IRON RIVER

Region: Iron River, Iron Mountain & the Menominee Range

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As its name suggests, Iron River owes its existence to the iron first mined here in 1879. In quick order, a string of five separate towns developed along a vein of high-phosphorous iron. As the oldest, Iron River is the commercial center of Iron County. Almost two dozen mines once operated in this short six-mile span. The Caspian Mine alone shipped over six million tons of ore.
A streetcar connected the five towns clustered around mine shafts: Iron River, Mineral Hills on Iron River's northern border, Stambaugh (pronounced "STAM-bo") up the hill where U.S. 2 bends by McDonald's, and Caspian and Gaastra a little farther south. Their downtowns thrived before cars were commonplace. Now the four satellites of Iron River are commercial ghost towns.

The area bears the architectural stamp of its peak boom times during the first two decades of the 20th century. Some neighborhoods have handsome, well-kept Arts & Crafts bungalows. The finest homes of mining company officials were on Iron River's south side, along Selden Avenue/M-189, a road now made ugly by random industrial and commercial development.

Iron River's city hall on West Genesee.

Mining communities spawned their own distinctive institutions. Two can be seen in Caspian. The Arts & Crafts-style Caspian Community Center at 404 Brady (the main north-south street, a continuation of Lincoln in Stambaugh) was built in 1921 by the Presbyterian Board of National Missions. It was a library and center for social activities, art classes, and sports activities - all intended to foster assimilation of immigrants. The little Italian Society Duke of Abruzzi Hall, dating from 1914, has a dance hall, a wine-making and sausage-seasoning room, and a bocce court. To see it, go to Brady (a major north-south street) and take Morgan or Sawyer about three blocks east. The hall is on McGillis between them.

The high phosphorous content made iron from the Menominee Range's ore more brittle and expensive to make, though it could be used in the hotter Bessemer process of steelmaking. Mines started closing in the 1930s. The last one closed in 1978. Now the hilly countryside is beautiful and the northern half of Iron County is quite wild. Economic mainstays today are tourism and many second homes and retirement homes on lakes and near the Ski Brule ski resort.

The big event in the Iron River area in recent years has been the consolidation of Iron River with adjoining Stambaugh and Mineral Hills. (Caspian citizens opted to remain an independent city.) The three-way consolidation, unprecedented in Michigan history, added about 1,500 citizens to Iron River (now pop. 3,400). Stambaugh and Mineral Hills have disappeared from maps of Michigan, but not from the hearts of native sons and daughters. The consolidation was hotly debated, but ended up passing 2-1 in July, 2000.

Return to Iron River, Iron Mountain & the Menominee Range

PLACES AROUND IRON RIVER TO

Eat Sleep Camp