ISHPEMING — During the early years of iron ore mining, many blast furnaces dotted the landscape of the Upper Peninsula. With the U.P.’s vast forests available for making charcoal, sending pig iron down to the foundries along the lower Great Lakes was seen as economically feasible.

While the Deer Lake furnace is a well-known Ishpeming blast furnace, most people are unaware that Ishpeming boasted not one, but two blast furnaces.

The second furnace was in south Ishpeming on Lake Superior Iron Company land. “In 1872, the Peat furnace, also known as “Excelsior,” was completed in Ishpeming, the object being to use peat found near the Section 16 mine of the company for fuel.” (Commemorative Issue Iron Ore, Page 6)

The Lake Superior Iron Company had 200 acres of peat in Ishpeming with a depth of 9 feet. Since peat had been used in blast furnaces in the eastern part of the U.S., the company felt its beds could be put to good use and formed the Lake Superior Peat Works in 1870 and then built a blast furnace, completed in March 1872. Its first blast used ore from the iron company mines and charcoal. Gradually the charcoal was replaced by peat. The Excelsior was the only furnace in the Upper Peninsula to use peat.

Peat alone did not produce the desired result so a mixture of 25% charcoal and 75% peat was used with better results.

Production was low, with an output of about 8 tons per day, so the furnace was blown out and enlarged. This enlargement proved beneficial and output increased to 10 tons per day. The furnace remained in blast until the financial panic of 1873 began to affect iron sales. This dropped the price of pig iron down to a level too low to make a profit and the furnace shut down in 1874. It had produced 1,150 tons of pig iron during the time it was in blast. The panic also affected iron mines and many closed or were idled.

After the furnace closed in 1874 the Lake Superior Iron Company abandoned it. “While some iron was made, it was a failure in the use of peat for fuel. The company later disposed of it, having decided to go out of the furnace business. The failure of these furnaces contributed greatly to the financial disturbance of the company.” (Commemorative Issue Iron Ore, Page 6)

In the fall of 1879, the Peat Furnace was leased. “The old Peat furnace, under the direction of Mr. Patrick Carroll, is beginning to assume a lofty and immense appearance, the mason work on the extension to the casting house is finished and the work of putting on the roof is also almost done.” (Weekly Agitator, November 15, 1879) At this time the name was changed to the Excelsior furnace.

“The Excelsior (old Peat) furnace has not yet been blown in, thought at the time of beginning the work of repairing and remodeling it was thought all would be in readiness to put on the blast about the 1st of January. The repairs and alterations, however, are now about completed, and it is safe to say that, if no unforeseen obstacles turn up in the meantime, the furnace will be in blast and making iron within three weeks’ time. (Weekly Agitator, March 6, 1880)

The furnace went into blast in April of 1880 and by May was making about 24 tons of pig iron per day. The ore used came from the nearby Lake Angeline mine.

Disaster struck on June 9, 1880. “At about 2 o’clock last Wednesday morning the citizens of this place were awakened from their slumbers by a fire alarm proceeding from the fire bell and several mining whistles in the immediate vicinity. It was soon discovered that the location of the fire was at the Excelsior furnace, and thither the crowd rushed. “(Weekly Agitator, June 12, 1880) “The manner in which the fire caught is as follows: some of the charge in the top of the stack failed to feed properly, and hung for a time, thus forming a hollow space filled with gas beneath and the charge so stuck, and suddenly falling, caused an explosion, forcing fire through the flues and scattering over the building, setting it on fire in various places.” (Weekly Agitator, June 12, 1880)

Two weeks after the fire, bricks were delivered to the furnace and it was repaired. Iron was made at the furnace on a regular basis until market conditions in 1883 forced a shut down. The men employed at the furnace were owed four months of back wages, which the furnace company was unable to pay. This loss of income caused much hardship for the men and their families.

In 1889, the furnace changed hands again. “The Excelsior furnace plant, located in this city, which was sold at auction by the trustee, Mr. T.F. Donahoe, on Thursday, was bid on by Mr. Hiram A. Burt, of Marquette.” “It is said the furnace paid when it was in blast, but it was furnished with inferior grades of ores, and was not honestly conducted.” (Iron Ore, November 2, 1889)

“The Excelsior furnace, this city, went into blast the present week, and (is) now turning out iron at a satisfactory rate. It will take a short time to get the plant working to its fullest capacity.” (Iron Ore, August 30, 1890)

The furnace was forced to close shortly after it went into blast. “The Excelsior furnace, this city, before it fairly started upon the work of iron-making, has been forced to close down owing to the fact that they could not secure coal to keep going.” (Iron Ore, September 20, 1890)

“The poor old Excelsior furnace has certainly had one of those ‘checkered careers’ we sometimes read about. Its history has been a succession of failures and disappointments to those who have owned and operated it. Until last year it never made a ton of pig iron at a profit, and many attempts in that direction were made. “ (Iron Ore, July 27, 1895) However, rebuilding of the furnace hit a snag. “Just then the strike at the mines took place. For two days the men dodged the strikers, but they were finally found and given instructions to desist from further labor until the strike was settled.”

There was also the problem of finding a suitable water source. The closest source, Lake Angeline, was gone, drained so its rich beds of iron ore could be mined. Lake Sally was the city water supply and officials would not permit the furnace to use water from that source. Other possible sources were too far from the furnace to be viable. “It is indeed unfortunate that this concern should be forced to remain idle when all the conditions, except the one stated above, are so favorable for the successful operation of this industry. There never has been such a demand for the class of iron made at this furnace and the prices paid for the product range higher than for several years past.”

This marked the end of the Excelsior furnace. The lack of water remained a chief obstacle to the operation of the furnace and it was never put into blast again.