In the summer of 1882, A. Lanfear Norrie led an iron ore expedition in the far western Upper Peninsula and set up camp along the Montreal River at what is now Ironwood. Captain James "Iron” Wood, the foreman of Norrie's expedition and the namesake of Ironwood, discovered iron ore at what became the Norrie Mine in September 1882. That discovery led to development of the mine, began the permanent settlement of Ironwood, and helped spur the Milwaukee, Lake Shore, and Western Railroad to build a line from Watersmeet to Ironwood and then to the dock in Ashland within two years. The first shipment of ore from the Norrie Mine to the dock in Ashland came in 1885. The Norrie Mine became the largest iron ore producer on the Gogebic Range; in 1892 it shipped 985,044 tons, more than three times the output of the second highest producer there, and it was the first mine in the Upper Peninsula to produce more than one million tons in a year. In 1905 it became part of the Norrie Group with the Norrie, Aurora, Pabst, and East Norrie mines. In 1935 these were consolidated into a single mine, the Penokee Mine, which closed in 1962. Altogether, the Penokee and its preceding mines produced 64.6 million tons of iron ore, a record amount from a single property in the Upper Peninsula. The A Shaft stood west of this site in pine woods under concrete slabs; it was built in 1900, reached a depth of 1,990 feet by 1909, descended at a 58-degree angle, measured 6 feet by 22 feet, was the first shaft lined with steel sets, and had a headframe 78 feet 8 inches high. Across all shafts of the Norrie Mine, 43 men are known to have died. The largest accident in the A Shaft was a cave-in on May 13, 1912, in which eight miners were killed and five survived after being trapped for more than 24 hours.