Review

Abstract

142 Michigan Historical Review W. Bruce Bowlus. Iron Ore Transport on the Great Lakes: The Development of a Delivery System to Feed American Industry. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2010. See www.mcfarlandpub.com. Pp. 262. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Map. Notes. Paper, $45.00. In the late nineteenth century the American iron and steel industry, the cornerstone of American industrialization, was somewhat unusual. In most other parts of the world the mines that provided iron ore and the blast furnaces and mills that smelted that ore and processed it into bars, rails, sheets, rods, and nails were relatively close together. In the United States, however, iron-ore mines were often hundreds of miles from the furnaces and mills that processed their raw materials. Two factors explain this phenomenon: the quality and quantity of the Lake Superior ore deposits and the efficient transportation system developed to transport ore from Lake Superior to the furnaces and mills on the lower Great Lakes. Bowlus‘s book focuses on the latter issue. As the author points out in his introduction, much of the existing literature on the Great Lakes focuses on specialized topics: iron mining, vessels, steel companies, shipbuilders, navigation improvements, and lighthouses. Bowlus sees these varied elements as interconnected components of a structure, focusing particularly on the development of the transport system linking the mines with the mills and furnaces. His analysis demonstrates the dynamic relationship between various factors in the transport system, such as the dimensions of the ―Soo‖ locks and the design of ore freighters. Every time the Army Corps of Engineers widened the locks with the expectation that the improvement would last for years, shipbuilders seeking to meet the needs of a growing economy expanded the size of bulk freighters to the limits of those locks, which created the need for yet another enlargement. Changes in one part of the system inevitably rippled down to all other parts of the system. Iron Ore Transport on the Great Lakes is not a narrowly technical history. Besides providing an account of the varied and interconnected innovations in dock construction, lock enlargement, channel and harbor improvements, ship design, and unloading equipment that lie at the heart of his story, Bowlus does a good job of describing the economic and political contexts for changes in the Great Lakes transportation system, from varying interpretations of the U.S. Constitution on internal improvements, to railroad expansion, to the lobbying efforts of groups like the Lake Carriers‘ Association. Bowlus‘s study is largely based on archival research; his documentation is thorough. The book also contains a goodly number of Book Reviews 143 well-selected illustrations. Scholars may be somewhat aggravated by the use of a one-footnote-per-paragraph format, which can make it difficult and inconvenient to identify the source of specific data. General readers will be more annoyed by the almost complete absence of maps. The volume has only one (of the St. Marys River). A map providing an overview of ore-shipping routes from the mines and ports of Lake Superior to the furnaces and mills of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and New York, or one showing, for example, the location of the St. Clair Flats, which figure prominently in Bowlus‘s story, would have been useful and welcome These few reservations aside, however, I found this volume‘s scholarship solid. The book is a ―good read.‖ It offers a comprehensive account of how the various components of the Great Lakes transportation system interacted to feed a steady diet of ore to the gaping mouths of the furnaces and converters central to American industrial growth in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Terry S. Reynolds Michigan Technological University M. Christine Byron and Thomas R. Wilson. Vintage Views of the Mackinac Straits Region. Traverse City, Mich.: Arbutus Press, 2007. Pp. 152. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Maps. Cloth, $40.00. Vintage Views of the Mackinac Straits Region centers on three distinct locations: Mackinaw City, St. Ignace, and Mackinac Island and their intersection at the Straits. The central theme concerns vacationers and the tourist activities that drew them to the area—from the time when arrival at the Straits of Mackinac was exclusively by steamer, to the period when tourists...