Chapin Mine Steam Pump Engine

About this property

The Chapin Mine Steam Pump Engine, also known as the Cornish Pump, is a steam-driven pump located at the corner of Kent Street and Kimberly Avenue in Iron Mountain, Michigan, United States. It is the largest reciprocating steam-driven engine ever built in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958. Iron ore was discovered in what is now the Iron Mountain area in 1878. Development was rapid: Iron Mountain was platted in 1879 and the Chapin Mine Company was formed the same year. The Chapin Mine proved to be the most productive in the Menominee Range, but part of the orebody was underneath a cedar swamp and water seepage proved to be an ongoing problem. Ground pumps were used at first, but as the shaft depth increased, so did the problems. In 1889, after a number of accidents, the mining company commissioned a water pump from the E. P. Allis Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (now Allis-Chalmers). The company's chief engineer, Edwin P. Reynolds, designed a "Cornish Pump" similar to those used in tin mines in Cornwall, England. The company constructed the pump in 1890-91, after which it was installed at Chapin Mine's "D" shaft. The pump engine was installed at the surface near a boiler, to minimize efficiency losses in steam transport and to prevent damage to the engine in case of an emergency shut-off. It was housed in a massive red sandstone pump house, 60 feet (18 m) high, 36 feet (11 m) by 42 feet (13 m) at the base, with a foundation 23 feet (7.0 m) thick. The pump itself cost $82,000, and the entire installation cost an estimated $250,000. The pump began operation on January 3, 1893. An underground shift in 1896 misaligned the engine, and further shifts cracked the engine house and the surrounding ground. In 1899, the pumping engine was dismantled and stored away. In the meantime, the Chapin Mining Company had been expanding. In 1894, it acquired the nearby Hamilton and Ludington mines, both of which had been abandoned due to flooding problems. Chapin dewatered the other mines and made underground connections to the Chapin Mine. The Chapin Mining Company was purchased by the Oliver Iron Mining Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, in 1901. In 1907, Oliver reassembled the pumping engine and moved it to its current location near the site of the Ludington Mine "C" shaft. They constructed a corrugated metal building on a red sandstone foundation to house the pumping engine. The pump served the combined needs of the Chapin, Ludington and Hamilton mines until 1914, when it was replaced with electric pumps.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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