The Gogebic Range is an elongated area of iron ore deposits located within a range of hills in northern

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

just south of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

. It extends from Lake Namakagon in Wisconsin eastward to

Lake Gogebic Lake Gogebic ( ) is the largest natural inlandHanchin, P. A., (2011) ''The fish community and fishery of Lake Gogebic, Gogebic and Ontonagon counties, Michigan in 2005-06 with emphasis on walleye, northern pike, and smallmouth bass''. Michigan D ...

in Michigan, or almost 80 miles. Though long, it is only about a half mile wide and forms a

crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

concave Concave or concavity may refer to: Science and technology * Concave lens * Concave mirror Mathematics * Concave function, the negative of a convex function * Concave polygon, a polygon which is not convex * Concave set * The concavity of a ...

to the southeast. The Gogebic Range includes the communities of

Ironwood Ironwood is a common name for many woods or plants that have a reputation for hardness, or specifically a wood density that is heavier than water (approximately 1000 kg/m3, or 62 pounds per cubic foot), although usage of the name ironwood in E ...

in Michigan, plus Mellen and Hurley in Wisconsin. The name Gogebic is Ojibwa for "where trout rising to the surface make rings in the water." "Range" is the term commonly used for such iron ore areas around Lake Superior. In Wisconsin, the Gogebic Range is often called the Penokee Range. The range is named after

, a large lake near the east end of the range in Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties in Michigan. Located within the southern of two parallel prominent ridges, the Gogebic range iron formation name is often used interchangeably with the range of hills that encompass it. The hills composing the Gogebic range vary from 100 to 600 feet above the surrounding terrain, and are a prominent landform visible for miles. The Gabbro, or Trap Range comprises a somewhat lower ridge of hills running parallel just to the north of the Gogebic Range. Since the two ranges of hills are made up of dissimilar rock types, the rock formation containing the iron ore deposits is located exclusively within the southern (Gogebic) Range. The Gogebic Range experienced a speculative iron boom in the mid-1880s, and had recurring booms and busts from 1884 to 1967 as demand shifted.

Iron boom

Plummer Mine Headframe Iron County Wisconsin

The iron formation rocks forming the Gogebic Range were created by iron-rich sediments laid down within a shallow sea nearly 2 billion years ago. Later, the region was uplifted to such an extent that the resulting mountains rivaled the European

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

of today. Later still, around 1 billion years ago, the region was subjected to extensive volcanism associated with the creation of the

Midcontinent Rift System The Midcontinent Rift System (MRS) or Keweenawan Rift is a long geological rift in the center of the North American continent and south-central part of the North American plate. It formed when the continent's core, the North American craton, ...

, an event that nearly tore the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacif ...

in half before mysteriously ending. The volcanism metamorphosed and modified the rocks to create the iron ores present today. During this geologic activity, the horizontal layers of the iron formation were tipped nearly seventy degrees, such that mines used to extract the ore needed to be extraordinarily deep, extending to over 5,000 feet (1524 m) underground. The iron comes from the Huronian Ironwood

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

. It consists of alternating beds of

ferruginous The adjective ferruginous may mean: * Containing iron, applied to water, oil, and other non-metals * Having rust on the surface * With the rust (color) See also * Ferrous, containing iron (for metals and alloys) or iron(II) cations * Ferric, cont ...

oolitic

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a ...

and fine-textured cherty

carbonates A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate g ...

. Iron minerals make up one third of the formation content, the rest being quartz. The formation was discovered in 1848 by Dr. A. Randall during the Fourth principal meridian survey near

Upson, Wisconsin Upson is an unincorporated community located in Iron County, Wisconsin, United States. Upson is located at the junction of Wisconsin Highway 77 and Wisconsin Highway 122 southwest of Hurley, in the town of Anderson. Upson had an Air Defense ...

. Ore was first produced in 1883 from the Colby Mine in Michigan. The initial boom in the Gogebic Range came between 1884 and 1886. The discovery of high-grade Bessemer ore on the Gogebic Range and the potential for its exploitation led to a speculative craze the like of which has had no parallel in Michigan or Wisconsin. While it lasted, fortunes were made and lost within a month or even overnight. On September 16, 1886, the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' reported:

Hundreds of people are arriving daily from all parts of the country and millionaires are being made by the dozens ... The forests have given way to mining camps and towns, and a most bewildering transformation has taken place. In the palmy days of gold mining on the Pacific slope there is no record of anything so wonderful as the Gogebic.

