es repaid him well for
his solitary tramp in the forest. He found himself face to face with a
"mountain a hundred and fifty feet high, of solid ore, which looked as
bright as a bar of iron just broken." Other explorations subsequently
laid open the whole of the Minnesota fields, including the Mesaba,
which developed into the world's greatest iron range. America has other
regions rich in ore, particularly in Alabama, located alongside the
coal and limestone so necessary in steel production; yet it has drawn
two-thirds of its whole supply from these Lake Superior fields. Not only
the quantity, which is apparently limitless, but the quality explains
America's leadership in steel making.

Mining in Minnesota has a character which is not duplicated elsewhere.
When we think of an iron mine, we naturally picture subterranean caverns
and galleries, and strange, gnome-like creatures prowling about with
pick and shovel and drill. But mining in this section is a much simpler
proceeding. The precious mineral does not lie concealed deep within
the earth; it lies practically upon the surface. Removing it is not a
question of blasting with dynamite; it is merely a matter of lifting
it from the surface of the earth with a huge steam shovel. "Miners" in
Minnesota have none of the conventional aspects of their trade. They
operate precisely as did those who dug the Panama Canal. The railroad
cars run closely to the gigantic red pit. A huge steam shovel opens its
jaws, descends into an open amphitheater, licks up five tons at each
mouthful, and, swinging sideways over the open cars, neatly deposits its
booty. It is not surprising that ore can be produced at lower cost in
the United States than even in those countries where the most wretched
wages are paid. Evidently this one iron field, to say nothing of others
already worked, gives a permanence to our steel industry.

Not only did America have the material resources; what is even more
important, she had also the men. American industrial history presents
few groups more brilliant, more resourceful, and more picturesque than
that which, in the early seventies, started to turn these Minnesota ore
fields into steel--and into gold. These men had all the dash, all the
venturesomeness, all the speculative and even the gambling instinct,
needed for one of the greatest industrial adventures in our annals. All
had sprung from the simplest and humblest origins. They had served
their business appren