History: 19th Century
The firm's earliest predecessor was the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, founded in 1847 and chartered as a company by Michigan in 1850. Samuel Mather and six Ohio-based associates had learned of rich iron-ore deposits recently discovered in the highlands of the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan. Soon afterwards, the first Soo Canal opened in 1855, allowing iron ore to be shipped from Lake Superior to Lake Erie.
Technological improvements, such as the Bessemer furnace, made it possible for the North American Great Lakes to produce steel on an industrial scale. The south shore of Lake Erie was close to a supply of coal, making that region an efficient point for the construction of steel mills.
The final decades of the 19th century were a period of business consolidation from the partnership-sized businesses of an earlier generation to a new type of business firm, the stock-market-traded corporation intent on maximizing market share. The former Cleveland Iron Mining Co. was a survivor of this shakeout, purchasing many of its competitors. One key merger in 1890, with Jeptha Wade's Cliffs Iron Company led the combined firm to change its name to the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company.
The consolidated Cleveland-Cliffs invested substantial sums in operations to improve the logistics of iron-ore transport. In 1892, the firm built the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad to carry iron ore from the mines directly to company-owned docks on Lake Superior.
Read more about this topic: Cliffs Natural Resources