by Tom Hynes » April 20, 2009, 1:33 pm
Ore has been loaded into boats by gravity in Marquette ever since the first pocket ore dock on the Lakes was built there in 1857, so its doubtful they were loading ore, unless it was a special shipment of some sort. Looking at older nautical charts, it looks like there were two low level docks with a rail spur along the face in the 1960's. First was the LS&I Merchandise Dock in the upper harbor, north of the LS&I ore dock. The second was the Marquette Dock Company's coal dock at the north end of the lower harbor. They still list an overhead crane in the 1962 Shipmaster's directory. Perhaps the Mather was unloading coal there and the railroad was using ore jennies to back haul the coal to power plants at the mines.
Ore has been loaded into boats by gravity in Marquette ever since the first pocket ore dock on the Lakes was built there in 1857, so its doubtful they were loading ore, unless it was a special shipment of some sort. Looking at older nautical charts, it looks like there were two low level docks with a rail spur along the face in the 1960's. First was the LS&I Merchandise Dock in the upper harbor, north of the LS&I ore dock. The second was the Marquette Dock Company's coal dock at the north end of the lower harbor. They still list an overhead crane in the 1962 Shipmaster's directory. Perhaps the Mather was unloading coal there and the railroad was using ore jennies to back haul the coal to power plants at the mines.