[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 135 (Thursday, October 2, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1904-E1905]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BART STUPAK

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 30, 1997

  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of coming before 
Congress today to pay tribute to a company operating in my district 
that has played a major role in the economic, cultural and historical 
development of northern Michigan and in the rise of the economic and 
military power of the United States itself in the last century and a 
half.
  The history of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is a fascinating one, because it 
is entwined with the development of the Soo Locks, the growth of 
shipping on the Great Lakes, and the development of pelletizing iron 
ore. The company's history even has ties to a candidate for the U.S. 
Presidency in the year 1876.
  The company began as the Cleveland Iron Co. in 1847, just 3 years 
after iron ore was discovered in the remote wilderness of Michigan's 
Upper Peninsula. Michigan had been given the Upper Peninsula as 
compensation for a disputed piece of land along the Michigan-Ohio 
border known as the Toledo strip. The discovery of iron and of copper 
in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan made this exchange suddenly seem 
very much worthwhile.
  Northern Michigan in those years was still a remote frontier area. 
Mining began in earnest in the 1850's, but getting the ore to port from 
this wilderness was a great challenge. The construction of a plank road 
through miles of rugged terrain brought ore to the budding city of 
Marquette on Lake Superior, and by 1857 a railroad with steam engines 
was hauling ore to the new docks in Marquette.
  The opening of the Sault Ste. Marie Ship Canal, allowing ships to 
bypass the rapids on the St. Mary's River en route between Lake 
Superior and Lake Huron, was a significant event in the development of 
the iron and steel industry in the United States. The passage of the 
two-masted brigantine Columbia through the Soo Locks in August 1855 
with 120 tons of ore was significant in this regard. It meant not only 
that ore would be mined in Upper Michigan, and later in Minnesota, but 
that processing of ore and the manufacture of steel would be done in 
blast furnaces far from the mines, in States on the south shore of the 
eastern Great Lakes.
  During the Civil War and in the years that followed the war, 
production tonnages increased on a regular basis, with shipments 
hitting the 200,000 ton mark in 1880. Surface deposits of ore were 
exhausted by then, and shaft mining was begun to follow the rich iron 
ore veins underground.
  By 1890 there were two major iron mining operations on the Marquette 
Iron Range. Joining the Cleveland Iron Co. was the Iron Cliffs Co., 
founded by Samuel J. Tilden, Democratic Party nominee for President 
against Rutherford B. Hayes. A merger of these two companies in 1891 
created the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co.
  This new company was a pioneer, bringing many firsts to the industry 
and to the region. It brought electrical power to the Upper Peninsula 
by building an hydroelectric plant in 1910. In 1900 it created the 
first geological department for an iron mining company in the Lake 
Superior Region. It organized a welfare department in 1905, developed a 
pension plan in 1909, formed the region's first mine safety department 
in 1911, built a modern hospital in 1918, and even build lumber mills 
to harvest the abundant timber.
  Making good use of its vast land holdings, the company hired a 
landscape architect to design a model town for the area. The community 
of Gwinn is named for Elizabeth Gwinn, mother of company president 
William Gwinn Mather.
  Perhaps the most significant breakthrough for the region and for the 
industry occurred when Cleveland Cliffs researchers, working with the 
U.S. Bureau of Mines, developed the current method of concentrating 
low-grade ore into pellets. The process of pelletizing iron ore has 
provided Cleveland Cliffs and the steel industry with more than 375 
million tons of iron ore pellets. These pellets are made from ore once 
considered too low in iron to have any value. Despite periods of 
economic slowdown, the company, now known as Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., is 
the world's largest producer of iron ore pellets and the leading 
supplier of high-quality iron ore products to the steel industry in 
North America.
  The company employs approximately one-third of its 6,000-member work 
force in northern Michigan. Others work in the corporate

[[Page E1905]]

headquarters in Cleveland, OH, as well as in northern Minnesota, where 
the company also mines iron ore.
  Mr. Speaker, Cleveland-Cliffs has an economic, historical and 
cultural presence deep in the geography and the people of the Upper 
Peninsula of Michigan and in the economy of the United States. We wish 
the company and its employees years of success and the blessings of 
innovation that will keep it viable well into a new millennium.

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