Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: cleveland-cliffs

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.

Beejay ( Di's note says Bee Jay; the sign can be read either way) lives near the Upper Harbor ore dock in Marquette. She's pretty small. Don't know, and can't find, much about her, but we offer some reasonable speculations.... Presumably she belongs to Cleveland Cliffs/LS&I, since she's anchored next to the LS&I dock (actually, in the slip beside the harbormaster's shack). Doesn't look like she gets out much anymore, but perhaps someone fires her up every now and then. LIkely she used to push the ships snug against the dock, before the builders installed bow thrusters on most of the Lakers.