Edmund Longyear

Title: Log of the First Hole Drilled on the Mesabi
Type: Document
Date: 1889
Source: Minnesota Historical Society

Description: Longyear kept a log describing the drilling of the first hole on the Mesabi range. This log can show us the process of testing for ore and the amount of time that was needed.
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Activities:

1. Why do you think it might have been important to Longyear to keep a log like this?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: By using this log as a reference for later holes, he would have been able to get an idea of what he could expect to find in the drilling process and how long it might take. This might also be a helpful way for him to keep track of geologic formations that he encountered when drilling and how well his equipment worked with each one.
2. What other procedures (according to the log) did Longyear have to go through before he could actually drill on the site?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: After finding the location for drilling, he was not able to get his equipment to the site. He had to cut a road through the woods and have the equipment delivered. It then took two days to set up themachine and prepare for drilling.
3. When the standpipe became stuck and could not go much farther, what did Longyear have to do in order to continue?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: He blasted the area with dynamite to get the standpipe to continue.
4. What in this log suggests to us that he could have been drilling around the clock at some points? Why might he do this?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: He mentions drilling at night a couple of times and that he had to cancel the "night shift" once, which might suggest to us that he had a separate drilling crew that worked every night. He might wish to drill day and night in order to make faster progress toward the ore. The process could be lengthy and expensive, so working around the clock might allow the prospector to move on to another site more quickly if one site did not produce ore.