Laker at dock in Duluth, Minnesota showing scale

The Soo Line ore dock in Ashland, Wisconsin 1,800 ft (550 m) long, b. Lake freighters, or Lakers, are Cargo vessels that ply the Great Lakes. Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers The Soo Line Railroad is the United States arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway, serving Chicago and the areas to the east and west History Pre-settlement 1916

Ore dock (b. 1931) in Marquette, Michigan

The IR&HB ore dock at Skanee, Michigan. Marquette is a city in the US state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 19661 with the 2007 population estimated placing it The Iron Range & Huron Bay Railroad (IR&HB is a Defunct railroad constructed to haul Iron ore in Michigan 's Upper Peninsula during the 1890s Arvon Township is a Civil township of Baraga County in the US The steamer Christopher Columbus (362 ft) is in the foreground. Background and proposal See also Whaleback The history of the Columbus is linked with that of the whalebacks an innovative but not widely accepted ship ca. 1893

An ore dock is a large structure used for loading ore (typically from railway cars or ore jennies) onto ships which then carry the ore to steelworks or to transshipment points. An ore is a volume of rock containing components or Minerals in a mode of occurrence that renders it valuable for mining A hopper car is a type of Railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as Coal, Ore, grain, Track ballast Most known ore docks were constructed near iron mines on the upper Great Lakes and served the lower Great Lakes. Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border. Ore docks still in existence are typically about 60 feet (18 m) wide, 80 feet (24 m) high, and vary from 900 feet (270 m) to 2,400 feet (730 m) in length. They are commonly constructed from wood, steel, reinforced concrete, or combinations of these materials. Reinforced concrete is Concrete in which reinforcement bars (" Rebars quot or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen a material that would otherwise be ^[1]

They are commonly used for loading bulk ore carriers with high mass, low value ore, such as iron ore, in raw or taconite form. Lake freighters, or Lakers, are Cargo vessels that ply the Great Lakes. Taconite is an Iron -bearing high- Silica, Flint -like rock It is a Precambrian Sedimentary rock referred to as a Banded iron

Construction

The typical construction of an ore dock is a long high structure, with a railway track or tracks along the top with a number of "pockets" into which ore is unloaded from cars, typically by gravity. Each pocket has a chute that can be lowered to discharge the ore into the hold of a ship berthed alongside. The use of pockets and chutes allows loading the dock asynchronously of its discharge into the freighter. A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of Ship or vessel that carries Cargo, goods and materials from one port to another ^[2]

The docks storage bins or pockets typically are wider at the top than the bottom, and lead to movable steel chutes. These chutes project out over the water at a slight angle from the sides of the docks. The hinged chutes, which when lowered allow ore to drop into ships from the pockets, are located at twelve-foot intervals over the length of the dock.

This spacing is not coincidental, as the docks and the lakers they could load evolved together, and laker hatch spacing is typically 12, or 24-foot (7. Lake freighters, or Lakers, are Cargo vessels that ply the Great Lakes. 3 m) on center.

History

Ore docks were a common sight in many Lake Superior ports of Minnesota, Wisconsin and especially Michigan. Lake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes of North America. Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers Wisconsin ( or wɪˈskɑnsɨn (French Ouisconsin) is one of the fifty United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States Michigan ( is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. Rich iron ore deposits were first discovered in the Upper Peninsula in the 1840s, and remain a significant source of wealth for the state. Iron ores are rocks and Minerals from which Metallic Iron can be economically extracted The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that comprise the U By the 1890s Michigan was the largest supplier of iron ore in the United States. Railroads would haul ore from the mines to great ore docks on the Great Lakes in places such as Escanaba and Marquette, where it would be loaded on ore freighters and transported to the rest of the country. The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border. Escanaba is a city in the US state of Michigan, located on the state's Upper Peninsula. Marquette is a city in the US state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 19661 with the 2007 population estimated placing it

Iron ore was first discovered in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on September 19, 1844 by William A. Burt, who was then employed leading a party engaged in surveying the Upper Peninsula on behalf of the United States government. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that comprise the U Events 335 - Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle Constantine I. Year 1844 ( MDCCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year William Austin Burt ( June 13, 1792 &ndash August 18, 1858) was an American Inventor, Legislator, surveyor Variations in the readings of magnetic compasses employed suggested that something was disturbing the local magnetic fields, and on investigation of part of the Marquette Range, ore was found as close to the surface as just below the sod. ^[3]

