National Register Listing

Schoolcraft Furnace Site

a.k.a. Munising Furnace

NE of Munising off MI 94, Munising, MI

The Schoolcraft Blast Furnace was one of the most significant of the twenty-one blast furnaces that operated intermittently during the decade that followed the Civil War on different sites in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The furnace's importance does not rely on the mere fact that it smelted iron ore, but that Peter White was involved in its existence and the furnace's relationship with the Bay Furnace across Munising Bay. Peter White was Northern Michigan's most successful nineteenth-century banker who exemplified the rags-to-riches pattern. He was not only prominent within the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but was well known in both political and financial circles of this country. He hoped to develop Marquette, Michigan, and the surrounding area into an iron and steel center. The site of the Schoolcraft Furnace represents a time in the history of industry when men were searching for a more economical way to transport iron ore to the steel-producing areas of America.

In 1844, iron ore was discovered in the Marquette Range fifty miles west of the Schoolcraft Furnace site. This discovery caused entrepreneurs to build blast furnaces to reduce the ore to iron. All of the blast furnaces were closer to the Marquette Range than to the Schoolcraft Furnace located east of Munising Bay on Lake Superior. The Schoolcraft Blast Furnace was considered profitable because of the presence of a natural harbor and a large supply of hardwood in the surrounding area. This was true even though the iron ore was shipped from Marquette and limestone, used as a flux, was brought from Lake Erie. The profitability of the Munising site for a blast furnace was reinforced two years after the Schoolcraft Furnace was in operation with the building of the Bay Furnace, six miles across the bay. The Bay Furnace became a companion to the Schoolcraft Furnace and the crews of both often met socially.

Peter White and H. R. Mather formed the Schoolcraft Iron Company in 1866. Money for this venture was supplied by Philadelphia financiers. The company was formed as a result of three previous attempts to make the Munising area profitable. The first attempt was the Munising Company which tried to start a resort community on the southeast shore of Munising Bay in 1850 and was sponsored by Philadelphia investors. A tract of land containing 87,000 acres was purchased at a cost of eighty-five cents an acre. The plan was never realized. A road cut through to Bay de Noc on Lake Michigan, following an old Indian trail, and the planning of a village were the only accomplishments. After the Munising Company's capital was exhausted a new company called the Grand Island Ore Company was formed. The latter also lasted a short time. People who remained in the area survived by living off the land. The third company, founded by S. F. Church and H. R. Mather in 1863, was named the General Mineral Land Company. It also had financial setbacks. White and Mather purchased the General Mineral Land Company in 1866, renamed it the Schoolcraft Iron Company, and started construction of the Schoolcraft Furnace on May 17, 1867. The furnace foundation was 1100 feet from Lake Superior at the time of construction. The cost of the structure was increased because the stone had to be quarried on Grand Island and floated across the Bay.

The first blast of the Furnace was on June 12, 1868. The first "pig" iron production was slowed by water-logged charcoal, but after this problem was solved, production was 100 tons per week. The Furnace consisted of one large engine (for the hot air blast) and two smaller engines, (one for the water pump and the other for the ore crusher). All the mechanical parts were made at the Washington Iron Works, Newbury, New York. As a safety measure, an 8,000-gallon water tank filled with water from Munising Creek was put on the hill in the event of a fire.

A water balance carried the crushed ore and limestone to the top of the stack to be loaded. Originally five kilns were built in the immediate area and six others were located approximately four miles away in the heart of hardwood forests.

The Schoolcraft Iron Company prospered for two years, but because management officials in Philadelphia had overextended the company financially, iron ore ran out at the site and the furnace closed down. Peter White then bought the bankrupt company on July 12, 1871, for $ 65,000 and called it the Mun..sing Iron Company. Under this new ownership, the furnace blasted again on April 8, 1872. The Furnace was operated intermittently for several years. The lack of supplies and the closing down for an addition of a bell and hopper to stop the loss of gas when loading the furnace were the reasons.

of the twenty-one origiønal furnaces in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, nine were in blast in September 1875. The Depression of 1873 contributed to the demise of blast furnaces in the Upper Peninsula. The Munising Iron Company never recovered. Also, other coke smelting processes were found to be less expensive. The furnace was leased to Major Henry Dickands from the summer of 1876 to November 1876, and later to Dan Rankin from July 14, 1877 to November 24, 1877, after which it was closed down permanently. Both of these men failed because of a lack of fuel, a lack of iron ore, and the economic conditions of the times. In 1901, the Lake Superior Iron and Metal Company of Hancock purchased the old machinery and moved it to their plant in Hancock.

Local significance of the site:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1977.