WAKEFIELD

Region: Ironwood & the Gogebic Range

View from Above

The westernmost town on the Gogebic Iron Range and the closest town to the Porcupine Mountains State Park, Wakefield (population 1,836) spreads out south and east of Sunday Lake along M-28 and U.S. 2. Wakefield is also near Indianhead ski resort. Downtown is up hill on Sunday Lake Street from the M-28/U.S. 2 junction.

Wakefield was platted at the same time as other Gogebic towns, in 1884, and named after an official in the Brotherton Mine, one of four pioneering mines. (Buildings from the Brotherton Mine and Sunday Lake Mine can be seen east of the lake, at the end of Putnam Street.) The original prospectors came to the lake on Sunday, it's thought. The initial mining boom, from the 1880s up to the Panic of 1893, was followed by a second boom, sparked by the need for wartime armament, starting in World War I and lasting through World War II. By the 1930s and 1940s, smaller mines had been consolidated into large companies like Pickands Mather, associated with Bethlehem Steel.

Wakefield's pleasant visitors' center at M-28 and US-2 is not only a great source of information about the area, but a nifty gift & souvenir shop as well.

A line of mine shafts stretched out on the ridge from Wakefield west to Ironwood, Hurley, and Montreal. (See the box, "a scenic and historic backroads mining tour," for directions.) "Mines operated around the clock. The town really hummed," recalls an old-timer.

The PLYMOUTH OPEN PIT MINE, easily seen just west of town, mined highly concentrated iron ore, locals say, "one of the richest ore bodies in the world, virtually free of impurities. You could mine it and put it into the smelter right away." Like all Gogebic iron, it was taken by rail to Ashland, Wisconsin, or Escanaba, Michigan, and shipped to smelters, usually in Chicago; Gary, Indiana; and Cleveland. Many area mines started as open pit mines, from which underground shafts were drilled. The long, narrow pit followed the ore body. It was 1 ¼ miles long, 600' wide, and about 325' deep. Today it is a lake.

The active mining era, from 1917 through the 1930s, is represented by important public buildings: the Wakefield City Hall (906-229-5131) currently still downtown and, on M-28 across from the lake, the boxy Wakefield High School. The long-unoccupied Memorial Community Building has been torn down. A new building on the site will house the city hall, library, and other municipal buildings. Right on the lake on M-28 is an unusual WPA project from 1939, the former Gogebic Chiefs hockey arena. Stonemasons used rough local stone in an unusual 1930s art deco design.

Motorists heading into Wakefield on M-28 can look across Sunday Lake to see picturesque Eddy Park with its pavilion. The park offers swimming, a playground, and camping.

Wakefield was hit hard with the closing of both the White Pine Mine in 1995 and the Connors sawmill a few years later. Connors, the biggest local employer, had logged hard maples. Today the largest employers are the hospital, Ojibwa Correctional Facility, and smaller companies logging and hauling timber.

Many local people cherish their little town and see its possibilities. "We think we have a beautiful town," says one. "Our downtown has one of almost everything you need": cafe, bar, library, insurance, the Wakefield Pharmacy, and a newspaper, the lively Wakefield News.

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