Editing Mesabi Range (section)

==Rockefellers' interests==
[[John D. Rockefeller]] had previously loaned money to his brother, [[Frank Rockefeller]], and Frank's business associate, James Corrigan, to buy into the Franklin Iron Mine Company, which operated in the Mesabi Range. By late 1896 or early 1897, John D. took Corrigan's shares due to failure to repay loans. Frank and Carrigan were forced to sell the company.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hawke|first=David Freeman|title=John D. The Founding Father of the Rockefellers|publisher=Harper & Row|date=1980|pages=[https://archive.org/details/johndfoundingfa00hawk/page/203 203-204]|isbn=978-0060118136|url=https://archive.org/details/johndfoundingfa00hawk/page/203}}</ref> The market for ore from the Mesabi range was almost non-existent at this time because American steel furnaces were not built to deal with its powdery nature and steelmakers believed it to be poor ore. John D. invested $40 million to build up the Mesabi ore and transportation business. To reach the steelmakers in Pittsburgh, the ore had to travel across the [[Great Lakes]] to Cleveland. He invested $2 million into a railroad to transport the ore from the Mesabi range to Duluth on Lake Superior. By 1896, he controlled the Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines Company, which was a holding company of the Merritt brothers. He built a fleet of ore ships. In December 1896, he made a deal with [[Henry W. Oliver]] and [[Andrew Carnegie]] of Pittsburgh whereby they agreed not to go into the ore field or transportation business, and John D. agreed not to go into the steel business. The steelmakers adapted their mills to process the ore from the Mesabi range. Oliver broke with the agreement, and in response, John D. procured a monopoly of ore ship transportation on the Great Lakes. John D. sold his western ore holdings to [[J. P. Morgan]] for $90,900,000 soon after Morgan bought Carnegie's steel interests in 1901.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hawke|first=David Freeman|title=John D. The Founding Father of the Rockefellers|publisher=Harper & Row|date=1980|pages=[https://archive.org/details/johndfoundingfa00hawk/page/208 208-211]|isbn=978-0060118136|url=https://archive.org/details/johndfoundingfa00hawk/page/208}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rockefeller |first1=John |title=Random Reminiscences of Man and Events |date=2019 |publisher=Compass Circle |isbn=9781790494996 |pages=75–86}}</ref>