western North America, not just on the Gogebic Range. Here, newspapers in Hurley, Ironwood, Bessemer, and Wakefield each described their geographical situation as ideal for growth.

    Governments became more elaborate over time. Gogebic County, Michigan, split off from Ontonagon County in 1887, owing in part to the difficulty of traveling to the county seat at the

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