Mine: Plymouth Mine, Wakefield, MI

Began → Plymouth Mine → Became

Operated for 36 years.

From: 1916

Owned by: 

Produced: Iron Ore

Method: Open pit surface mine. Some preliminary shafts.

Railroad connection: C&NW to Ashland docks.

Until: 1952

Lifetime Production: Almost 17 million tons.

Photo info: Top, a 1933 photo of a train of ore cars being loaded in the Plymouth open pit mine. 2nd photo, an early photo of a short steam-powered train and crane moving panel track in the mine to a new location. This was a common occurrence at open pit mines in the early 1900's before the use of mega-trucks for carrying ore. [MINART]

Notes

The Plymouth Mine was located southeast of Wakefield. It was a large open pit, surface mine and is now a lake. 

Time Line

1917. November 10. The engine of a double-header train pulling cars out of the Plymouth mine derails. The first engine overturned, killing the engineer and injuring the fireman. A third engine which was on an adjacent track was almost pushed into the pit 80 feet below. [WAK-1917-1110]

1942. The Plymouth open pit iron mine, operated by Pickands, Mather & Co., at Wakefield at the close of the present shipping season will end its railroad haulage system used there since 1916. The pit has been getting deeper as ore extraction has progressed from year to year so the balance of the remaining ore will be hoisted from an inclined skip way to be built on the pit bank of the south side of the Plymouth pit. Next season ore trucks will shuttle loads of iron ore between shovel loading point and an ore pocket at the base of the new skip way. The skips hoisted up the include will in turn dump into a loading pocket on the ground level for loading in railway cars.

The Plymouth orebody was originally discovered by diamond drilling and lies under a deposit of glacial drift with an iron formation hanging wall and slate footwall. With this year's shipment the mine will have shipped approximately 12 million tons of iron ore, which is of direct shipment grade. It is loaded into railroad cars in the pit and hauled out the approach to ore docks at Ashland, Wis. A drainage shaft 383 feet deep keeps the pit free of water.

The Plymouth mine pit and Wakefield mine pit are connected excavations making a large continuous excavation over one mile in length in an approximate east and west direction along trend of the Gogebic iron range. The Wakefield mine orebody was opened three years in advance of the Plymouth mine. The Wakefield mine in the time became deep and changed from open pit to underground mining, which is served by a hoisting shaft on the east end of the Wakefield property. The Wakefield mine is operated by the M. A. Hanna Co. This mine operated as an open pit for 21 years with an all-railroad pit haulage system. [BHN-1942-1023]