Iron Mountain Iron Mine

The Iron Mountain Iron Mine sits on US 2 at Vulcan, a small community in Norway Township in Michigan's Upper Peninsula named for the Roman god of fire. Its real name is the East Vulcan Mine, at one time called the Breitung, and it was one of the first two mines on the Menominee Range.

Serious prospecting here began in 1872, when the Milwaukee Iron Company sent Dr. Nelson P. Hulst prospecting here. He found the East Vulcan deposit, which began producing in 1877, and in the next few years, as general manager of the Menominee Range Mining Company, he opened eleven mines across the range, among them the Vulcan, Cyclops, Norway, Quinnesec, Chapin and Florence. Ore from the early prospects went to Menominee by wagon and then by ship; after 1877 it rode the new Chicago and North Western Railway to the docks at Escanaba. The Penn Mining Company bought the East Vulcan in 1885 and worked it until its lease ran out in 1945. In those 68 years the mine shipped ore every year except 1921 and 1932, 21,625,000 tons in all, and at its peak it employed 1,500 men.

The mine's second career began in 1956, when three Iron Mountain businessmen, Eugene Carollo, Albert Carollo and James Goulette, set out to show people what iron mining had been like. Eugene Carollo rediscovered an exploratory tunnel on the East Vulcan site that had sat unused since the late 1800s. They renovated the workings, installed old mining machinery to show the early methods, lit the interior, and built an admissions building and a museum of miners' tools. Walking tours began in 1958, and the underground train arrived in 1965.

Today guided tours ride 2,600 feet into the old drifts and stopes. Only the exploratory tunnel is open, but it leads to the mine's showpiece, the big stope, a man-made cavern 600 feet long, 300 feet wide and 180 feet from floor to ceiling, from which much of the ore was taken. The guides are veterans, some with more than ten years at the mine. Out front stands Big John, a 40-foot replica of an underground miner whose lantern beam shines out on gloomy days, a roadside attraction in his own right. The mine runs train tours daily from Memorial Day weekend to mid-October.