Norway, Michigan and the Vulcan Iron Mine

Norway grew up in the eighteen seventies on the Menominee Iron Range, a few miles from Iron Mountain in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The mine nearby at Vulcan, later known as the Iron Mountain Iron Mine, began operations in eighteen seventy-seven and over sixty-eight years produced more than twenty-one million tons of iron ore. Today the old mine shafts are open for tours, part of a Michigan State Historical Landmark where visitors can ride underground trams through drifts and tunnels carved out by Cornish, Norwegian, and Italian miners.

Norway itself is a quiet small city whose whole reason for existing ran underground in veins of red and gray ore. When the ore gave out, the mine became a museum, and the museum became the reason to stop.