On this site, on October 8, 1871, geologist Raphael Pumpelly of Harvard University discovered one of the iron ore formations that created Gogebic County’s boom era. The Newport Mine, named for Pumpelly’s home in Rhode Island, began operations in 1884; the Geneva Mine in 1887. By the closing of mines in 1966, 255 million tons of iron ore had been shipped from Gogebic County, and 67 million from adjoining Iron County, Wisconsin.