Manganese, Minnesota
Manganese | |
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UTC−5 (CDT) | |
GNIS feature ID | 654881[1] |
Manganese is a
Manganese was one of the last of the Cuyuna Range communities to be established, and was named after the mineral located in abundance near the town. Manganese was an incorporated community, built on land above the Trommald Formation, the main ore-producing unit of the North Range district of the Cuyuna Iron Range, unique due to the amount of manganese in part of the iron formation and ore. The Trommald Formation and adjacent Emily District are the largest resource of manganese in the United States. The community was composed of many immigrants who had fled the natural disasters and social and political upheavals in Europe during the decades before World War I.
Manganese was laid out with three north–south and five east–west streets. Concrete sidewalks and curbing lined the clay streets, which were never paved. At its peak around 1919, Manganese had two hotels, a bank, two grocery stores, a barbershop, a show hall, and a two-room school, and housed a population of nearly 600. After World War I, the population of Manganese went into steady decline as mining operations shut down; along with the quagmire of the clay streets due to spring rains, this led to the community's eventual abandonment and formal dissolution in 1961. The privately owned land started to be resettled in 2017, as the old wooded lots were cleared and redeveloped as primitive campsites.
History
The area around Manganese, and modern-day Crow Wing County, was inhabited in the mid-to-late 1600s by three distinct populations of Native Americans vying for control of the lands that would become the Cuyuna Range. The Arapaho living along the western border of the Great Lakes were quickly displaced by the Dakota and Ojibwe nations; frequent conflicts between the Dakota and Ojibwe eventually resulted in undisputed control of the region by the Ojibwe. In 1855, a treaty between the Ojibwe and the U.S. government was signed by chief Hole in the Day in what was then Minnesota Territory. This treaty secured Ojibwe hunting and fishing rights while ceding land which would become the Cuyuna Range to European-Americans looking to build new settlements in the region.[2] The Minnesota Territorial Legislature enacted the creation of Crow Wing County on May 23, 1857.[3] Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858, and Deerwood (originally named Withington), was the first Cuyuna Range community, settled in 1871.[4][5]
The discovery of the Cuyuna Iron Range was an accident, made by the chance observation of a
Establishment and community
Manganese was
An official U.S. Post Office opened in 1912 and remained in operation through 1924.[12] In 1914, the town site had a crew of men and teams building streets with concrete sidewalks and curbing (although the clay roads were never paved).[23] The Fitger Brewing Company also built a $10,000, two-story hotel in 1914, complete with a bar and restaurant. By 1919, Manganese had two hotels, a bank, two grocery stores, two butcher shops, a lumber yard, a bakery, a livery stable, a barbershop, a pool room, a show hall, a dog pound, and a two-room school, and housed a population of nearly 600.[13][24][25] That same year, the village issued a bond for a $30,000 waterworks project, and the Pastoret Company of Duluth built a 100-foot (30 m) water tower with a 30,000-US-gallon (110,000 L) capacity.[26][27][28] Manganese and other Cuyuna Range communities benefited greatly from an unusual situation created by an ad valorem property tax on unmined natural ore,[29] resulting in huge amounts of unforeseen revenue, great expenditures of which were made on public works and improvements.[30]
After the discovery of ore near Deerwood, Adams approached
The community was composed of many immigrants, including Finns, Croatians, Austrians, Swedes, Irish, Australians, English, Norwegians, Slovenians, and Serbs.[24][38] Children attended school in Manganese through the eighth grade, attending high school in nearby Crosby, Minnesota. Known then as Independent School District No. 86,[39] the school had indoor plumbing and later its own well, constructed by the Works Progress Administration.[24][40] Over time, the village of Manganese had three wells, all of which collapsed at some point due to the heavy clay soils.[24]
During late World War I, all of the mines surrounding the community were running at full capacity, furnishing about 90% of the manganese used during the war. By 1920, the combined payrolls of these mines totaled $160,000 (approximately $9.6 million in adjusted 2020 production worker compensation).[13][25][41] Seven citizens from Manganese served in the military during World War I, including Harry Hosford,[42] who later survived the Milford mine disaster.
