Pictorial of our 30 State, 1,000+ photos, zero small talk

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The Griffin guarding the entrance of the Ironwood Threatre

During the Golden era, 1736 motion picture theatres operated in America

The Ironwood Theatre was built as a vaudeville/silent movie palace
in 1928 at a cost of $160,000
became the center of entertainment in the Ironwood area

Hollywood Golden Age - the 30,s, 40s and 50s
In the 60s, the Ironwood Theatre operated as a first run movie house
until it's closing in 1982

In 1982, restoration efforts began
1985 was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places

The Barton Musical Company of Oshkosh, Wisconsin
installed 350 organs in movie theatres during the silent film era.
Of these, the Ironwood Theatre’s Barton is one of only six remaining original installations.
Barton ceased business about 1931, soon after the advent of "talking pictures"

The “Grand Old Lady” is completely playable and used at special events

The organ has been awarded registration (42nd inductee into) as a “Heritage Instrument”
by the American Theatre Organ Society


Note:
I got to peek into the interior of the theater as a orchestra was performing.
Good acoustics and beautiful murals!

Ironwood is 20 miles from Lake Superior on the Wisconsin border with sister city Hurley, Wisconsin.



Ironwood is the westernmost spot of Michigan
situated on the same line of longitude (90.2 degrees West)
as St. Louis, Missouri

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Ironwood Population:
1900 it reached 10000
2000, there were 6,293

The city is on US 2
is situated opposite the Montreal River from Hurley, Wisconsin

While originally an iron mining town,
the area is now known for its cross country skiing and for Midwestern downhill skiing resorts,
including Big Powderhorn, Blackjack, Indianhead, Mount Zion and Whitecap

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Hiawatha
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha"
it's an epic poem about a Native American from Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

In honor of that poem, Ironwood, Michigan built the Hiawatha statue
billed as the "world's largest Indian"

it's 50 feet high
made of fiberglass - weighs 16,000 pounds
is able to withstand winds of 140 miles per hour.

Hiawatha is dressed more like a Plains Indian,
and less as one of the forest tribes, such as the Ojibwe,
who would have populated the Ironwood area before Europeans took over

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The Memorial Building
listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Second Renaissance Revival architecture
This memorial to veterans of world wars was built in 1923
A bronze doughboy statue graces the lobby
It features marble walls, terrazzo floors
and hand painted murals of local mining history
There are 47 large exquisite stained glass panels values at near $500,000
houses the city offices and courts
also contains a large auditorium, swimming pool, and gymnasium

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Ironwood Michigan/Hurley Wisconsin has many picturesque churches,
here is a Ironwood (Lake Superior sandstone) Brownstone

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Above:
The Old Iron County Courthouse
(National Register of Historic Places)
presently the Iron County Historical Museum (free admission)
built in 1893




Below:
The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Depot
(National Register of Historic Places)
presently the Old Depot Museum (free admission)
features a railroad & iron mining history exhibit

railroad depot was constructed of Lake Superior Red Sandstone in 1892
It featured a one block long elevated platform designed to better serve business needs
More than one million people utilized the depot over a span of 78 years before
closing to passenger travel in 1970 and freight traffic in 1981

There is a ATV trail that passes by the Depot

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Hurleyis is tame today, 1920s and 1930s when Hurley was one of the most notorious places in the country.

taken from Wisconsin Historical Society:
"tucked away up in the wild lumber and iron section of northern Wisconsin, right on the Michigan State line,
has the distinction of being the worst community in the State.

Conditions in Hurley are not unlike those of settlements like Dawson City, Cripple Creek, El Dorado, Borger, and other boom communities.
Gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, and dope are about the chief occupations of the place.
Saloons there function with barmaids who serve the dual capacity of soda dispenser and prostitute."

has nearly 30 bars, a rather unusual number for a town of 2,000.


This area offers you hundreds of miles of dirt trails

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Plummer Mine shaft
Opened in 1904
angles downward from the headframe following a vein of ore into the earth
to a depth of 2,367 feet.

The Plummer Mine closed in 1924
the last such headframe standing in Wisconsin.

From an engine house, cables ran up over the wheels at the top of the headframe
and were attached to elevator cars, lowering miners and equipment underground
and pulling ore cars back to the surface.

