The Michigan Iron Industry Museum, a branch facility of the Michigan Historical Center, is a community museum serving the heritage of the

Marquette Iron Range The Marquette Iron Range is a deposit of iron ore located in Marquette County, Michigan in the United States. The towns of Ishpeming and Negaunee developed as a result of mining this deposit. A smaller counterpart of Minnesota's Mesabi Range, t ...

Michigan's Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the Peninsulas of Michigan, two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from t ...

. The museum is located in

Negaunee Negaunee ( or ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,568 at the 2010 census. The city is located at the southwest corner of Negaunee Township, which is administratively separate, in the Upper Peni ...

, a town built atop the geological strata of the iron range near Marquette. Until recently, Negaunee was a one-industry town that centered on the mining of iron ore. The Negaunee region served as the center of U.S. iron ore production from about 1880 until approximately 1900, when this role was taken over by iron mines on Minnesota's

Mesabi Iron Range The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota ...

. The Michigan Iron Industry Museum opened in 1987 close to the Carp River Forge site on the Carp River where Michigan iron ore was first forged in 1848. Admission to the museum is free, and the museum is open year-round. The museum also serves as the focal point for the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, a bicycle and hiking trail that presents a look at some of the key sites of human and geological heritage on the Marquette Iron Range.

References

{{coord, 46.5217, -87.5646, type:landmark_region:US-MI, display=title 1987 establishments in Michigan Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Museums in Marquette County, Michigan Mining museums in Michigan