Michigan Iron Industry Museum

Negaunee, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near Marquette, grew from the Marquette Iron Range, whose iron-bearing strata made it a one-industry mining town and shaped much of the region’s industrial history. Near the Carp River Forge site, where Michigan iron ore was first forged in 1848, the area is tied directly to the beginnings of the state’s iron industry. From about 1880 to around 1900, Negaunee was the center of iron ore production in the United States before that leadership shifted to Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. The site also anchors the Iron Ore Heritage Trail across important human and geological locations on the range.

Michigan · United States