The Cornish Pump, Iron Mountain's gentle giant

Iron Mountain grew around the Chapin Mine. The mine began producing ore in 1880, eventually turned out about 27 million tons, and became the Menominee Range’s largest iron-ore producer. It also ran beneath a cedar swamp. Keeping that water out of the workings took an unusually large machine.

Edwin Reynolds and his nephew Irving designed the steam-driven pump for Milwaukee’s E.P. Allis Company, and it began operating in 1893. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers says it drew worldwide attention as the largest U.S. pumping engine. The local museum describes it today as the largest standing steam-driven pumping engine ever built in the country: 725 tons, 54 feet tall, with a 40-foot flywheel weighing 160 tons. At the C shaft, it lifted more than 3,000 gallons a minute from roughly 1,500 feet down.

The pump did not retire in 1914, as an earlier version of this page said. ASME records it working at the C shaft until mine operations stopped in 1932. In 1934, the Oliver Iron Mining Company offered the engine to Dickinson County as “a relic for sight seers to visit.” Today a protective building surrounds it at the Cornish Pumping Engine and Mining Museum on Kent Street. ASME designated it a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1987. The museum is seasonal, so check its current hours before making the trip.