Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway

Map of the DM&IR. Solid lines are track still in use; dotted lines are abandoned track.
Reporting mark	DMIR
Locale	Saint Louis County / Lake County, Minnesota and Douglas County, Wisconsin
Dates of operation	1874–2011
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Headquarters	Proctor, Minnesota

The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) (reporting mark DMIR) is a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin that hauls iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes ports of Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota. Control of the railway was acquired on May 10, 2004, by the Canadian National Railway (CN) when it purchased the assets of Great Lakes Transportation.

The DM&IR was formed by the merger in 1937 of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway (DM&N) and the Spirit Lake Transfer Railway. The following year, the Duluth and Iron Range Rail Road (D&IR) and Interstate Transfer Railway were added. All of these had been leased by the DM&N since 1930.

The D&IR was formed in 1874 by Charlemagne Tower to haul iron ore from the Minnesota Iron Co. in Tower, Minnesota, to the new Lake Superior port of Two Harbors, Minnesota. On July 31, 1884, the D&IR carried its first ore shipment from the Soudan Mine. In 1887, the D&IR was acquired by Illinois Steel Company, which itself became part of the new United States Steel Corporation (USS) in 1901.

After high-grade Mesabi iron ore was discovered near Mountain Iron, Minnesota by the Seven Iron Men, the D&IR was asked to build a branch line to serve this area, but declined. So in 1891, the Merritts incorporated the DM&N, which shipped its first load of iron ore to Superior, Wisconsin, in October 1892. The following year, the Merritts expanded the DM&N by laying track to Duluth, Minnesota, where they built an ore dock. But this expansion left the Merritts on shaky financial ground, and in 1894, John D. Rockefeller gained control of the railway. In 1901, Rockefeller sold the DM&N to USS.