Thousands of immigrants and their families arrived in the region to work in the mines. The immigrants were mostly Finnish, Swedish, Italian, French-Canadian, Austrian, and English ethnicities. Many of the settlers had prior mining experience in their home countries, and were actively recruited by the mining companies in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The influx of settlers created a population boom in the region, and helped establish numerous communities in the Gogebic Range. Iron ore was shipped via rail from the Gogebic Range to the Lake Superior port in Ashland, Wisconsin where it was loaded onto vessels and shipped to various

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

ports throughout the region for further transport or smelting into Steel. For decades in the late 19th century and into the 1920s, the Gogebic was one of the nation's chief sources of iron. Iron from the Gogebic helped to fuel the industrial boom in the Upper Midwest during these years. By 1930 mining was winding down in the area. The mines began closing as the national economy suffered from the Great Depression. The result was widespread economic devastation in the communities of the Gogebic Range. Some mines continued to operate into the 1960s, but the volume never reached the same levels as in the earlier boom years. A defining event was the last shipment of iron ore in August 1967 to Granite City Steel in Illinois. Approximately 325 million tons of this ore was mined from around 40 individual mines between 1877 and 1967. Iron mines of the era exploited the "natural" (soft) iron-rich ores in a 15 kilometer-long stretch in the central portion of the range straddling the Michigan-Wisconsin state line. These mines were mainly of the underground shaft type, which were among the deepest iron mines in the country. Due to these characteristics, and the greater associated costs involved with extracting the ore, these mines were unable to compete economically with the larger open pit iron mines in northern

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and elsewhere.

Range today

Today the area has largely recovered from the scars left behind by the iron-mining boom days. The Gogebic Range has developed a tourism industry featuring ski resorts and waterfalls. After being clearcut during the unregulated lumbering era during the 19th and early 20th centuries, nearly the entire area has re-grown into extensive second-growth

North Woods The Laurentian Mixed Forest Province, also known as the North Woods, is a forested ecoregion in eastern North America. Among others, this terminology has been adopted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Similar, though not n ...

forests. The region includes vast areas of government-owned public land, including the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, the

Ottawa National Forest The Ottawa National Forest is a national forest that covers in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It includes much of Gogebic and Ontonagon counties, as well as slices of Iron, Houghton, Baraga, and Marquette counties. The ...

, and the Iron County and Gogebic County Forests, which are managed for recreation and timber production. Recreational activities include fishing in rivers and lakes, hunting, hiking, and snowmobiling and mountain biking on a network of trails built on old logging roads. A portion of the

North Country National Scenic Trail The North Country National Scenic Trail, generally known as the North Country Trail or simply the NCT, is a footpath stretching over from Middlebury in central Vermont to Lake Sakakawea State Park in central North Dakota in the United States; ...

follows the Gogebic range, providing waterfall viewing opportunities and scenic overlooks of the surrounding forests. With the regrowth of the forests, wildlife returned to the area. Large mammals documented in the region include species such as

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

, and elk, which were recently reintroduced to Wisconsin's Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Gogebic County and neighboring Iron County, across the state line in Wisconsin, are heavily promoted during the ski season as "Big Snow Country". Heavy lake-effect snow from cold northerly winds blowing across the relatively warm waters of nearby

result in large annual accumulations of up to 200 inches (5.1 m) of snow in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan. The steep terrain of the Gogebic Range enhances the lake effect snowfall by providing orographic lift to the air mass, usually providing ample snowfall for winter recreation activities including

snowmobiling A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

, Cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, and snowshoeing. Several ski resorts are located along the Gogebic Range including

Whitecap Mountain The Whitecap Mountains is a ski resort located in the town of Anderson, Iron County, Wisconsin Iron County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,137, making it the third-least populous ...

in Iron County and

Indianhead Mountain Snow River Mountain Resort is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Wakefield Township, Gogebic County. Indianhead Mountain is in an area called "Big Snow Country", so named because of the annual average snowfall, courtesy of the lak ...

, Big Powderhorn Mountain, and Blackjack Ski Resort in Gogebic County. There is also a natural ski hill by Lake Superior at

Porcupine Mountains State Park The Porcupine Mountains, or Porkies, are a group of small mountains spanning the northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, near the shore of Lake Superior. The Porcupine Mountains were named by the native O ...

