1921 Duluth & St Louis County MN, Van Brunt.pdf - Garon.us

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 667
possible without heavy initial outlay for striping. It is planned to
load the ore by steam shovels, although of course the quarrying will
be done with explosives. From the crushers, the ore will pass, by
conveyor belt, to the roll plant, thence to the ball mill plant, thence
to the magnetic separating plant. It reaches the sintering plant
comminuted to 100 mesh, and there takes the form of a clinker of
high-grade ore with so little phosphorus as to be negligible and without
moisture, a radical conversion certainly, from the original lowgrade
state of only 27 to 30 per cent iron. There is also a by-product
of crushed rock, which the company hopes to market, believing it to
be well suited for the making of concrete.
If successful, the Mesabi Iron Company certainly has an immense
field in which to operate. Drilling has discovered magnetic
ore to a depth of 500 feet, in places.
The three congressional townships that constitute the Township
of Argo were recorded as having no inhabitants in 1900. The 1910
census discovered a population of 102, and the 1920 federal census,
showed that ninety-eight persons were then living in the three
townships, 59-13, 60-13, and 60-12. The present population of Argo
is probably about 500.
Ault.—Residents in congressional townships 55 north, ranges 12
and 13 west, and townships 56 north and ranges 12 and 13 west,
sought; in 1906, to obtain the consent of the county commissioners
to the organization of that territory into one township, to be known
by the name of Ault. The man most active in circulating the petition
was George L. Ault. His name heads the petition, and when same
was filed with the county auditor on August 31, 1906, George L. Ault
swore to the accuracy of the statements made in said petition.
At the September, 1906, session, the County Board of Commissioners
granted the petition, and ordered election to be held at the
schoolhouse situated on section 4 of township 55-12. Election was
held on September 22d. and the township organization then completed,
in accordance with chapter 143, Laws of 1905.
The population of Ault Township when organized in 1906 was
stated to Fiave been not in excess of fifty. In 1900, according to
Federal Census Bureau statistics the population was 76; in 1910
it was 474; and in 1920, owing to the detaching of the two northern
townships; the population was found to be only 111.
Townships 56-12 and 56-13 were detached from Ault in 1918, to
form the Township of Fairbanks (siee Fairbanks, this chapter).
Ault has only one schoolhouse, a frame building, valued at
$5,000, situated at Brimson, in township 55-12. It is classified as
School District No. 51, the officers of which are: Minnie Bodey,
Brimson, clerk; Charles Swanson, treasurer; Mrs. B. M. Highland,
chairman of directors. Enrollment in 1919-20 was 22, one male
teacher conducting the school at a salary of $100 monthly.
Before the erection of the Township of Fairbanks, there were
three school districts in the Township of Ault. numl)ers 51, 60, and 61.
School District No. 61 has been abandoned.
The township (officers in 1920 were: Casper Soderlund, chairman;
Albin Hassel and George Berry, supervisors; F. C. Highland,
clerk; T. C. Peterson, treasurer; W. B. Bodey, -assessor.
Balkan.—The Township of Balkan, as now constituted, includes
all of township 59 north, range 20 west, and all of township 58 north,
range 20 west, excepting one tier of sections on the south. W'ithin
its borders is the important mining district centering in Chisholm.