Dale LaFreniere

NEGAUNEE — There has been a recent interest in the West End of Iron Street. And along with the history of the businesses that flourished up there, there was also tragedy.

Abandoned mine shafts pose a danger. At one time, many of these shafts were not fenced off and these shafts had water in them. It was in July of 1943 that Oliver Finnila, age 12 went to one of these mine pits on the west end for a swim. This was not uncommon in those days.

When Oliver wasn’t home at 6 p.m., his parents became alarmed and they sent his brother to go and look for him. The brothers had been together at one point but one decided to go home and he knew where to go and look. After the brother returned, the police were notified and they found Oliver’s clothes on the edge of the pit.

The firemen were summoned for help and they used grappling hooks to recover the body. It is thought that the boy died shortly after he began to swim.

On June 6, 1953, Negaunee police reaffirmed that Dale LaFreniere, who was six years old, fell into the North Jackson Mine pit. The mine pit was on the West end of Iron Street, right in a busy part of town. Across the street was the bowling alley, a grocery store, a music store and two businesses owned by Dale’s parents, Don and Mary LaFreniere, leading police to believe that Dale drowned in the shaft.

Dale and a friend were seen playing near the shaft early in the afternoon. Baseball cards, which Dale cherished, were seen on the shore and in the water. It was believed that he may have tried to retrieve his cards which had fallen in the water. There was a pair of toy handcuffs that were not rusty and the kind that Dale always carried with him. Child’s footprints led down to the water but no footprints were shown going up.

After interrogation of Dale’s friend ,it was determined that Dale did fall into the water and did not come up. The Negaunee Fire Department was the first entity to attempt a rescue, but were unsuccessful. The miners from Cleveland Cliffs were called but also were unsuccessful.

Pumping operations to drain the shaft continued on a 24 hour basis, with the water running down Jackson Street right in front of the home of Don and Mary La Freniere. A professional diver from Chicago was hired and he found the body 130 feet below the surface.

On the east end of town, two 12-year-old boys, Ernie Salo and Tommy Leklin, died as a result of a snow avalanche in a mine pit. They were jumping and cardboard sliding in the pit estimated to be 300 feet in diameter and 75 to 100 feet deep. It is estimated that they were buried in 10 feet of snow.

In remembrance of these tragedies, a tombstone has been placed at Miner’s Park, bearing the names of these young boys, next to the pyramid that was erected to commemorate the discovery of iron ore.