Jackson Mine
On this spot on September 19, 1844, William A. Burt, a deputy government surveyor, was the first to discover the great Lake Superior iron ore deposits. Peculiar fluctuations in his magnetic compass led Burt to ask his men to seek the cause, and they soon returned with pieces of iron ore from outcroppings in the area. Next year prospectors from Jackson, Michigan, led by Phil M. Everett, arrived at the Carp River. Marji-Gesick, a Chippewa chief, guided members of the party in June to this location where he showed them iron ore in the roots of a fallen pine tree. As a result of this discovery, the Jackson Mining Company, of which Everett was a founder, began taking out ore here in 1847. Thus was born the Lake Superior area’s great iron mining industry.
Plaque via Michigan History Center