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The Plumer Mine was named for Daniel Longfellow Plumer (1837-1920) who was president of the Northern Chief Iron Mining Company.​

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By 1905, this new steel headframe stood on the site of the former "Rhine" Mine. The mine was re-named the "Plumer", but has also been spelled "Plummer" or "Plumber." 

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A 1907 advertisement sought an English speaking family to conduct a boarding house in a new building at the Plumer Mine. The ad came with the promise that there would be "fifteen boarders (miners)          to start with."

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In 1912, the Plumer Mine shipped 47,578 tons of rich "soft" hematite iron ore by rail to the ore docks in Ashland, WI. From this Lake Superior port, the ore was shipped to steel mills in the lower Great Lakes. Soft hematite ore was so rich in iron that it could be "direct-shipped" with no on-site processing needed.

 

​A year later, in 1913, the Plumer Mine shut down. 

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In 1917, the Plumer Mine operations restarted under the Republic Iron and Steel Corporation. The mine now reached a depth of 1,300 feet. 

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The Plumer Mine was a very wet mine, producing around 600 gallons of water per minute.

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The Republic Iron and Steel Corporation spent $2 million dollars on the Plumer Mine.

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The Plumer Mine operated on and off before it was permanently shut  down in 1932. 

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During its lifespan, the Plumer produced 172,329 tons of iron ore. There was still an estimated of 150,000 tons of ore "in sight" when the mine closed.

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The Plumer Mine reached a maximum depth of 2,367 feet. In comparison, the Montreal Mine, located approximately 7 miles to the east, was the deepest iron ore mine on the Penokee-Gogebic Range. It reached a depth 4,335 feet producing 45 million tons of high iron content,soft hematite iron ore             in its 77 years of operation.

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The Plumer Mine was technologically significant in two ways that suggests there were great expectation that it would be a major ore producer. It was the first "inclined" headframe on the Penokee Iron Range whose entry point and mine shaft  were angled to 60-degrees to follow the tilt of the iron ore body. Inclined headframes were developed to reduce shaft cave-ins. ​ The Plumer Mine was also the first all steel headframe built on the Penokee Range.

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However, due to a geologic "twist of fate" the Plumer Mine is at the border of the high iron content soft hematite ore body to the east and a lower quality taconite iron ore body the extends to the west.  Because of this, the Plumer Mine never met expectations of becoming a major iron ore producing mine.

 

The Plumer Mine Headframe remains the last one standing  among hundreds that once dotted the famous Penokee-Gogebic Iron Range. Why it was not scrapped, like all of the other headframes when mining operations ceased, remains a mystery.

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The Plumer Mine Headframe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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Taken from Headframes and mine shafts of the Gogebic Range by Bruce K. Cox, Wakefield, Michigan : Agogebic Press, 2010.