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I n early 2007 Cleveland-Cliffs contracted with us to write Iron Will, with the understanding that we would conduct research and write the narrative free from oversight. We are deeply grateful to the company for its support and forbearance. Terry S. Reynolds is a historian of technology who teaches at Michigan Tech in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the company’s early mining history took place. He has published previously on the region’s mining heritage. When Virginia P. Dawson, a Cleveland-based business historian, sought a collaborator on this project, she invited Terry to write the early chapters of the book. Our book tells the story of the opening of the Lake Superior iron region, its rise, and its decline through the lens of the history of Cleveland-Cliffs, the region’s last independent iron ore company. Terry wrote chapters 1–3 based on extensive research in a variety of repositories in Michigan and Cleveland, including the very large collection of internal reports and correspondence from the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, Iron Cliffs Company, and Cleveland-Cliffs stored at the regional repository of the Archives of Michigan at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. Virginia crafted chapters 5–7. Chapter 4, which provides the transition between the two parts of the book, was a joint effort, as was the introduction. Although Terry had extensive archival sources upon which to construct his narrative, Virginia had to combine investors’ reports, board minutes , company documents, published accounts, and oral histories to extract the crucial story of the company’s transition to pellets and its remarkable survival as the American integrated steel industry declined and liquidated. Although we did not see each other PREFACE VIII PREFACE often, we regularly exchanged drafts, consulted on critical issues, and generally enjoyed working together on the history of one of Cleveland’s oldest and most important companies and one of the mining industry’s leading firms. In the course of our research we received help from many people. We are particularly grateful to Marcus Robyns of the Northern Michigan University Archives, Rosemary Michelin of the Longyear Research Library, William Barrow and Lynn Duchez Bycko of the Department of Special Collections, Cleveland State University, Erik Nordberg and his staff at Michigan Tech, and Ann Sindelar and Margaret Burzynski-Bays of the Western Reserve Historical Society for their assistance. Cliffs’ corporate records, including the minutes of the board of directors and the annual reports, are currently kept at the company ’s headquarters in downtown Cleveland. We are indebted to Kim Regan for making these available to us. We are likewise grateful to Dale Hemmila for giving us access to a small archive at the Empire mine. We were able to review the manuscript of a history of the company and miscellaneous files collected by Burton H. Boyum, who served as the company historian in the 1970s. This manuscript was made available to us by the staff of the Cliffs Shaft Mine Historical Museum in Ishpeming, Michigan. We would also like to thank current and retired employees of the company who agreed to be interviewed. Their names are listed in our bibliography. John Brinzo, Dana Byrne, William Calfee, Don Gallagher, Kim Regan, and Richard Tuthill read parts or all of the manuscript and offered helpful suggestions. Much of the scanning of the photographs was done by Kim Regan. Finally, we thank Charles K. Hyde and the anonymous referees used by Wayne State University Press for their extensive and very useful comments and suggestions. ...

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