Decline
After the World War I armistice was signed, the demand for manganiferous ore decreased, and Manganese experienced a sharp drop in population from its peak of nearly 600 in 1919 to 183 in 1920.[25][37][43] Many of the remaining residents worked in the Milford mine, which flooded on February 5, 1924, a result of blasting in a drift that extended beneath Foley (now Milford) Lake. Forty-one miners were killed in what was Minnesota's worst mining disaster; only seven, including Hosford, made it to safety.[44][45] Many Manganese residents were superstitious and convinced that both the town of Manganese, and the Milford mine, were cursed.[46]
With the advent of the Great Depression, mining operations ceased. The Soo Line tore up the track to Manganese in 1930.[24][28] The last shipment of ore from the Gloria mine occurred in 1931; the Milford mine closed in 1932, although the Merritt mine continued to produce ore intermittently until 1943, and stockpile shipments from the Algoma mine continued through 1980.[44][48][49] Very few photos of Manganese are known to exist. Never a wealthy community, residents had no money for cameras, a luxury item during the Depression.[24]
In 1938, a Wesleyan Methodist Church and Sunday school was founded. Up to four Sunday school classes were offered depending on the ages of the children, and guest pastors would come to conduct services when occasional revival meetings were held. The congregation came from Trommald, Mission, Wolford, and Perry Lake, in addition to Manganese. The church was sold and torn down after World War II when the congregation was no longer able have a pastor appointed.[50] As mining operations began to shut down, little employment was left in the community, and residents gradually started moving their homes out of town, relocating to other communities in the region to find new jobs.[51]
Abandonment and later use
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1920 | 183 | — | |
1930 | 96 | −47.5% | |
1940 | 62 | −35.4% | |
1950 | 41 | −33.9% | |
U.S. Decennial Census[52] |
Most of the remaining residents moved out around 1955.
After the town was abandoned, only remnants of sidewalks, rubble, building foundations, old tires, plastic, pieces of clothing, beer cans, and other abandoned items remained.[28][60] Willow, aspen, and other trees covered what was once a land occupied by numerous buildings; roots, shrubs, and grass began to heave and crack the concrete sidewalks and overtake the remaining grid pattern of roads, and the entire town site was consumed by the steady growth of natural vegetation. Most of the remaining structures succumbed to the elements. Old building foundations and basements, covered with graffiti, were engulfed by the brush.[60] In 2003, the majority of the land which comprised the former town site was purchased, and a gate was posted along with a "no trespassing" sign at the southeast entrance to the former town. In 2006, the privately owned land was sold again; limited resettlement began in 2017.[61] Called Manganese Base Camp, the old wooded lots, about 0.3 acres (0.12 ha) each, were being cleared and redeveloped as primitive campsites, without electricity, running water, or waste disposal services. Since then, Base Camp has hosted an annual Manganese Days Festival. The event is open to the public as a way to honor the former village, learn of its history, and explore the old town.[62]
Geography
Manganese lay at an elevation of 1,250 feet (380 m) in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Brainerd and 91 miles (146 km) west-southwest of Duluth.[1][63] The nearest cities to Manganese were Trommald, approximately 2 miles (3 km) to the south-southwest, and Wolford, approximately 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast.[35] Manganese was located to the west of Crow Wing County Road 30, about 5 miles (8 km) north of Minnesota State Highway 210 and 3 miles (5 km) west of Minnesota State Highway 6.[64]
Manganese was laid out with three primary north–south streets: First Street East, Main Street, and First Street West. Second Avenue North, First Avenue North, Manganese Avenue, First Avenue South (now Old Manganese Road), and Second Avenue South traversed Manganese from east to west.[65] The Soo Line right of way bisected the community on the east side of Manganese from the northeast to the southwest.[25][66] First Avenue North extended about 1.9 miles (3.1 km) to the Milford mine.[67]
Geology
Manganese lay atop the iron-rich Trommald Formation, the main ore-producing unit of the North Range district of the Cuyuna Iron Range.[68]
The Trommald Formation and adjacent Emily District are the largest resource of manganese in the United States.[63][69][70] The largest high-grade deposit of manganiferous ore is located about 14 miles (23 km) north of Manganese on a 5-acre (2.0 ha) site at the edge of Emily.[71][72] Valuable in steel and aluminum production, manganese is also used to make batteries.[73][74] There is a local push to "scram"[75] the stockpiles of ore found in the old waste rock of the Cuyuna Iron Range. This mining process is significantly less invasive than traditional blasting and crushing, producing iron ore and iron ore concentrates from previously developed waste rock stockpiles, tailings basins, open pit, or underground mines on land not previously affected by mining. However, the processing of some stockpiles would disrupt the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trails,[76] which opened in June 2011,[77] and have been economically beneficial to the region after the last manganiferous ore was shipped from the Cuyuna Range in 1984, resurrecting many Cuyuna Range communities that had been on the brink of economic collapse.[6][78] This potential for ore processing has created debate as to whether mining and mountain biking can coexist.[79] The use of former underground Cuyuna Range mines as a means of compressed-air energy storage has also been investigated by researchers at the University of Minnesota.[80]
Climate
Manganese was in the
July is the warmest month, when the average high temperature is 80 °F (27 °C) and the average low is 56 °F (13 °C). January is the coldest, with an average high temperature of 20 °F (−7 °C) and average low of 0 °F (−18 °C).[82] The spring rains wreaked havoc on Manganese's clay streets, which was cited as one of the reasons for its abandonment.[24][28]
See also
- Iron Range
- List of ghost towns in the United States
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Further reading
- Brightman, George F. (July 1942). "Cuyuna Iron Range". JSTOR 141127. Retrieved August 16, 2021.