Because Rockefeller didn’t own steel mills but financier Andrew Carnegie did, Rockefeller would have to sell his ore to Carnegie at some point in production. Rockefeller didn’t control the Mesabi without competition, though. The Merritt family was pushed out of Minnesota’s mining industry in 1894. After many complicated financial transactions, the DMNR and the Merritt mines were consolidated into one company managed by power broker John D. Because they didn’t have the capital to improve the DMNR, the Merritt family sought investment from other sources. Soon after the DMNR was formed, other railroads were built by competitors. While this facilitated the Merritts’ first successful shipment of ore, in 1892, it was also the family’s financial undoing. The Merritt family understood this challenge, so they formed the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railroad (DMNR) in 1891 (later part of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway). Since the Mesabi Range was so remote, heavy investment was necessary to transport the ore to steel-processing facilities. Soon after, the Merritt family began mining, and the Mesabi Range was opened for operations. Their efforts paid off in 1890 when they encountered a large hematite ore deposit near current-day Mountain Iron. However, the Merritt family from Duluth spent countless hours prospecting on the Mesabi. The ore on the Vermilion Iron Range just to the north of the Mesabi was more accessible. However, the syndicate failed to materialize and produce any ore.Įven though Eames and Wieland found that the Mesabi Range had ore, few prospectors pursued it. Wieland, optimistic about what he observed, helped organize the Ontonagon Syndicate to mine the area. Although they noted the hills of the Mesabi as early as 1810, it wasn’t until 1866 that Henry Eames and Christian Wieland of Ontonagon, Michigan, recognized the presence of iron ore. The Mesabi Range was visited by Europeans and white Americans well before it was found to be one of the world’s largest iron ore deposits. The Thunderbird (binesi) is regarded as one of the most powerful spiritual beings of the Ojibwe. Nevertheless, the Misaabe Wajiw is an important place for the Ojibwe, as the long ridge is said to be the body of a sleeping giant that forms part of a Thunderbird’s tail. While it is documented that the Ojibwe were aware of iron ore on the nearby Vermilion Range, it is difficult to determine if they knew of the more obscured iron deposits on the Mesabi Range. The term Mesabi comes from the Ojibwe name for the Giants Range Batholith: Misaabe Wajiw, or Big Man Mountain. The iron formation is called the Biwabik Iron Formation, and the long ridge is the Giants Range Batholith, which is all that is left of the high peaks of the Algoman Mountains.

As the sea dried up and oxygen was produced in the atmosphere, the iron sediment was compacted by layers of silt that formed iron and taconite deposits throughout the Mesabi. This waterbody eroded the iron-rich rock of the mountain range, and the resulting sediment settled to the bottom of the sea.

High mountains were built in northern Minnesota and, later, a large shallow sea covered much of the upper midwest. More than two billion years ago, an era of mountain building known as the Algoman orogeny occurred. The Mesabi Iron Range’s history as a mining district begins well before ore was unearthed. Since the 1890s, the Mesabi has produced iron ore that boosted the national economy, contributed to the Allied victory in World War II, and cultivated a multiethnic regional culture in northeast Minnesota. The Mesabi Iron Range wasn’t the first iron range to be mined in Minnesota, but it has arguably been the most prolific.

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