Penokee Iron Range Trail - Plummer Location
Iron County Heritage Area
Along this trail are the “ruins” of the buildings that made up the Plummer Mine Location. Each structure had a special function.
Steam power, created at the boiler House, turned the Hoisting Engine. In the early 1920’s, electricity from the Electric Transformer House, replaced steam power.
Cables ran overhead from Engine House to the big sheave wheels at the top of the Plummer Headframe. They were connected to elevator-like “cars” that raised and lowered miners and ore from the mine. Since the Plummer Mine was 2,367 feet deep, a lot of cable was needed.
Ore cars hoisted up from the mine stopped at the “tipple”, half way up the Headframe. Ore could be tipped directly from the Headframe off the tipple into railroad cars parked below and delivered to waiting oreboats at the port of Ashland. Or it could be loaded into smaller ore carts and pushed down the Plummer’s 36 foot wooden trestle and dumped in the ore stockpile for later shipment.
Equipment breakdowns could be repaired on site at either the blacksmith, carpenter, or machine shops. Oil and coke to fuel the boilers and lubricate machinery were stored in separate buildings for safety.
The “Dry” or “Dryhouse” offered miners a place to shed their dirty work clothes, bathe, and change into clean dry clothes at the end of their long underground shift.
Marker can be reached from Plummer Road ¼ mile south of Wisconsin Highway 77.
Courtesy hmdb.org
