Captain John Wicks
While there are a number of incidents which culminated in the birth of Iron Mountain, Michigan, one of the defining discoveries was made by Captain John Wicks. On July 5, 1879, Captain Wicks and seven men from the Menominee Iron Mining Company set out for new explorations beyond the end of the railroad route in Quinnesec.
Captain Wicks and his men went into the forest with a wagon filled with tools to search for a place to set up camp at the property of Henry Chapin, leased by James John Hagerman and Dr. Nelson Powell Hulst. This excerpt from A History of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and Its People: Its Mining, Lumber and Agricultural Industries, Volume 1 by Alvah Littlefield Sawyer (1911) describes the scene:
“When Captain Wicks first arrived a roving band of Indians was encamped nearby, and a deserted log shack, formerly occupied by lumbermen, stood near the present site of the St. Paul depot. The nearest inhabited building was about half way to Quinnesec…”
After sinking numerous unsuccessful shafts, the company was ready to shut down operation. Hagerman and Hulst had faith in the land and tried one more shaft. The shaft was 90 feet deep and many months later, there was a successful hit at the heart of the iron ore. This was the main Chapin vein, which became one of the richest ore deposits discovered anywhere in the world. As the original land was very swampy, the Chapin Mine Pumping Engine was created to clear the mines of water, in what is now known as Iron Mountain’s Chapin Pit.
Captain Wicks was born November 29, 1820 in Cornwall, England and died October 1908 at age 88 in Iron Mountain. He is buried in Iron Mountain Cemetery Park.
Further Reading:
A History of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and Its People: Its Mining, Lumber and Agricultural Industries, Volume 1
Free eBook: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=TRTiAAAAMAAJ&rdid=book-TRTiAAAAMAAJ&rdot=1
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99939030/john-harry-wicks