The Docks at Agate Bay EarthCache
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Ore Docks 1 and 2 at Two Harbor’s Waterfront Park are the site for this mining theme earthcache. In this city park, you will find the tugboat, Edna G., the Two Harbor’s Lighthouse, a nice jetty walk, and the Two Harbor’s Historical Museum. There is even two geocaches, Choo Choo 3 cache (GCNXRT) and Rocks ‘n Cedars by the Inland Sea (GC7056) in the park.
By the late 1940’s, the majority of the high-grade iron ore from the mines of the Iron Range was depleted. Mines soon switched to mining the local Taconite, a lower 25 to 30% iron-bearing, high-silica, flint-like sedimentary Precambrian rock. To process taconite, the ore is ground into a fine powder, the iron is separated from the waste rock by using strong magnets, and then the powdered iron concentrate is combined with bentonite clay and limestone as a flux and rolled into pellets about one centimeter in diameter for easier transporting. From the mines, the pellets are transported by rail car to the main ports on Lake Superior; Two Harbors, Silver Bay, and Duluth. Locomotive engine #229 is one of the last steam engines to transport the ore cars down to the docks at Two Harbor. It is a Yellowstone M-4 class engine that was brought here in 1967 and placed under a roof, replacing the M-3 class engine that was too far beyond repair.
This earth cache begins at a sign near the Two Harbor’s Historical Society’s Depot Museum. A fee is charged to see the history of the area but entrance to the museum is not needed to log this cache. Information on the Dock 1 and 2 sign and by the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range engine #229 is a must.
To log this cache, please answer the three following questions.
1. How many ore cars are needed to fill an ore ship?
2. How many tons of ore are in each car? (Make it easy on yourself and use 56,000 tons).
3. If 1 ton of taconite produces 0.66 tons of steel. How many ore cars of taconite were needed to make the locomotive Engine #229?
Email your answers to the questions, to me, using the link in my profile only. If your answers are not recieved by me in an appropriate amount of time, your log will be deleted. Photos are accepted and appreciated as long as the answers to the questions are not revealed. You do not have to wait for confirmation from me before logging this cache as completed. Most of all……learn……and enjoy.
I would like to thank Ironworld in Hibbing MN, for the information about Taconite and Steel-making.
Additional Hints
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