Lake Angeline, pumping barge

Abstract

A pumping barge is located at the end of a trestle at Lake Angeline, Ishpeming, Michigan. This is possibly the barge used to drain the lake in the late 1800s. Iron ore was discovered under Lake Angeline in 1886-1887. Three mining companies, Cleveland Iron Mining Company (Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company), Pittsburgh & Lake Angeline Iron Company, and Lake Superior Iron Company, owned property and mining operations around the lake. The companies made cooperative arrangements to drain the lake until 1897 to extract the ore under their respective sections. (The agreement later fell through due to competing claims on parts of the underlying orebody.) The Lake Angeline Mine itself was in operation from 1864 to 1922 by the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company.