Ore boat on the Cuyahoga River   Save
Ohio Guide Photographs
Description: Caption reads: "The Voage Ends at Cleveland Ore Dock. Cleveland Cliffs Co. S. S. Marquette being warped up to dock to unload cargo of ore in Cuyahoga River dock. Project Photographer: Frank Jaffa, 1940. District #4, Cleveland. File Negative #215. Ore carrier being warped up to Cleveland on dock." The Cleveland Cliffs Company began in November of 1847. The company was started when fifteen men from Cleveland were interested in exploring the vast iron ore deposits on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They created the Cleveland Iron Mining Co., which was founded in Michigan in 1850 and later reorganized in Ohio after 3 years. Samuel Livingston Mather was the leading force for the business in its first 50 years. It was in 1855 that the company sent the first cargo of ore through the Sault Ste. Marie canal in 1855. The company built railroads and docks in that area and, in 1869, started its own fleet of ore carriers, which were shipping 200,000 tons of ore annually by 1880. As surface mining was depleted in the 1880s, the company developed an underground mining system. Samuel L. Mather wanted merge Cleveland Iron with its competitor, the Iron Cliffs Co., but died before the deal was completed in 1891. It was after Mather’s died that his youngest son, WM. G. Mather, became president of the newly formed Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F11_18_01
Subjects: Cuyahoga River (Ohio); Steamboats; Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company; Cargo Ships; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)