Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: ishpeming

I tend to vacation in mining areas.... Cliffs Shaft Mine, in Ishpeming, was perhaps the most important of all Michigan iron mines. There were a few mines which shipped more ore, but this was the first great Marquette Range mine, and it was an important producer for decades. Now a museum, and definitely worth the stop. Our guide was a retired Cleveland Cliffs engineer, and most informative. To me, the most interesting thing he said was that he doesn't believe the Negaunee/Ishpeming mines will ever reopen, despite significant remaining deep-underground deposits, because the economics seem unlikely ever to justify the effort. I've heard other opinions from apparently-knowledgable people, but this guy seemed to have impeccable credentials.

Part of the complex of buildings surviving at the Cliffs Shaft Mine, in Ishpeming; photographed in the early 1990s (my notes say 1992, but I don't fully trust them). This is the greatest and most interesting of the Upper Peninsula's iron mines. This remarkable (and decidedly photogenic --link from Michigan Tech) mine closed in 1967, but has recently reopened as a museum. Virtually the entire complex still stands.