The Big Splash

The Big Splash. Explore the History of Iron County Mines. , At 3:25 pm on June 17, 1937, the Caspian Mine's 60-foot-tall steel No. 2 shafthouse, one of four standing at the time, dropped out of sight beneath the muddy waters of a pit that suddenly opened next to it. The wooden No. 3 shaft also fell into the pit from the other side. Water rose and covered much of the surrounding area. The 105-foot No. 1 shafthouse you see today reportedly settled only a few inches. The No. 2 had taken miners underground, while the No. 1 brought iron ore to the surface. , Twenty-five men worked frantically to remove equipment and machinery from a nearby machine shop. Three ore cars had crossed a half hour earlier on railroad tracks now suspended above the pit. Fortunately, no one died, unlike two other major Iron County disasters , the 1893 Mansfield Mine cave-in when 27 men lost their lives and the Amasa Porter Mine that claimed 17 in 1918. Mining at the Caspian had ended in 1931. Ore shipments continued until the cave-in closed operations for good., The Caspian Mine (1900-1937) , The Caspian No. 1, the oldest headframe remaining in Iron County, was built in 1920 of steel to replace the original wooden structure above the 539-foot-deep shaft. It was stabilized after 1937's "big splash." The Verona Mining Co. operated this mine by the stoping and slicing method, with Pickands-Mather and Co. as agent. The mine shipped 6.6 million tons of ore on the C&NW railroad to Escanaba, where ships took it to distant steel mills. The county's 1882-1978 total production was 208 million tons., Explore the museum grounds to see the 1920 shaft headframe, an ore car, a replica of an underground cribbed stope, one of three complete drilling sets remaining, and an early drill powered by a Model-T Ford on the banks of the Paint River at the Block House location near Gibbs City.