Ironwood

City in Gogebic County, in the far west of Michigan's Upper Peninsula; population (2000) 6,300. Ironwood stands on the Montréal River opposite the town of Hurley, Wisconsin.

Ironwood was the centre of the Gogebic Range iron boom in the late 19th century. From 1885, ore was transported from its mines to the port of Escanaba on Lake Michigan, and shipped from there to industrial cities across the Great Lakes. The mines were sunk into tilted sedimentary belts of iron ore, and were among the deepest in the world. The city suffered subsidence of large surface areas when disused workings collapsed. Today Ironwood is a regional trade centre, and home to Gogebic Community College (founded 1932).