Negaunee and the birth of Michigan's iron industry

The whole iron story of the Upper Peninsula starts right here in Negaunee. In 1844, a surveying party working through these woods noticed their compass needles swinging wildly — a sign of iron in the ground — and, as the well-worn local tale goes, found rich ore exposed in the roots of a toppled tree. Within a year the Jackson Mine opened nearby, the first iron mine on what became the Marquette Iron Range, and the town of Negaunee grew up on top of the ore body itself.

To turn that ore into usable iron, the Jackson company built a forge on the nearby Carp River in the late 1840s — the first place iron was ever forged in the Lake Superior region. That historic site is now home to the Michigan Iron Industry Museum, a state history museum set in a wooded ravine above the river. It tells the story of Michigan’s iron ranges and the immigrants — Cornish, Finnish, Swedish, Italian, and many more — who came from across the world to dig the ore and work the furnaces. For a stretch around the turn of the last century, this district was the center of iron production for the entire country.

Negaunee wears its history visibly. So much ore was mined directly beneath the town that part of the old west end had to be abandoned over fears the ground might collapse — you can still walk to the edge of that cordoned area. The town is also a hub on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, a paved path that links Ishpeming, Negaunee, and Marquette and threads past the mines, forges, and rock that built the region. (One note for planners: the Iron Industry Museum has at times closed for building repairs, so it’s worth checking ahead before you go.)