Criag Ilmonen, Cliff Shaft Mine Museum executive director, serves tourist Cherie Mollison. (Journal photo by Katie Segula)

ISHPEMING — The Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum in Ishpeming is busier than Craig Ilmonen, its director of operations, has ever seen.

“We gave 46 people (tickets) for just one tour today,” he said. “We did 57 people so far today. That was the entire week (of tour tickets sold) in 2019.”

People visiting the museum on Aug. 11 discussed traveling from many parts of the country to vacation in the Upper Peninsula to recreate and learn about its culture and history, of which mining has been a big part.

Dennis Ilmonen, the main tour guide for the museum, is a retired Cleveland Cliffs Inc. miner — and father of the director, Craig Ilmonen — who shares his mining knowledge on every tour.

Aaron Michaelson, who was visiting from Minnesota, came for an adventure that involved checking out the mine and learning a little about family history.

“My great-great grandfather and great-grandfather both immigrated from Finland to here (Ishpeming),” he said. “I don’t know if they worked in the mine or not … (They lived here) for some time, then they resailed to the other side of the lake (Lake Superior).”

The museum features a display room with over 500 mineral specimens from the Ishpeming Rock and Mineral Club, underground iron ore cars, a working blacksmith forge, a working rock shop, a 170-ton iron ore haul truck, a 30-ton shovel bucket and a large collection of historical mining equipment and artifacts.

Plus, the tour offers a cool break from the heat during the summer months, while also adding a sense of history and authenticity for visitors.

“It (the mine tour) was very enjoyable and informative and inexpensive,” Michaelson said.

The museum gift shop was busy, with people asking questions about specific rocks and discussing the tour, which lasted about an hour.

Craig Ilmonen said the museum’s staff is working hard to respond to the uptick in visitors.

“I had to call in another guy who lives just down the road to be a tour guide today,” Craig Ilmonen said. “He said, ‘Yeah, I can be there in five minutes.'”

Beyond providing education to the community, the nonprofit museum also gives back to another local nonprofit organization, Start the Cycle, which is “a group cycling program in Marquette County that introduces youth to a life full of success through winter fat tire biking and summer mountain biking,” according to its website.

The museum’s staff even cooked hundreds of hot dogs and provided snacks and drinks for the children in the Start the Cycle program when they came back from cycling twice during July.

“We are going to have a good year and make all this money; we are a nonprofit, why don’t we give back to another nonprofit? Give back to the community. We have been begging for money for 20 years now. It is time to give back,” Craig Ilmonen said. “How much money is too much for a nonprofit to make, you know? We are supposed to be able to keep our lights on and keep functioning, (but) how can we give back to the community?”

The Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum is located at 501 W. Euclid St. in Ishpeming. It’s open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Guided tours are available at 10:30 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2:15 p.m., according to its website. The museum will remain open through Sept. 25.