When the mine officially opened, the speculators progressed to using a horse and wagon. Eventually they set up a railroad in the mine, which they used to take the ore from loading stations in the mine to a connection with either the Marquette, Houghton, and Ontonagon Railroad to go to Marquette or the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad to go to Escanaba.

The rails in the mine had many sharp curves and low tunnels which the mainline locomotives could not negotiate. A horse and wagon took the ore to a loader for the mine railroad, then another horse could pull the larger car to the outside railroad which led to a port.

In November and December 1867, Captain Henry Merry and his wife visited England. While they were there, he ordered a small steam locomotive for use in the mine. In September 1868 it was reported that the locomotive was working well with the tunnels and sharp curves. It hauled six to ten small, four-wheel ore cars, each capable of carrying five or six tons of ore, with a maximum speed of ten miles per hour. This first locomotive was called the John or Johnnie Bull.

The locomotive was a big success, and a second locomotive was ordered. This is where the story becomes less certain. One version says that Captain Merry called in an engineer from Cleveland to measure the locomotive and build a new one just like the first one. While this was certainly possible, it is questionable, because the locomotives in England were built quite a bit differently from the ones made in the US. This meant that many parts would have to be specially made or imported from England.

The newly restored Yankee Steam Engine greets visitors to the Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

One big difference was the boiler. Most boilers were fire tube boilers, but the Jackson Mine locomotive had a porcupine boiler. A porcupine boiler has a group of pipes which are capped on one end and the other end extending down from the bottom of the boiler and into the fire. This system was patented by Alexander Chaplin & Co., the maker of these locomotives. This shorter boiler could go through low tunnels.

There were also several other differences. The question then is where did locomotive two, called the Yankee, come from? Did it come from England or the US? While the two locomotives both worked in the mine, I found no photos of the two locomotives together during their working days.

Keep in mind that Captain Merry had a reputation as a frugal person. It was reported that he didn’t do diamond drilling because the drills wore out too quickly. In 1887 the Jackson Mine was sold to new owners, who intended to run it more aggressively. Using diamond drilling, the mine went deeper. Around 1889, the pit went too deep for the little locomotives to climb out and they were put out on a dump heap outside the pit.

The train track from Marquette west to Ishpeming ran past the dump heap, so the locomotives were seen regularly by people passing by. There were several suggestions about preserving them, but nothing happened until about 1940.

For its 1944 centennial, CCI took the locomotives from the dump heap and used parts from both locomotives to create a display. Some parts were totally gone so wooden pieces were made, painted black, and bolted on to look like the original parts. After the centennial it was on display in several places around the area, all outdoors.

In 1986 CCI gave the locomotive to the Michigan Iron Industry Museum near Negaunee which overlooks the Carp River and the site of the first iron forge in the Lake Superior region. The engine was again exhibited outdoors, and the museum began to research its history.

The Yankee is believed to be one of the oldest surviving steam locomotives in the United States, one of two industrial geared vertical boiler locomotives in America, and one of three surviving Chaplin steam engines in the world. But after more than a century sitting outside, by 2019 it was in very poor condition with actively corroding iron, fungal decay of all wooden components, and actively flaking paint in areas which still retained paint.

After receiving a $120,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Yankee was sent for conservation and selective restoration in September 2020. At the time, the Yankee was about 70% intact, and almost 60 percent of its parts were original. B.R. Howard Conservation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania took three years to stabilize original components and replace missing and severely deteriorated components with accurate reproductions.

The Yankee recently returned to the Iron Industry Museum and is now on display.