, less than an hour from Ironwood. The

Copper Peak Copper Peak is a ski flying hill designed by Lauren Larsen and located in Ironwood, Michigan, United States. It was built in 1969 and inaugurated one year later. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designa ...

Ski flying Ski flying is a winter sport discipline derived from ski jumping, in which much greater distances can be achieved. It is a form of competitive individual Nordic skiing where athletes descend at high speed along a specially designed takeoff r ...

hill is located near Ironwood, Michigan. This facility is the only ski flying hill in the western hemisphere, and hosted 10 ski flying events between 1970 and 1994. The 240-foot high tower on top of the Copper Peak hill allowed ski jumpers to fly over 500 feet through the air and provides views of three states and Lake Superior. Although currently not used, plans exist for renovating the facility and the resumption of competitive ski jumping at the hill. Gogebic County has 22 waterfalls, with ten more across the Montreal River in neighboring Iron County, Wisconsin.

Ashland County, Wisconsin Ashland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,027. Its county seat is Ashland. The county was formed on March 27, 1860, from La Pointe County. The county partly overlaps with ...

also has several waterfalls. Significant waterfalls are located along the Presque Isle and

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

rivers within half a mile (0.8 km) of Lake Superior. Other attractions on the east fork of the Montreal River that forms the Michigan–Wisconsin border northwest of Ironwood and Hurley include Superior Falls (which is bordered by cliffs), Saxon Falls, Interstate Falls, and Peterson Falls. Major waterfalls in Iron County, Wisconsin include Rock Cut, Gile, Kimball, and Spring Camp Falls on the west fork of the Montreal River, Foster, Upson, and Potato River Falls on the Potato River, and Wren Falls on the Tyler Forks River. Major waterfalls in

include Copper Falls and Brownstone Falls on the Bad River in Copper Falls State Park. With metals trading at unprecedented prices during the early 2010s commodity bubble, companies again explored the possibilities of mining in the Gogebic Range to extract remaining, lower-quality ore.Emily Lambert
"A Mining Rush in the Upper Peninsula,"
''New York Times'', May 24, 2012. Accessed May 24, 2012. The lower-grade Taconite ore of interest was located in the western portion of the Gogebic Range in Wisconsin. Since the closure of the previous mines in the 1960s, the railroads serving the mining region were mostly abandoned and converted to

rail trails A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetca ...

. Unless lines could be reconstructed (at considerable expense), transportation would have to be by road, which would greatly limit the scope of any proposed mining project. Resumption of mining was generally not considered profitable, and concerns about the health and environmental impact to the region and

resulting from the proposed massive miles-long

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

iron mines, associated industrial ore processing facilities, and crushed waste rock tailings disposal created much controversy among area residents and the

Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians The Bad River LaPointe Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians or Bad River Tribe for short ( oj, Mashkii ziibii) are a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people. The tribe had 6,945 members as of 2010. The Bad River Reservation i ...

. Major areas of concern related to the proposed mining activities included the presence of extensive pristine

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s that would be destroyed, the potential of

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering ...

water pollution from

iron sulfide Iron sulfide or Iron sulphide can refer to range of chemical compounds composed of iron and sulfur. Minerals By increasing order of stability: * Iron(II) sulfide, FeS * Greigite, Fe3S4 (cubic) * Pyrrhotite, Fe1−xS (where x = 0 to 0.2) (monocli ...

present in the bedrock, the release of hazardous,

carcinogenic A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive subs ...

airborne asbestos-like amphibole fibers from the blasting, crushing, transport, and processing of

grunerite Grunerite is a mineral of the amphibole group of minerals with formula Fe7 Si8 O22( OH)2. It is the iron endmember of the grunerite-cummingtonite series. It forms as fibrous, columnar or massive aggregates of crystals. The crystals are monoclini ...

rock (containing

asbestiform Asbestiform is a crystal habit. It describes a mineral that grows in a fibrous aggregate of high tensile strength, flexible, long, and thin crystals that readily separate.Committee on Asbestos: Selected Health Effects, 2006, ''Asbestos: Selected Can ...

minerals) documented to be present in the bedrock, loss of forest and hunting land, and the industrialization of one of the most scenic undeveloped areas in Wisconsin.

Iron boom

Range today

See also

References

Further reading