Our trip To The Old WI Iron Mines in Iron Co.

 

Date: 9-03-06

Time : 10:00 AM

We got up around 7:00 AM and pondered on what to do for the day. We had talked about going fishing again so after Randy got up and we jumped in to the van and vent to the restaurant for some Coffee. While we was there we decided to go rock hunting up at the old iron mines near Montreal, WI. We left the restaurant at 10:00 Am and headed north for the first stop at the Plummer Mine just west of the Montreal Mine a few miles. It took us about a hour to get there and we went to the old mine dump and started to dig for a bit. There is lots of Hematite in the old dumps and here is some of what I found in the mine dump.

We are on top of the Geogebec Iron Range

This is the Mine dump of the Plummer Mine

This is the Plummer Head Frame. It is the last Head Frame left in WI.

I need to ID this yet but it sure is a nice peice.

This might be Manganite MnO(OH) Monoclinic, it is the closest thing I could find about this so far.

I need to ID this yet but it sure is a nice peice.

This might be Manganite MnO(OH) Monoclinic, it is the closest thing I could find about this so far.

I need to ID this yet but it sure is a nice peice.

This might be Manganite MnO(OH) Monoclinic, it is the closest thing I could find about this so far.

I need to ID this yet but it sure is a nice peice. Some of it is Hematite.

This might be Manganite MnO(OH) Monoclinic, it is the closest thing I could find about this so far.

I need to ID this yet but it sure is a nice peice.

This might be Manganite MnO(OH) Monoclinic, it is the closest thing I could find about this so far.

I need to ID this yet but it sure is a nice peice.

This might be Manganite MnO(OH) Monoclinic, it is the closest thing I could find about this so far.

Close up of Hematite found at the Plummer Mine, WI

Part of the old mine dump of the Montreal Mine. It is over 1 mile deep and is said to be the deepest Iron Mine in the world.

Part of the old mine dump of the Montreal Mine. It is over 1 mile deep and is said to be the deepest Iron Mine in the world.

After about a hour fo digging we left to go see the Montreal Mine site. The site is now closed to the public so i couldn't get in to tack pictures of the old mine. I did get a few pictures of the big mine dump by the road of Hwy 77. In ten years or so this area will become a big open pit for the price of iron is going up. The pit will be 26 miles long from what I heard. We got back to camp around 2:00 PM.