Oliver Iron Mining Office -Coleraine, Minnesota - Minnesota Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

"The Oliver Iron Mining Office, 200 Cole Street. In the 1890s the Oliver Iron Mining Company was formed by interests to purchase and develop mineral properties on the Mesabi Iron Range. It later became a subsidiary of the U.S. Steel Corporation, formed in 1901.

In 1904 John C. Greenway was appointed general superintendent for the Canisteo District, and arrived in the area with the responsibility of opening mining properties and building a village.

In the fall of 1909 Greenway wrote to a close friend that the “handsome new brick Oliver Iron Mining Company Headquarters Building overlooking Trout Lake has recently been completed.”

Greenway had a suite of four offices on the ground floor. Furnished with oak desks and chairs with cork soundproofing throughout, the new building stood in marked contrast to the tarpaper shack that originally served as the district office.

Also on the first floor were the offices of his secretary, the mine superintendent, the chief clerk and his assistant, a cashier, two accountants, and the head timekeeper and his assistants.

On the second floor were the chief mining engineer and his assistant, other mining engineers, draftsmen and engineer helpers, the safety engineer and squatter agent.

The basement had changing rooms and shower facilities, lavatories and janitorial space. On each floor was a large steel walk-in vault and, being the order of the day, a cuspidor was stationed by each desk.

In the early years of the building, office employees frequently worked 10-hour days and six-day weeks. These were the fortunate mining employees during the Depression - while the miners were unemployed, the office workers received two or three days’ work a month.

When in the 1940s women were being employed there as secretarial and clerical help, a new women’s restroom was built, the cuspidors were taken away, and the rough language of some of the older office employees toned down considerably.

In the 1960s, when the demand for natural ores was decreasing, several mining operations consolidated, thus eliminating the need for the Canisteo District building, and the title was transferred to the local school district.

The Oliver Iron Mining Office was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982." - text of marker

Marker Type:: City

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