Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company Records

Summary Information

Repository

Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives

Title

Cleveland - Cliffs Iron Mining Company Records

ID

CCI

Date

1856-1960

Extent

150 Volumes; 235 Maps

Language

English

Summary/ Abstract

The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company Records consist of business records and maps from the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company and its subsidiary mines and operations.

Preferred Citation

Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company Records, Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives, CCI

Revisions

Rachael Bussert, 2011

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Biographical/Historical Note

Introduction

The Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives acquired the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Mining Company (CCI) records from the state of Michigan in 2001. The records are on deposit with NMU and are still owned by the state of Michigan. Previously, the State Archives of Michigan maintained the records. In 1959 the State of Michigan acquired land formerly owned by CCI in Fayette, Michigan, and restored it as a State Historical Park by the Michigan Department of Conservation. Among the materials found by the Department during the first days of the restoration project were the records of the Cleveland Cliffs Company. Wooden storage boxes full of records were removed to the Department’s headquarters at Marquette for examination. Those relating to Fayette were sorted out and returned to the Park. Boxes of records relating to other aspects of the Company were removed to the museum of the Marquette County Historical Society for storage. Records described here were delivered to the State Archives on June 25, 1965, following the transfer of records from the Company to the Michigan Department of Conservation, Parks Division. The State Archives received two more accessions in 1966 and 1968.

Administrative History

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the iron and steel industry was the foundation of the industrialization of the United States. The iron ore mining industry provided the raw materials that fed this industry and shaped the historical development of the Upper Midwest of the United States. The Cleveland Iron Mining Company was one of the pioneering producers in the Lake Superior Iron Mining District by 1890. In 1850, the Michigan legislature chartered the Cleveland Iron Mining Company with operations centered in Ishpeming, Michigan. Over the next 40 years, many more iron mining companies formed, failed, or merged into the Cleveland Iron Mining Company. In 1891, the Cleveland Iron Mining Company and the Iron Cliffs Company merged to become the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company (CCI). After the merger, CCI began to form or acquire a number of companies to carry out its different functions. The component companies were classified as constituent, allied, or associate firms. Constituent companies were those whose capital stock was entirely owned by CCI. Allied companies were those in which CCI owned part of the capital stock. Associated companies were those in which CCI owned no capital stock but which were operated by CCI. In 1914, CCI reorganized and consolidated these companies, ending the business operations of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, the Iron Cliffs Company, and the Jackson Iron Mining Company.

Prior to the reorganization and full consolidation in 1914, the constituent companies were listed as:

Cleveland – Cliffs Iron Company, Cleveland Iron Mining Company, Iron Cliffs Company, Jackson Iron Company, Pioneer Iron, Company Munising Company of Ohio, Bay Mills Land and Lumber Company, Central Land and Timber Company, Grand Island Steamship Company.

Among the allied firms of the Cleveland – Cliffs Iron Mining Company before and after the reorganization were the following:

Bunker Hill Mining Company, Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railway Company, Munising, Marquette, and Southeastern Railway Company, Munising Paper Company, Munising Woodenware Company, Cliffs Chemical Company, Upper Peninsula Land Company.

CCI organized its lumbering activities into various operations and jobs which may be indentified by either the name of the contractor or by the operation number. Whether cut by the Lumbering Department or outside contractors, the Land Department was in charge of the sale of forest products and kept a varying percentage of the stumpage price of those products. CCI established the Land Department in 1896 to be responsible

The Collection is arranged by the following Record Groups:

RG 65-30, 1869-1930, 66 cubic feet, 8 volumes RG 66-36, 1864-1931, 149 volumes RG 68-102, 1860-1933, 213 volumes, 12 cubic feet MS 86-100, 1856-1960, 1,025 cubic feet, 235 items

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Scope and Contents

The records of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company span the period from 1856 to 1960. These records document three of the major turning points in the history of American iron ore mining: (1) the shift of the iron and steel industry from reliance on local supplies of low to medium-grade ore to reliance on distant supplies of high-grade ore shipped long distances from the Lake Superior basin to the lower Great Lakes and the related shift of the American iron and steel industry from the east side of the Alleghenies to the upper Midwest; (2) the consolidation of iron ore mining in the hands of large corporations between 1895 and 1904, stimulated by and coexistent with the emergence of U.S. Steel as America’s first billion dollar corporation; and (3) the replacement of natural with artificial ores in the aftermath of World War II (beneficiation and pelletization).