Future of Lake Superior Iron Ore Supply

Abstract

One hundred thirty-two tons of iron ore on the brigantine Columbia passed through St. Mary's canal in August, 1855, the first such cargo taken from upper to lower lake ports without breaking bulk. Lake Superior ore shipments mounted slowly till after 1880, and rapidly not till some time after the opening of Mesabi Range. Lake Superior district then began to supply an increasing share of national iron ore consumption; demand rose with population increase and with growth of per capita consumption of iron and steel, a consumption that by 1900 measured seven-fold that of a half century previous, and more than four times that of thirty years earlier. Average annual shipments for the decade 1921-1930 surpassed fifty million tons, reaching an all-time peak in 1929 when some sixty-three million tons moved from six upper lake to nearly three times as many lower lake ports. Some years after peak shipment the lake ore fleet yet consisted of some three hundred thirty vessels. Their combined carrying capacity, on the nineteen foot draft then current, totalled 2,780,500 tons per round trip. Since lake carriers can make as many as twenty-five round trips per season past records could fall without further additions to the ore carrying fleet. Following the first forty years of shipping ore from Lake Superior area, new discoveries seemed imminent enough to provide for all future demands; after a second four decades, with shipment proceeding at a much faster rate than during the first, a student of the iron ore industry finds the district confronted with a