Jackson Mine
Inscription
On this spot on September 19, 1844, William A. Burt, a deputy government surveyor, was the first to discover the great Lake Superior iron ore deposits. Peculiar fluctuations in his magnetic compass led Burt to ask his men to seek the cause, and they soon returned with pieces of iron ore from outcroppings in the area.
Next year prospectors from Jackson, Michigan, led by Phil M. Everett, arrived at the Carp River. Marji-Gesick, a Chippewa chief, guided members of the party in June to this location where he showed them iron ore in the roots of a fallen pine tree. As a result of this discovery, the Jackson Mining Company, of which Everett was a founder, began taking out ore here in 1847.
Thus was born the Lake Superior area’s great iron mining industry.
Location
Sources
More markers in Marquette
Gwinn Model Town
Gwinn, MI
William Gwinn Mather, president of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, directed the design and construction of Gwinn.
First Steam Railroad in Upper Peninsula
Marquette, MI
On this site in 1852, the Green Bay and Lake Superior Rail-Road began the survey which led to the construction of the first steam...
Ishpeming: Historic Ski Center
Ishpeming, MI
The sport of skiing was introduced to America in the nineteenth century by Scandinavian immigrants.
Marquette Iron Range
Negaunee, MI
The first of the immensely rich Lake Superior iron ore deposits to be discovered and mined were those of the Marquette Iron Range.
William Bakewell
Skandia, MI
William Bakewell was born in Joliet, Illinois, in 1888.