NEGAUNEE, MI-- The Michigan Iron Industry Museum has received a federal grant to restore a rare, old steam locomotive.
The Institute of Museum and Library Sciences has given the Negaunee museum $120,000 to conserve and restore the 150-year-old Yankee. The locomotive hauled six to ten four-wheel ore cars. Each car could carry up to six tons of ore at a maximum speed of ten miles per hour.
Before the arrival of steam at U.P. iron mines all the ore was hauled by humans or animals.
The Yankee was manufactured by Alexander Chaplin and Co. of Glasgow, Scotland between 1862 and 1868. It’s thought to be one of only three Chaplin locomotives in the world.
After it was decommissioned the Yankee sat outside Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company offices in Ishpeming for decades. It was donated to the state in 1986.
