1/23/12 THE IRON RANGE...WHERE IMMIGRANTS DUG THEIR WAY TO FREEDOM

MINING DISPLAY AT WI WELCOME CENTER IN HAYWARD

MELLEN MAIN STREET

HAYWARD MAIN STREET BARS

MONTREAL RESTORED MINERS COTTAGE

COULDN'T GET THERE...EVEN WITH 4-WHEEL DRIVE

NOT MUCH BUSINESS IN PENCE

...OR ELSEWHERE

MOSTLY CUT OVER

PENOKE RANGE,  IRON COUNTRY

MELLEN SCHOOL 1910...THOSE WERE THE DAYS

LOGS WAITING FOR THE FREIGHT TRAIN  IN MELLEN

MELLEN MAIN STREET

Monday, 8;30 AM.  27 degrees, wind W, light with moderate gusts.  It is snowing lightly and we have about an inch of slippery, granular stuff on the ground.  The sky is overcast, the Island is barely visible and this may go on for a while, as the barometer predicts.
        I have written several blogs regarding the proposed open pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin, which would eventuallly be roughly a mile wide and four miles long and operate for at least 35 years, bringing jobs and tax revenues to  Iron and Ashland Counties and the region as a whole.  I have presented some of the pro and con arguments and did a brief analysis of the proposed, controversial legislation concerning it.  I thought it would be instructive to those readers who have an interest in the topic to give some verbal and photographic descriptions of the actual area involved.
        So, yesterday Joan, I  and Buddy took a ride to and through the general geographic area involved, stopping first to fortify ourselves with some roast beef sandwiches from Arby’s in Ashland, which was a real hit with Buddy, who wanted ours as well as his.  He didn’t get them.
        We took State Hwy. 13 south to the town of Mellen in Ashland county, which is about forty miles from Bayfield.  We then took State Hy 77 east toward Hurley, another 23 miles.  The proposed mine straddles the Ashland and Iron County line, approximately midway between Mellen and Hurley.  The tiny community of Upson is closest to the west side of the proposed mine, and the equally diminutive village of Pence is on the east side.  Several other little villages lie along Hwy. 77 before one gets to Hurley, on the Wisconsin border with Michigan.
        An aside: during the rough and tumble early days of logging and later mining, Hurley was known as one of “The three H’s”, viz. Hayward, Hurley, and Hell. It is also appropriate to note Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s comment regarding his grandfather’s emigration from Italy to the coal mines of Pennsylvania, which is just as appropriate to the Iron mines of Wisconsin; “He came here and literally dug his way to freedom.” Hurley has a large ethnic Italian population.

        Except for the community of Montreal (which is a restored mining village and National Historic Site) just outside of Hurley, these little settlements are very depressed, and rather reminiscent of Appalachia.  One is struck by the fact that some of these communities, at least, were once prosperous, attested to by the few remaining grandiose buildings such as the 1910 Mellen public school.  The countryside in this region is pretty enough but is not wilderness or even virgin forest, but has, according to my practiced eye at least, all been logged over, probably numerous times.  There are a few farms but the soil is not conducive to agricultural prosperity.  Mostly, it is empty except for the trees, the few villages, the highway, and a few railroad tracks, some active and some not. 
        Anyway, I hope you find the photos interesting and instructive to the issue of renewed mining in the region.