IRON ORE HERITAGE AREA RESEARCH

The Lake Superior Community Partnership's Iron Ore Heritage Area Task Force and Northern Michigan University formed a recent partnership to spearhead needed research on several sites affiliated with Marquette County's iron ore mining industry.  The class selected to provide the research presented their findings on April 27 at the Peter White Public Library's community room.

The Iron Ore Heritage Area is a project that would preserve, conserve, and interpret the rich iron mining history and stories of Marquette County throughout the last 160 years. The spine of the project is a 40-mile trail that would connect iron ore mining sites from Republic to Marquette while interpreting the sites and telling the stories of the immigrant labor. The task force is preparing a feasibility study of the proposed iron ore heritage area and considering whether to pursue a national designation. As part of the feasibility study, in-depth research was needed to ensure that the story is one of national significance. Dr. Anderton's GC489 Human Impact Upon the Environment class was enlisted to research and report their findings on nine sites selected by the task force. The nine sites chosen were spread out along geographic areas and along different spectrums of the iron industry. They are the Republic Mine, Edison magnetic separator, Champion Mine, Greenwood Reservoir, downtown Ishpeming, Jackson Mine, Eagle Mills pellet plant, LS&I rail yard, Morgan Furnace, and the Upper and Lower Ore Docks. One group is also responsible for the GIS of the proposed trail.

Dr. Anderton stated, "The goals of the research were multifaceted. The students collected archival information, searched local libraries, documented the history of each site, explained how landscape was changed and the social implications of each site, and documented preservation efforts."

Carol Fulsher, manager of the task force, commented, "Our task force felt that we could develop a partnership with Northern that would be beneficial to both of us. We could utilize a significant resource through NMU's geography studies to provide us the research while providing NMU students with a real world project that will impact this region. Our task force is looking forward to hearing the results of their semester long research."

For more information on the project, please contact Carol Fulsher at 906-226-6591.