Iron Mountain

City and seat of Dickinson County, in the southwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan; population (1990) 8,500. Iron Mountain lies 84 km/52 mi west of the port of Escanaba and 3 km/2 mi east of the Wisconsin border.

Iron Mountain was founded in 1879, and named after strata of iron ore found in bluffs nearby. Iron mining was the main activity until extraction became uneconomical in the 1930s–40s. Disused mines have since been opened as heritage sites, and the city contains museums devoted to mining and local history. The economic mainstay of the region is now tourism, especially winter sports; Pine Mountain Ski Jump, one of the highest in the world, is situated just north of the city. It also remains a farming and trade centre, and manufactures such items as mining equipment, dairy goods, chemicals, tools and castings, and wood products. Robert Flaherty, maker of early documentary films, was born here in 1884.