Development of this find was ongoing throughout the 1840s and early 1850s. The initial focus was on producing iron locally, as shipping was difficult. Early shipping attempts using mule teams, plank roads, and barrels loaded as deck cargo on schooners required transshipment after portaging the St. Marys River rapids, and costs proved prohibitive. In its common modern meaning a mule is the offspring of a male Donkey and a female Horse, which is classified as a kind of F1 hybrid. A plank road or puncheon is a dirt path or road covered with a series of planks similar to the wooden sidewalks one would see in a Western movie A schooner (ˈskuːnɚ is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts Schooners were first used by the Portage refers to the practice of carrying a Canoe or other Boat over land to avoid an obstacle on the water route (such as Rapids or a Waterfall However as the mines continued to develop, and railways were put in place, the volume of ore increased, far outstripping the local production capacity. In 1855, the Soo Locks opened, and the volume of ore shipped increased, with the first year seeing 1447 tons on various brigs and schooners. The Sault Locks (usually called the Soo Locks) allow Ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. The first dock specifically for the ore trade was built in Marquette in 1857. It was flat rather than elevated, and the vessels were loaded with wheelbarrows. ^[3]

By 1860, volume of ore shipped through the Soo Locks had increased to 114,401 tons, only to fall again to 49,909 tons in 1861 after the American Civil War broke out. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South However, by 1862, an additional wooden dock had been constructed at Marquette, this time featuring an elevated railway trestle for ore jennies to discharge ore into pockets. Schooners now started to feature regularly spaced hatch covers, speeding up loading. ^[3] However steamers of the day were not well adapted for bulk cargoes such as iron ore. A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a Propeller They did not have hatches through their decks. Instead they had gangways through the sides. So ore shipments were loaded via wheelbarrows through the gangways. The docks had provisions for this by having a flat surface on one side and moorings directly under the pockets for schooners to receive the ore directly, while steamers moored on the opposite side of the dock. ^[3] However, unloading was still a laborious hand-powered affair.

During this period the iron ore trade was dwarfed by the grain and lumber trade. For example, grain received at the port of Buffalo, New York alone in 1866 were about 1,500,000 tons, and the lumber received at Chicago, Illinois were about 400,000 tons, whereas the received amount of iron ore at all Lake Erie ports amounted to only 278,976 gross tons. Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Lake Erie (ˈɪəriː is the fourth largest Lake (by surface area of the five Great Lakes, and the tenth largest globally ^[3] Marquette remained the only port on Lake Superior that shipped iron ore until 1876. Lake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes of North America. ^[4]

After the war, advancement was rapid. The Cleveland Iron Mining Company's dock was 30 feet (9. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc is a Cleveland Ohio business firm that specializes in the mining and Beneficiation of Iron ore. 1 m) above the lake level and was originally built with 29 schooner pockets and 6 steam boat pockets, but by 1872 had been extended an additional 350 feet (110 m), providing 54 additional pockets. During the 1873 season, the total tonnage of iron ore shipped from the port of Marquette was 1,175,000 tons. ^[4]

As additional ranges (the Gogebic, Menominee East, and Menominee West) began to be developed, with the acceleration of the US as an industrial power, other (primarily Lake Superior) ports also got ore docks. For example, Ashland, Wisconsin the natural port for the Gogebic Range, had three docks by 1916, the first built by the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway in 1884-1885. History Pre-settlement It was 1,400 feet (430 m) long, with 234 pockets, and four tracks on the dock, and could hold 25,000 tons of ore. ^[5]

The natural port for the Menominee East range was Escanaba, Michigan which also got docks. Escanaba is a city in the US state of Michigan, located on the state's Upper Peninsula.

Today

Many docks have been torn down or abandoned, but the Cleveland-Cliffs dock, one of the docks at Marquette, Michigan, recently loaded its 400 millionth ton of ore after 90 years of service. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc is a Cleveland Ohio business firm that specializes in the mining and Beneficiation of Iron ore. Marquette is a city in the US state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 19661 with the 2007 population estimated placing it ^[6] (The other dock, built later by Merritt-Chapman & Scott for the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSS&A) was taken out of service in 1971. Merritt-Chapman & Scott, nicknamed "The Black Horse of the Sea" was a noted Marine salvage and construction firm of the United States with worldwide operations The Duluth South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSS&A was an American Railroad serving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Lake Superior The largest dock of the type in the world exist in Superior, Wisconsin, as part of BNSF's Allouez Taconite Facility. The docks are still off limits, because the conveyor belt that feeds the present day BNSF dock runs through the facility. ^[7]) Ore docks are mentioned in popular culture, at least one high school athletic team, the Ashland, Wisconsin Oredockers takes their name from them,^[8] and they have been mentioned in song. History Pre-settlement ^[9]

See also

• Lake freighter - general bulk cargo ship whose evolution paralleled that of the docks. Lake freighters, or Lakers, are Cargo vessels that ply the Great Lakes.
• Hulett a device used to remove ore from the freighter's holds at the other end of the journey

References