Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway
The
Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) was a
railroad operating in northern
Minnesota and
Wisconsin to haul
iron ore and later
taconite to the
Great Lakes port of
Duluth, Minnesota and
Two Harbors, Minnesota. The railway was acquired on
May 10,
2004, by
Canadian National Railway (CN) when it purchased the assets of
Great Lakes Transportation.
The DM&IR was formed by the
1938 merger of the
Duluth and Iron Range Railway (D&IR) and
Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway (DM&N).
The D&IR was formed in
1881 by
Charlemagne Tower Sr. to haul iron ore from the Minnesota Iron Co. in
Tower, Minnesota to the new
Lake Superior port of
Two Harbors, Minnesota. The first ore shipment from the
Soudan Mine over the D&IR was on
July 31,
1884. The D&IR was acquired by
Illinois Steel in
1887. In
1901, Illinois Steel became part of the newly formed
United States Steel Corporation (USS) and the railway became part of its holdings.
The DM&N was incorporated in
1891 and the first load of iron ore was shipped to
Superior, Wisconsin in October,
1892. (The formation of the railway was necessary after the discovery of high-grade
Mesabi iron ore near
Mountain Iron, Minnesota by the
Merritt brothers. The D&IR was approached to construct a new branch line, but was not receptive.) The Merritt's expanded DM&N by laying track to
Duluth, Minnesota in
1893 and built an
ore dock there. The Merritt's shaky financial position, brought in part to building the Duluth expansion, allowed for
John D. Rockefeller to gain control of the railway in
1894. In 1901, Rockefeller sold the DM&N to USS.
From 1901 to
1938 the two railways were owned and operated by USS and were operated independently.
Merger
By July of 1938 the two railways merged to form the DM&IR. The railway had two operating divisions, the
Missabe and the
Iron Range based upon their predecessor's roads. As the
United States began to prepare for the
Second World War, the iron ore tonnage moving over the
Missabe Road more than doubled from little over 8 million tons in
1938 to over 18 million tons in
1939 and lept to almost 28 million tons in
1940 and over 37 million tons in
1941.
With such high tonnage levels, it was obvious that DM&IR needed additional locomotive power to handle the higher traffic volume. The first eight of DM&IR's famous
2-8-8-4 Yellowstone locomotives were delivered by
Baldwin Locomotive Works in the Spring of 1941. Total ore movement of nearly 45 million tons in
1942 stressed the critical need for more locomotive power on the DM&IR and the
War Production Board allowed the Missabe to order ten more Yellowstones. The new locomotives were delivered in
1943.
Dieselization
After WWII, the DM&IR continued to haul increasing larger tonnage of ore to the ore docks along Lake Superior reaching an all-time record year of over 49 million tons in
1953. Also in 1953, the first
diesel locomotives, EMD SW-9s, arrived on the railway. The Missabe continues to dieselize with the
1956 delivery of EMD SD-9s. The last revenue steam run occurred in
1960. Passenger services on the Missabe division ended in
1957 and completely ceases in
1961.
In addition to dieselization and the end of passenger service, other changes were happening to the DM&IR. The availability of high-quality iron ore was becoming limited. Mines and pits were closing across Minnesota's
iron ranges. The DM&IR's ore docks in Two Harbors were closed in
1963 and didn't reopen until
1966. The Missabe Road was saved by the
November 3,
1963 passage of the
Taconite Amendment to the
Minnesota State Constitution. (The amendment restricted the state's ability to tax a
taconite industry for twenty-five years.) The passage of the amendment accelerated the creation of taconite mining industry in Northern Minnesota. The
Eveleth Taconite Company was formed in
1964 and on
April 8, 1966, the
SS Edmund Fitzgerald took on the first load of Eveleth taconite pellets, totally about 23,000 tons. The taconite era on the Missabe had begun.
In
1988, U.S. Steel, now USX, spun off the DM&IR and their other ore railroads and shipping companies into subsidiary
Transtar, then sold majority control to the
Blackstone Group and USX. In
2001, the DM&IR, and other holdings, were spun off from Transtar into the company Great Lakes Transportation (GLT) which was owned fully by the Blackstone Group. (For the first time in over 100 years DM&IR is no longer associated with U.S. Steel.) In late
2003, the Blackstone Group agreed to sell GLT to Canadian National Railway and the purchase was finalized on May 10, 2004.
*
Missabe Railroad Historical Society*
CN acquires DM&IR*
DM&IR History* Frank A. King,
The Missabe Road, (ISBN 0816640831)
