PRODUCTION OF THE MINES.-j " One-eighth of all the iron now made in the entire United States is dug from the mines of Marquette county, and yet ten years ago a piece of Lake Superior ore was a curiosity to most of our practical metallurgists. With the completion of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, which was opened ten years ago this month, the projects for developing the iron-ore trade assumed a definite shape. The few tons of mineral that had been carted around the portage at the mouth of the lake had proven its value, and the first year saw 1445 tons sent below for smelting.
"The enlargement of the trade has been. steady and rapid, as the following statement will show :— " In 1855, 1445 tons were exported ; in 1856, 11,594 tons; in 1857, 26,134 tons; in 1858, 31,135 tons ; in 1850, 65,679 tons ; in 1860, 116,940 tons ; in 1861, 45,430 tons; in 1802, 115,720 tons ; in 1863, 185,275 tons ; in 1864, 235,123 tons,—making a total of 834,534 tons, which, assuming the ore to yield an average of 60 per cent. (the stand ard desired by the shippers is a yield of 66 per cent. in the furnace), would give 500,750 tons of cast iron. The development of the manufacture of pig-iron from char coal, in the county of Marquette, has been even more remarkable, as the difficulties to be encountered in building large structures, erecting new machinery, and collecting necessary labor in a distant and hyperborean region are numerous and serious.
"The earliest iron made was produced directly from the ore, in what is known as the Catalan forge. This manufacture was commenced in 1847, by Everett & Jackson, at the Jackson Forge. After it followed the Marquette Forge, then the Collinsville Forge, and lastly the Forestville Forge, all in the same vicinity, near Marquette. They made iron with more or less success for a few years, but are now in ruins, or so greatly dilapidated that much time would be required to repair them.
" The production of pig iron from charcoal commenced at the Pioneer Works, near the Jackson Mine, in 1858: 1627 tons were sent to market that year. This manu facture has increased by the erection of new furnaces, until at present the Pioneer, the Collinsville, the Forestville, the Morgan, the Northern, and the Greenwood Furnaces are in activity. The progress of the trade has been as follows :
"In 1858, 1627 tons were exported ; in 1859, 7258 tons ; in 1860, 5660 tons; in 1861, 7970 tons ; in 1862, 8590 tons ; in 1863, 8908 tons ; in 18641, 13,832 tons.
"Up to the end of 1864, therefore, 53,845 tons of pig iron had been sent to market from Marquette county. By comparing the production of this region with that of other iron districts, it will be found that it produced in 1864 more pig metal than Connecticut or Massachusetts in the same year, and 60 per cent. more than New York in 1850. Reckoning ore and metal together, the mines of Marquette threw into consumption, in 1864, 151,905 tons of metal, or three-fifths as much as the total pig-iron production of the United States according to the census returns of 1850, and, as above stated, one eighth of all the pig iron produced by the United States in 1864.
"Regarding the method and cost of mining and smelting in this new and isolated region, a few facts will, I am sure, be welcome to our Eastern makers, as well as to that numerous class of Western iron-masters who only know the district through the thou sands of tons of rich and pure ore that reach their furnaces from within its limits. I shall not pause to discuss the interesting geological features of the country surrounding the iron-beds, nor the no less interesting points connected with the genesis of the ore itself, but will proceed at once to a consideration of the economic features of the mining and export of the merchantable mineral. The Jackson Company, which exported last year 70,937 tons, the Cleveland Company, which exported 58,838 tons, and the Lake Superior Company, which exported 83,848 tons, are the three principal companies now in operation. The Pittsburg and Lake Angeline, the New York, the Parsons, and the Marquette mines have sent more or less ore to market; while a dozen others are in pro cess of development. They are all situated in what is known as the Azoic range; and those first mentioned are between 14 and 17 miles from the harbor of Marquette.