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

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 549
taxes were a small but certain liability. Still, cut-over land "beyond
the pale of civilization" was not worth having. So the great timber
barons took only the timber, forming a company to handle the logs.
Wright and Davis still had the land, which they looked upon as a
"white elephant," and even though there were certain discoveries of
iron made, they could not get anyone to "nibble" at their holding
when offered for $3.00 an acre. So they held it, having no option, A
few years later the Alahoning mine was developed on their land ; then
the Stevenson. In 1899, James J. Hill paid them $4,000,000 for their
land, and their railway.
He was quite satisfied with the transaction, knowing its potentialities,
yet it does not seem that he was over-anxious to enter into
mining operations himself. And had it not been for the formation of
the huge steel corporation in 1901, and the consequent "flurry" among
independent mining companies of the Mesabi range, it is doubtful
whether he would have invested further in ore lands, even with a
legitimate accessory, a railway. But when the deflation came, he
saw his opportunity and bought Mesabi ore properties courageously,
being quite content to hold them until the great steel corporation
came to him, as has been elsewhere stated. The astounding leasing
contract made by Hill with Judge Gary of the Steel Corporation in
1907, held until 1915, and while he drew enormous royalties during
that period, incidentally, the steel corporation developed some important
properties for Mr. Hill, leaving him much richer in mines
when the contract terminated than he had been when it began.
That is the history of Hibbing mining in general, and it is a
sufHciently sensational story to be fiction instead of fact.
Many of the important mines of the Great Northern have within
recent years been taken over (on a royalty basis of course) by the
Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which has been operating on the
Mesabi range since 1903, and in recent years has been finding employment
for about 900 men. In 1919, a subsidiary corporation, the
Mesabi Cliffs Iron Mining Company, was organized, to operate the
leases from the Great Northern, the properties including the Boeing
mine at Hibbing, the Hill and Trumbull mines at Marble, and the
North Star at Taconite. The Boeing mine is being opened as an
open-pit and milling proposition, and the Winston Deere Company
began stripping operations in 1920. Previously, in September, 1919,
the Mcsaba Cliffs Company had begun to sink a shaft, for underground
development of the property. The Hill and Trumbull mines,
which adjoin, are to be operated as an open pit, though until taken
over by the Mesaba Iron Mining Company no stripping had been
attempted on the Trumbull. The II ill was one of the properties
developed by the Steel Corporation during the leasing. The North
Star was also opened by the Oliver Company. Altogether, James
I. Hill did (juite well by his introduction to the Mesabi range, through
the initial transaction with the Saginaw lumbermen, Wright and
Davis.
There are one or two other ilibbing properties worthy of mention,
among them : the Kerr, which included the Sheridan, discovered
by James Sheridan, in 1894, and now one of the Oliver properties;
the Morton, a Pickands Mather mine ; the Philbin, operated by the
and some inactive mines. But page space is un-
Oliver Company ;
fortunately not unlimited, and more space has already been given to
the recording of the inqjortant Hibbing minijig histor\- than had been
originally planned.