- Marquette County -

Marquette county is located in the northern part of the Michigan's Upper Peninsula and is bounded on the north by Lake Superior, east by Alger and Delta counties, south by Dickinson, Menominee and Delta counties, and west by Iron and Baraga counties. The county was laid out in 1843 and organized in 1851 with a population of nearly 150 (136 in 1850). When laid out it included parts of Iron and Dickinson counties. Iron was set off in 1885 and Dickinson in 1891. The county was named in honor of Father Jaques Marquette, who established several missions among the Indians.

The vast howling wilderness gained attention in 1844 when a government surveying party, including William Austin Burt and Jacob Houghton (brother of geologist Douglass Houghton) discovered iron bearing rock southwest of the present city of Negaunee, near Teal Lake. In 1846 the Jackson Mining Company became the first to break ground for actual mining and, in 1847, built a forge on the Carp river three miles east of Negaunee. The first iron turned out of this forge was sold to Captain Eber B. Ward and made into a walking beam for his steamboat "Ocean."

The city of Marquette, the county seat, got its start as a shipping point for the Jackson Mining Company and was first named New Worcester; the name being changed in 1850. The opening of the locks at Sault Ste. Marie (the "Soo") allowed heavier and more frequent shipments of iron ore down the lakes. In 1859 the first ore dock, designed by John Burt, was opened at Marquette. In 1856 the ore shipment from Marquette was 7,000 tons. In 1860 the shipments had increased to 116,000 tons. Along with the mining industry came a wave of migration to the area. Miners and their families, lumber men, speculators, shop keepers and carpenters swelled the population to to nearly 3,000 by 1860 and to over 15,000 within the next ten years. What was thought to be an inexhaustible supply of timber was cut to build homes, shops and ore docks. It was used for railroad ties, fired the locomotives, built into headframes and cribbing, burned to make charcoal for forges and furnaces, and shipped down the lakes.

The Lake Superior region (including the Mesabi Range in Minnesota) is the only source of domestic iron ore and, in recent years, has provided roughly 85% of U.S. demand. The annual production varies but averages about 50 million tons valued at roughly $2 billion. The massive Tilden mine, near Palmer, is currently the last operating iron ore mine in Michigan