Qualla: Vermilion Range (Minnesota)

Vermilion Range (Minnesota): Introduction

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On July 31, 1884, the first shipment of iron ore left the Soudan Mine bound for Two Harbors on Lake Superior. That single trainload launched Minnesota's iron mining industry -- an enterprise that would eventually produce billions of tons of ore and help build the steel bones of modern America. The Vermilion Range, stretching between the towns of Tower and Ely in northeastern Minnesota, was where it all began. Unlike the Mesabi Range to the south, where iron lay close enough to the surface for open-pit extraction, the Vermilion demanded that miners go deep. The Soudan Mine eventually descended twenty-seven levels, reaching 2,341 feet below the surface -- nearly half a mile of Precambrian rock blasted and tunneled to reach some of the purest iron ore ever found on the continent.

Vermilion Range (Minnesota): Rock Forged in Ancient Seas

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The iron deposits of the Vermilion Range are among the oldest geological formations in North America, laid down as banded iron formations during the Precambrian era when the Earth's atmosphere was still gaining its oxygen. The range consists of interbedded sequences of chert, mag...

Vermilion Range (Minnesota): Ore You Could Weld

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The hematite pulled from the Vermilion Range was extraordinary. Its purity was so remarkable that two pieces of raw ore could be pressed together and welded without additional processing. In the steel mills, this dense ore -- marketed as Vermilion Lump -- played a critical role i...

Vermilion Range (Minnesota): The Quiet After the Drills

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Soudan Mine closed in 1962. The last mine in the Ely area -- the Pioneer -- followed in 1967, five years later. The Vermilion Range had been first to open among Minnesota's four iron ranges -- the Vermilion, Mesabi, Gunflint, and Cuyuna -- and it was effectively the first to ...

Vermilion Range (Minnesota): From Iron Ore to Dark Matter

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The deepest level of the Soudan Mine found an unexpected second purpose. The University of Minnesota established a high-energy physics laboratory at the mine's lowest excavated point, where 2,341 feet of rock provides a natural shield against cosmic radiation that would interfere...