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Cliff Shaft Mining Heritage Museum

Phone: 906-485-1882

Address: 501 W. Euclid Street

Web Site: http://www.me.mtu.edu/~jdschust/cliffs/csmhistory.html

Offerings: Mining retirees and aficionados have created a museum space in the light-filled space of the former Cleveland Cliffs Iron "dry" building. Here miners donned their helmets before going down into the mine and cleaned up afterwards. It is right next to the two obelisk shaft houses that mark Ishpeming's skyline. The underground tour goes into the access tunnel to the shaft, where the cage took miners deep underground. Most tour guides have actually worked in this mine, so they can field questions from first-hand experience. A number of them are in their 70s and 80s, so they speak from long experience. If you're lucky enough to get former mine inspector and mining historian Leo LaFond as your guide, you're in for a wealth of interesting information, such as the sinking of parts of Negaunee from undermining.