Penokee Iron Range Trail – Montreal Location

Penokee Iron Range Trail – Montreal Location. Iron County Heritage Area. You are standing in the architectural complex that supported iron mining at the Montreal Mine #5 Shaft – the heart of the mining community known as “Montreal Location.”

The huge native field stone building served as the company’s machine shop. Here mining equipment could be repaired by an army of electricians, carpenters, and welders. The remnants of the hoist house, located south of the machine shop, housed engines that could raise a ten ton carload of ore every two minutes.

Life at Montreal Location wasn’t all hard work. The Hamilton Club was built in 1918 as a recreational center by the Oglebay-Norton Mining Company for the Montreal Company miners and the families.

No expense was spared to appoint the Hamilton with the finest recreational facilities. With its hardwood stage, pool tables, two bowling alleys, a barber shop, and soda fountain the Hamilton was the center of community life. It burned down on the day of its 50th anniversary. All that remains of the once handsome structure is a red brick ruin.

The most imposing of all, the headframe of Montreal #5 Shaft towered almost 100 feet above these buildings and Montreal Location. The massive steel structure was located next to the chimney visible still behind the machine shop.

Unable to compete against cheaper sources of iron ore the Montreal Mine, the “grande dame” Penokee Iron Range, closed in 1962. Buildings and machinery were auctioned off. The great steel headframe that stood for Montreal’s iron mining prosperity was torn down for scrap.