Michigan Iron Industry Museum, Michigan History Center, Negaunee, Michigan June 8, 2019
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There are interpretive trails on the grounds of the Michigan Iron Industry Museum.
The Geology Trail examines what’s underfoot – the rocks, landforms, glacial activities – as well as the post-Ice Age vegetation and wildlife.
The River Overlook Trail interprets some of the early mining history of the area including the rugged conditions experienced by the early prospectors and miners.
Transportation from the early mines to the port at Marquette over crude roads was very difficult.A plank road was built and later a mule-drawn railway, the route of which is visible from the trail.
A small steam engine, imported from England, was introduced to pull ore cars at the Jackson Mine.Larger locomotives were used to transport ore to the docks in Marquette.
The “Yankee,” an early steam locomotive, is on display along the trail.
BARNES-HECKER MINE DISASTER
Along the museum trail system is a memorial (right) to the 50 miners and a County Mine Inspector who lost their lives on November 3, 1926, when the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company’s Barnes-Hecker Mine experienced a cave-in that inundated it with a sudden rush of water and quicksand.The disaster left 42 widows and 132 fatherless children.
During the MHA visit to the museum, Mary Tippett, a granddaughter of a victim of the disaster, presented “Barnes-Hecker: The Legacy of Michigan’s Worst Mining Disaster.”
The Barnes-Hecker Mine site is located on a rather remote country road about 5 miles from the museum and west of Ishpeming.Visitors to the site will find a fenced memorial to the victims erected on the cap of the abandoned mine shaft (see photos below).Only 10 bodies of the victims were able to be recovered from the mine.The rest are still entombed below.The mine was never reopened.A third memorial to the victims is located at the Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum.
CLICK HERE for more information about Remembering Barnes-Hecker Disaster.
