Escanaba Ore Dock, Michigan

There is one ore dock left at Escanaba, which was once one of the major ports shipping ore from the Marquette Iron Range to steel mills along the southern shores of the Great Lakes. The iron port town of Marquette served the same function for the same mines, but since its located on the north side of the Upper Peninsula, ships from there have to navigate through the Soo Locks into Lake Huron. Shipping the ore, by rail, to Escanaba enabled ships to head directly to the mills on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Not much ore passes through Escanaba anymore though, as most of the mines have closed, and most freighters use Marquette’s modern ore dock.