NEGAUNEE –The Yankee represented the coming of steam to Michigans’ Iron range. It represented ingenuity and change in the way mining took place in the mid 1800s.

The origin of the Yankee began with Henry Merry, the manager of the Jackson Iron Company. Shortly after the American Civil War, Merry traveled to Europe to study the local mining methods and technology and was impressed with the use of steam powered locomotives.

Merry arranged to purchase a small locomotive about 12 feet long and nine feet high, a vertical boiler model from the Alexander Chaplin Co. in Glasgow, Scotland. It was shipped to Negaunee in the late 1860’s. Tracks were laid in the Jackson Mine.

The locomotive was known as a “dinky engine” or “puffer.” It was uniquely suited to the mine’s tunnels and terrain. It saved the company a lot of money.

They didn’t have to feed mules or worry about their  wear and tear. It was a machine that could go 24/7. It could go at a rate of 10 miles an hour, similar to a lawnmower and only required two men to operate it, a stoker to fuel it and an engineer to run it.

It could haul six to 10 small, four wheeled ore cars, each capable of carrying five or six tons of ore, which improved and increased production.

The locomotive worked so well that the Jackson Iron Co. obtained a nearly identical machine that became known as the John Bull. Both machines were used at the mine from 1868 to 1895.

It was the coming of the industrial revolution. It was a transition from animal and human power when machines started doing the hauling of ore. With the coming of large steam shovels and the open pit method of mining, the steam locomotive became obsolete. The Yankee and the John Bull were abandoned in a field. Children climbed aboard and families took pictures and many parts were scavenged and removed as souvenirs.

An amateur restoration project was undertaken by Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. in the 1930s. The maker’s marks had been removed and parts of one locomotive were used to repair the other, so it was unclear as to which locomotive was restored; however it’s been traditionally known as the Yankee.

The “Yankee” was eventually moved to the CCI offices in Ishpeming, where it was displayed outside until the  1980s. When the Michigan Mining Industry Museum opened in 1987, CCI donated the locomotive to the state with the intention that it be displayed on the grounds of the new museum.

In 2004, the Michigan Iron Industry Museum built a 4,000 square foot addition to its facility in Negaunee to house the steam locomotive.

In 2020, The “Yankee” which weighed about 8,000 pounds was loaded on a transport  and shipped  900 miles away and went through an extensive restoration and now can be seen at the Michigan Iron Industry Museum.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Erin Bryan contributed to this story.