(gentle music) - Cliff Shaft Mine is credited with a 99-year operation from 1868 to 1967 when it closed.

This was a world class underground, hard hematite, iron ore mine.

There would not be a city of Ishpeming, a city of Negaunee, or even a city of Marquette had it not been for the discovery of iron ore and the subsequent exploitation by iron ore mining companies.

- [Adam] The museum occupies the same buildings and structures the mining operation once did.

Towering over the property still stands to shaft houses that once served a vital role.

- These shaft houses housed the hoisting equipment that got the men and the iron ore in and out of the mine.

And so they're very prominent, because they are naturally very high.

And you couple that with the fact that they were erected on some of the most prominent areas in the city, so that all told, they're very visible within the city.

- [Adam] Long before the shaft houses dominated the city skyline, the upper peninsula was an unexplored region.

Enter William Austin Burt, sent by the state on a geological survey expedition.

- He was in the area of Negaunee to the east of here when a local group of Indians, Chief Marji Gesick, in particular, pointed out what they called a shiny mountain.

And this shiny mountain happened to be an outcrop of iron ore, rock, basically, that had been polished smooth by the glaciers.

William Austin Burt had a geological background, and so he recognized that it was probably what we call banded iron formation or jaspelite, which is a rock.

The silica is stained red by the presence of the hematite, and so you have a very pretty and actually shiny rock.

- [Adam] After the initial discovery, it didn't take long for individuals, industry, and innovation to flock to the area.

- This building was built in 1904, and it's the oldest, excuse me, it was the first building in Ishpeming to have hot running water and electricity, and the iron mining company let the families come and take showers here on Saturdays.

So that was a big deal if you didn't have hot water.

- [Adam] Chris was our tour guide on our visit.

He shared his vast knowledge of the historical artifacts and displays throughout the buildings.

More importantly, he took us underground.

- All the ore that was being mine at the different levels flowed down to here through passages between levels, and it was fed into the crusher.

It would crush the oar, then it would fall, it would flow by gravity down here.

It would fill those skips, and those things would just haul up, continuously hauling.

And it would be fed onto a conveyor belt.

You can see there's a skip right there.

It dumps from the bottom, it goes on the conveyor belt, and it fills up an ore bin out there where the train cars would be loaded.

- [Adam] Our guided tour included a stop at the base of the 174 foot tower, dubbed the C-Shaft.

We stood atop the now capped shaft that ran 1,355 feet deep into the ground.

Our tour ended with a stop by this modern marvel, a 170-ton iron ore haul truck, donated to the museum by the Tilden mine.

The tires on this truck are 12 feet tall, and it takes two and a half gallons of fuel to go one mile.

The truck is just one of the many unique items housed at the museum.

- We have a very diverse collection of artifacts that have been arranged appropriately.

One of the primary examples here behind us that I'm very proud of and very involved with is the lighting exhibit in what we call the Lamp Room.

Years ago, my mother would fondly recall how she would periodically walk down from our house in Ishpeming and come over here to have lunch with her dad, my grandfather.

But we have a tremendous display of lighting, and you can trace the evolution of lighting technology through the years from the original candle in the hat, literally, to the battery-powered headlamp, electric headlamp.

You can imagine being underground at the end of a tunnel, and the only source of light that you have is a candle either on your hat or stuck in the wall to work by, and that's it.

- [Adam] The last shipment of ore left the grounds in 1972.

The mine stayed in reserve mode, meaning if the demand rose and it made financial sense, the iron ore mine could once again become operational.

- Cliffs kept this property until 1997, and at which time they conveyed it to the corporation that ultimately owns the museum and the property now.