Mountain Iron - Day 279

  The village of Mountain Iron has been designated as a place of National Historic Significance because the first iron mined from the Mesabi Range came from here. There is a small park with some nice interpretive panels and some restored hardware such as this Northwest Steam Shovel.


Of course, I love this 0-8-0 Switcher. It was built in 1910 and restored in 1990. The tender could hold 7 tons of coal, and it could move 20 tons of ore. Switchers are designed to move rail cars around a yard to assemble trains. They don't necessarily have a lot of pulling power or high speed, but they have high traction and torque for getting cars moving from a standstill.


This lake is the original pit of the Mountain Iron mine. There is still active mining off to the back left.


The day did not start out so bright and clear. There was a really dense fog that made the trail seem closed in.


But the fog burned off just around noon. This is the Iroquois Mine pit, now another lake, with so much calcium carbonate in it the water looks pearly blue.


BONUS SECTION: My new favorite vintage car.

We saw this on the way home from the trail. Wow, do I like this one! It's a 1949 Pontiac Silver Streak.



The inside was in great condition too. And the original bill of sale was displayed. With all the extras, like the visor, heater, automatic "hydromatic" transmission, undercoating, whitewalls, and a couple other things, the total cost was $2340.00. One article I read said the value of an average house in 1949 was about $12,000.00.


There used to be a Pontiac dealer near where I grew up. In my limited experience, these hood ornaments usually got broken. But this one is in near perfect shape.


Miles today: 16.8. Total miles so far: 3306.9.

See Blue Water