State Road 77
Pence, WI

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This is the mud hole
that Rustoleum Paint
gets all of its Iron Oxide Primer :laugh


Of the six principal iron ranges in the United States,
three are located primarily in Michigan

the Marquette Range, all of which is found within the state,
the Menominee and Gogebic ranges which are located in both Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Gogebic Range lies partly in Michigan and partly in Wisconsin divided by the Montreal River

This range extends almost 80 miles between Atkins Lake in Wisconsin
and slightly west of Lake Gogebic in Michigan; the Michigan section is approximately 30 miles long


The Gogebic Range

a trapper and hunter, who seen red ore outcropping from the roots of an overturned tree near Bessemer in 1879.
By 1884, this ore location, known as the Colby Mine, began to produce commercial iron ore.

In 1882, iron was discovered near Wakefield,
the discovery became the famous Sunday Lake Mine.
During that same year Norrie Mine in the city of Ironwood started.

Soon the Railroad had begun a line that was run from Milwaukee into Michigan new mining district during the summer of 1884

By 1910, three separate railway lines served the Gogebic Range,
and approximately four million tons of iron ore were being shipped annually.

The range became the frenzied "Gold Rush" speculation during the late 1880s,
and the total capitalization for the companies formed in the year 1886
reached a total of over one billion dollars.

production rose steadily from 1884, reaching a high water mark in 1892

From 1893 through the first decade of the twentieth century,
production levels ranged from approximately 3-4 million tons of ore shipped,

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Montreal, WI - one of Wisconsin Company Towns

Above:
The impressive Machine Shop
with one of the Montreal Company Houses in the background

132 white-painted company homes
consist of four different models of kit-built bungalows with porches


Originally, miners settled around the Montreal mining shaft
constructed homes on land leased from the Company
1918, in order to retain workers
the company rented pre-fabricated homes to miners

When the Montreal Mines closed in 1963, 600 workers lost their jobs
Many went to the American Motors plant in Kenosha
Homes were sold for $2,500 to $3,500

Montreal Mine - the world's deepest iron mine (4,337 feet)

Montreal looks more like a New England village today than a former mine site

The Montreal Company Historic District
was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980
as a national example of industrial community planning.

Below:
Montreal's 105 year old Sacred Heart Church

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Saxon Harbor

located on Lake Superior's Oronto Bay
in Iron County, Wisconsin,

Historically, this was near the beginning of an ancient Native American trade route known as the Flambeau Trail

was the site of a fur trading post
operated by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company from 1808 to 1830

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On the Ironhorse Trail

Siemens Railroad Bridge
(1896)

bridgehunter.com/mi/
This bridge is a good example of a Baltimore through truss

one of the many remaining historic artifacts in this area
that tell of a time when iron brought prosperity
and extensive railroad activity to this rather remote region of the country


Ironhorse Trail runs along Michigan Highway 2 (map below)


www.hunts-upguide.com

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Gogebic County Courthouse
The courthouse was constructed in 1888
upheritage.org

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HISTORY OF THE KEYSTONE BRIDGE

The Keystone Bridge was constructed in 1891
by Chicago and Northwest Railroad at a cost of $48,322.

Similar to old Roman architecture,
the bridge was built without mortar on a solid rock foundation.

The bridge consists of a series of arches,
with each arch having a center keystone at the top to lock in the entire structure.

The 5 foot thick blocks used to construct the bridge are limestone,
which was brought from Kaukauna, Wisconsin.

The bridge is 45 feet long, 44 feet wide, 57 feet high, with 50 foot walls.

Historic Keystone Bridge
carried mining and logging materials across the Black River.

Although millions of tons of freight shipped by rail passed over the arch bridge, the bridge is structurally sound.

The bridge is a stop along the
Upper Michigan Heritage Trail Network










The Ramsay Bridge (bridge in the background)
is an impressive example of a concrete girder bridge

To a bridge lover,
the bridge in the background is as significant as the Keystone Bridge
Go figure


Michigan Bridges Linky

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Birnamwood, Wisconsin

World's Largest Badger
A giant badger head and claws -- part of a once-larger statue

Was at one time part of a gift shop . . .







. . . now emerge from the ground as greeters for a gentlemen's club