Ore dock

[2] The docks' storage bins or pockets are typically wider at the top than the bottom, and they lead to movable steel chutes.

The hinged chutes, which are lowered to drop ore from the pockets into ships, are located at twelve-foot intervals over the length of the dock.

Since the late 1800s, ore docks have been a common sight in many Lake Superior ports of Minnesota, Wisconsin and especially Michigan.

Rich iron ore deposits were first discovered in the Upper Peninsula in the 1840s and remain a significant source of wealth for the state.

Early shipping attempts using mule teams, plank roads, and barrels loaded as deck cargo on schooners required transshipment after portaging the St. Marys River rapids, and costs proved prohibitive.

However, as the mines continued to develop and railways were put in place, the volume of ore increased, far outstripping the local production capacity.

Four railroad tracks ran along the top and there was storage space inside the bottom concrete part for 60,000 tons of iron ore.

The new ore loading dock incorporated a concrete bottom half with a light steel frame work on top, replacing the wooden supports previously used.

During the 1873 season, the total tonnage of iron ore shipped from the port of Marquette was 1,175,000 tons.

For example, Ashland, Wisconsin, the natural port for the Gogebic Range, had three docks by 1916, the first built by the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway in 1884-1885.

As ore carriers increased in height and width, higher pocket openings were required and new docks had to be constructed, and older ones rebuilt.

These developments caused the old wooden Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway ore dock built in 1898 to become obsolete.

A new dock was constructed by the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad Company of reinforced concrete and steel in 1911 and 1912 in the Upper Harbor near Presque Isle Park.

By 1929, more than one and one half times the combined yearly tonnage of the Panama and Suez canals passed through the Soo Locks.

The Duluth, South Short and Atlantic Railway, in order to remain competitive, completed construction of a new dock in 1932.

The dock remained in operation until the late 1960s, when a decrease in demand for iron ore forced it to close.

[7] Another dock, built later by Merritt-Chapman & Scott for the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSS&A), was taken out of service in 1971.