The Marquette Iron Range was the first of the immensely rich Lake Superior iron ore deposits to be discovered and mined. In 1844 William A. Burt and his surveying party found outcroppings of iron ore south of Teal Lake, and this area soon became the first and remained the chief center of the range’s mining. Real production was underway at the Jackson Mine in 1847, and early mining operations were confined to ores at or close to the surface. Underground mining began after the Civil War when shafts were sunk. A forge built on the Carp River produced iron blooms in 1848, and the pioneer furnace at Negaunee, built in 1857-58, was the first actual blast furnace. Most ore was shipped out to be smelted. After the Iron Mountain Railroad was built in 1857, ore could be moved easily to Marquette, where at the pocket docks, the first of which was built in 1857, it was loaded aboard ships and carried through the Soo Canal to the growing industrial centers in the East. Copper, gold, silver, and lead were also mined here, but only in small amounts, leaving iron supreme.