Generally speaking, I was around the souwest corner of Lake Superior – many years ago. I think I was on an elevated highway coming around a bend and I say these two massive things. They appeared to be giant hoppers for coal or some other kind of ore, and they had tracks going up and down a hillside or mountainside, and there were very large ships at the docked below them. My best guess is that these hoppers were transferring ore from a mine (or maybe trains arriving) at the top, and transferring the ore to ships below. They were really giant – each appeared to be the size of quite a large building, WAY bigger than a normal rail car.
Do these things sill exist, and if so where exactly are they?
If it was the furthest southwest:
I’m thinking Duluth. They had six docks, went down to two.
It’s been many years since I was there, so I don’t know if anything is left.
This could be it, but I’m not seeing the mechanism by which the ore got down the hills – it sounds more like tubes that the ore just was dropped into, I remember some kind of different transporting system.
It’s been 40 years since I went through there. (I’m originally from Michigan.)
What hit my memory was when you said “elevated highway”.
I was probably busy looking for iron ore ships and not paying attention to the delivery method.
I am going to guess Duluth, MN.
It has two ore-loading docks and the city is built on a hill. I am not exactly sure what elevated curve you would have been on two see both docks at the same time. I-35 approaches on a curve from the south, but only one dock would be visible from the curve. OTOH, approaching Duluth on US-2 from Superior, WI includes several curves as it rises up on the Richard I. Bong bridge and the Duluth hillside and railroad serving the dock would be visible, along with both ore docks.
It is less likely that you were on the hillside of Duluth, looking across at the loading docks of Superior, WI. Superior is built on the estuary flats of the Saint Louis and Nemadji Rivers and the rail line feeding them runs across those flats.
It is unlikely that you were at Silver Harbor or Taconite Harbor as each has a single loading facility running parallel to the shore rather than projecting into the lake and neither is readily visible from Minnesota Highway 61.
Two Harbors is a possibility, except that Hwy 61 runs above the tracks, making it unlikely that you would have perceived/associated the hill with the tracks.
Another remote possibility would be Marquette, MI, but it would have the same problem as Two Harbors with the road being on the hill above the tracks.
This might be the road I was on, though 30 years later I can’t say for sure. Unfortunately, none of these pictures are showing what caught my eye, the mechanism that carried the ore down the slope of the hill. I thought the two giant structures were massive hoppers that carried the ore, but maybe they were big machine sheds that powered conveyor belts that I mistook as tracks? Or something …
Did you drive underneath or cross the structures somehow? In most of that area the hill is on the west side of the highway and the lake is on the east. Maybe there were large rail cars in use on these lines passing over the highway in Duluth.
I don’t think so. I saw this array of gear, whatever it was, on the slope of a hill from a fair distance away. If I drove closer and eventually under it, I don’t recall doing so.
There would be no reason in Duluth for ore to be carried down the hill; the ore would’ve been shipped by rail, presumably, from the North Shore (of Lake Superior) and the rail lines are essentially at lake level.
I don’t think you’re describing Duluth - I was born there in 1978 and lived there until 1996 and there was certainly nothing like what you describe then. My dad is an amateur Duluth historian and so I was treated to lots of tales of “This used to be…” and no such mechanism was ever mentioned.
There are no iron (or copper) mines that are actually on the shore of Lake Superior. Any ore brought to the lake arrives by rail.
Is there any chance you have conflated two memories? One of actual mining gear towers on a hillside (perhaps near Virginia or Hibbing) away from the lake and the other of ore docks on the lake?
If the emphasis of you memory is on the hillside structures and not on ore docks extending into the lake, it might have been Silver Bay, MN. I believe that the hillside tower and conveyor shed is to transport coal up the hill, (something that you might see in a number of other locations, as well), but it does have both hillside structures and ore bins. My initial rejection of that town was that its ore dock does not extend into the lake.
You might go to Google Maps, drop in each town along the lake shore, then drag the little pedestrian figure onto the main highway to see a street view to see if it looks familiar.
The ore loading stations, moving up the shore, are at Duluth, Two Harbors, Silver Bay, and Taconite Harbor just southwest of Schroeder.
