STATE OF MICHIGAN Letter of Transmittal. MINES AND STATE OF MICHIGAN OFFICE OF THE MINERAL STATISTICS COMMISSIONER OF MINERAL STATISTICS, Marquette, Mich., Sept. 1, 1901. HON. AARON T. BLISS, BY Governor of the State of Michigan: JAMES RUSSEL SIR:—In fulfillment of the duties of my office I have the COMMISSIONER OF MINERAL STATISTICS. honor to submit herewith the following report upon the mines and mineral interests of the State. Respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES RUSSELL, Commissioner of Mineral Statistics. BY AUTHORITY INTRODUCTORY. MARQUETTE Compared with my first report as Commissioner of PRESSES OF THE MINING JOURNAL CO., LIMITED Mineral Statistics, that herewith submitted may appear 1901. somewhat lacking in comprehensiveness of treatment of the great industries with which it deals. But the exhaustive nature of the former, and the extent to which TABLE OF CONTENTS. it went into detail, together with the fact that my term of office as commissioner expired soon after it had been given to the public, has constrained me to make this INTRODUCTORY, ............................................................ 1 supplemental to that, rather than to attempt what, under the conditions, could be nothing more than covering IRON, ................................................................................ 3 again ground that was very fully gone over in the report MARQUETTE IRON RANGE, ....................................... 7 issued early in the current year. MENOMINEE “ “ ............................................. 15 This report has been, therefore, confined to bringing up GOGEBIC “ “ ............................................. 23 to date the account of what has been done at the COPPER, ........................................................................ 31 developed mines, and giving the facts regarding COPPER STATISTICS,............................................... 52 properties in progress of development, and in relation to such exploratory operations as have been undertaken in CHARCOAL PIG IRON, .................................................. 54 the mining districts of the state in the interim. COAL,.............................................................................. 54 I deem it due to myself to explain in this connection that SALT, .............................................................................. 55 my tenure of office as Commissioner was trenched on under an arrangement made presumably for a political MISCELLANEOUS MINERALS, ..................................... 56 purpose, with a corresponding-effect on the salary received by me from the state. My term fell short of the prescribed two years in consequence, notwithstanding which I have published two reports, one the most elaborate in detail and exhaustive in treatment yet issued (it being a volume of 490 pages), preparation of the matter for which, with the printing and distribution, would not be more than fairly met by the entire amount drawn by me from the state in salary. The state can be congratulated on the increasing interest being taken in the development of its magnificent mineral resources. Each year sees an enhancement of the volume of capital invested in mining ventures and the facilities for conducting them more economically and profitably, as also an increase in their Mines and Mineral Statistics, 1901 – Page 1 of 57 productiveness. It can be said of the mining industries of me that they must be denied. I still adhere to the belief Michigan that never before were they more ably that if the state did not undertake to supply the managed or prosperous than they now are; and never information embodied in these reports private enterprise before was money being invested in them more freely, or would take it in hand and do it thoroughly and more confidently as to the safety of the investment. This acceptably. But if the state is to persist in having charge speaks more eloquently than spoken or written words of this work it should first provide for having it done can of the ability with which these industries have been honestly and efficiently and then make sure that the and are being operated, as well as of the great richness purpose of having such a report issued annually is not of the mineral deposits of the state, and the established defeated by the faulty economy of holding down the certainty that their extent is such as to make conjecture number of copies printed to the wholly inadequate regarding the day when they shall be worked out so amount of 1,000. If the report is what it should be not purely speculative as to be a waste of time. It is not too less than 5,000 copies of it should be printed for general much to say that the iron mines of Michigan, which lie distribution, and if it is riot a publication commensurate entirely in the upper peninsula, were never before so with the greatness of the interests of which it treats it had well prepared to produce ore in any quantity that market better not be published at all. requirements may render advisable. Of our copper I have nothing to recant of what was set forth on these mining industry it can truthfully be said that it has yet to points in the introductory to my first report. What was reach its full power as a wealth-producer, while the coal therein stated and suggested was aimed at an abuse mining interest, which has its field in the lower peninsula, arising from neglect and indifference on the part of the is but in the infancy of its development, with a most administrative and legislative branches of the state promising future before it. government, but it apparently fell on unheeding ears, The present year has been one of great activity in all and I do not feel called on to elaborate on the subject three of these industries, and there is nothing in the here. present aspect of business throughout the country, or The task of gathering the information for this report and the conditions prevailing in the world of trade and preparing it for the printer was entrusted largely to the finance, giving augury of a cessation of the prosperity Assistant Commissioner, Horace J. Stevens, of they are now enjoying. Wages are good and Houghton, whose work on my first report went far toward employment abundant in the mining districts of the state, making it so valuable for the purposes of consultation and the year has brought to them no labor disturbances and reference that the demand for it appears to be deserving the name. In every community depending on growing rather than diminishing. Mr. Stevens has come a mining enterprise for its existence labor finds plenty to to be a recognized authority on statistics relating to the do and at good wages; the men are contented, and the iron and copper mines of Michigan, and I take very great policy of the employers appears to have in view keeping pleasure in acknowledging the assistance he has them satisfied by according them fair treatment and rendered me, without which I should have found the making their welfare a study. It should be regarded as work of the office an exceedingly onerous burden. cause for pride by every citizen of Michigan that with such vast mining interests as have been created within I desire to say, in closing, that I am under very great its borders it is free from the labor disagreements and obligation to the mine managers and officials with whom the lawlessness accompanying them which so my duties brought me in contact while I filled the office of unpleasantly mark the history of mining districts in other Commissioner of Mineral Statistics for assistance states of the union where work of this kind is extensively rendered and courtesies extended. I have invariably carried on. found them ready to aid with information and suggestion, and willing to do all in their power to make the work of The minor mineral industries of the state are in a the Commissioner useful to the state and as pleasant to flourishing way, and while they are hardly important him and his assistant as its nature made possible. enough to be regarded as a distinctive feature of the wealth-creating factors of the commonwealth, they are JAMES RUSSELL, doing their share to add to its prosperity and are Commissioner. furnishing profitable occupation for a very considerable proportion of its people. In my first report I dwelt at some length on the necessity for having proper precaution taken to ensure useful work from the incumbent of the office of Commissioner of Mineral Statistics, and also the unwisdom of having provision made for printing and distributing but 1,000 copies of his annual report. I printed the required 1,000 copies of my first report and the edition was quickly exhausted, without at all meeting the demand. Requests for copies are constantly coming to this office from all parts of the country and it is a source of keen regret to Mines and Mineral Statistics, 1901 – Page 2 of 57 should also give a greater stability to the iron trade in all IRON. its branches, and it is undeniable that the iron industry in the past has been a somewhat erratic one, periods of famine alternating with those of plenty. From the nature The march of events has been a rapid one within the of things it is impossible that the demand for iron and its past few months in the Lake Superior iron district. The products can remain at any constant ratio with process of consolidation which was begun some years population or wealth, but the acute phases of depression ago, and which reached an acute stage in 1899 and and "booms" may be greatly modified by having the 1900, has finally arrived at a point where the greater industry effectually dominated by a single management. number of the best mines of all five ranges have been consolidated in the hands of the United States Steel The most obvious disadvantage of this combination of Corporation, a concern of such gigantic resources and the leading mines in the hands of a single corporation is such hitherto unheard-of capitalization that it is truly the the elimination of the scores of independent companies colossus among the corporations of the world.