Iron Ore Transport on the Great Lakes: The Development of a Delivery System to Feed American Industry (review)

Early in World War II, antiaircraft guns, barrage balloons, and 7,000 troops guarded the Soo Locks in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, from German attack. Defending the locks seemed imperative because American iron and steel were vital commodities. Mines in the Upper Great Lakes region provided the bulk of America’s iron ore, and the country could ill afford any interruption in the flow of ore down to blast furnaces in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana. Bruce Bowlus tells this World War II story in Iron Ore Transport on the Great Lakes. His book, however, makes it clear that ore transport was critically important to the nation not just in wartime, but from the mid-nineteenth century on, when iron and steel production fueled the industrialization of the American economy and allowed, among many things, for the tremendous expansion of railroads and the erection of tall, steel-framed buildings.

Bowlus narrates the history of the opening up of the region’s iron ranges: Marquette (ca. 1855), Menominee (1877), the Gogebic and Vermillion (1884), and the Mesabi (1892)—but the book does not focus on mining. He narrates the history of fuels and furnaces, of the Bessemer converter and the open-hearth process—but his focus is not on any of those. Nor is it on iron-and steelmaking companies, although he provides corporate histories of some, including U.S. Steel. Instead, Bowlus focuses on shipping facilities comprised of many important elements “that functioned synergistically, with alterations or improvements in one prompting changes in one of more of the others” (p. 4). These changes “interacted with one another to produce a remarkably efficient and unique system to deliver iron ore” (p. 11). This system included the railroads that delivered ore from mine to water’s edge; the ore loaders that filled boats or ships; the vessels themselves and the companies that built them; the Soo Locks along the route; and the dredging or straightening of channels to reduce navigation hazards along the way, such as along the Saint Marys River and at the Saint Clair Flats. The system also included the harbors and docks on the receiving end, and especially the ore unloaders that emptied the boats and put their contents into railcars once again.

Bowlus discusses the evolution of ore-carrying lake boats, from wood-hull sailing ships and steamers to iron boats, whalebacks, and then steel-hulled boats that hit 600 feet long by about 1900 and later expanded to 1,000 feet. He traces how the number of locks—and the lengths and depths of locks—changed at the Soo. The lengthening of a lock literally opened the way for bigger boats to sail on Lake Superior. The bigger the boats became, the greater the need to dredge deeper channels (at federal expense) and to devise ways to load and especially unload the boats more quickly. The docks receiving the ore became home over time to various contrivances such as donkey engines and Brown and Hulett unloaders. Bowlus also places a considerable portion of this history within the realm of public policy; he writes of how, especially after the Civil War, the federal government became more willing to spend tax dollars to appease industry’s desire to keep the iron ore flowing in ever greater amounts. Bowlus makes passing references to workers’ experiences within this transportation system, but labor history is never a major topic.

This is a good read for historians particularly interested in iron and steel, transportation history, and the history of the Great Lakes. It is not without fault. Although illustrated with photographs, the book fails to include adequate maps of the iron districts and the Great Lakes. The text is quite repetitious and makes the same points several times in different chapters. Some historians of technology are likely to think that Bowlus spends too many pages...