Vulcan Mine

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Iron ore for Kaiser Steel at Kaiser, (Fontana, CA), initially came from Kaiser’s Vulcan Mine, located on the western slope of the Providence Mountains, nine miles south of Kelso, CA. From December 1942 until July 1947, the Vulcan Mine shipped 2,643,000 tons of hematite, magnetite and limonite to Kaiser, to feed the blast furnaces.

The iron ore was trucked from the Vulcan Mine, over a paved company road, to a transload at Kelso, on the Union Pacific. The UP delivered the ore to the Santa Fe at Barstow. Blocks of ore cars were sent to San Bernardino, on various drag freights, often cuts of loaded ore gons were used to fill westbound trains out of Barstow. In San Bernardino, the cuts of ore cars were made into Kaiser Turns, which were operated out of San Bernardino to Kaiser.

The empties returned, reverse route, in much the same fashion. When the Eagle Mountain Mine opened, in 1947 iron ore shipments over the UP and Santa Fe to Kaiser ended. Instead the ore moved over Kaiser Steel’s Eagle Mountain Railroad to the SP at Ferrum, along the Salton Sea. The SP forwarded unit trains west over Beaumont Hill, to South Fontana and Kaiser Steel.

Kaiser Steel acquired and made extensive surveys of the Morris Lode Deposit, about thirty miles southeast of Daggett, during 1944. However the ore was found to be magnetite with smaller proportions of pyrite, hematite and limonite. The mine was not developed until 1949-1950, when it was leased by Kaiser Steel to a cement company, which produced 17,500 tons of iron ore for cement manufacturing.

Kaiser Steel also owned the Iron King and Iron Mountain Deposits, located in the Iron Mountains, twelve miles west of Silver Lake, which was a station on the abandoned Tonopah & Tidewater. During 1943 and 1944, these deposits were surveyed, mapped and drilled by Kaiser Steel, US Geological Survey, and the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The ore ran 45 to 60 percent iron ore; hematite, magnetite and limonite. But the Vulcan Mine deposits averaged more than 50 percent, and was better suited for blast furnace use. With rail transportation readily available, the Vulcan Mine was developed.

The Iron Mountain and Morris Lode Deposits were deemed not near enough to the railroads. These extensive iron ore deposits, including the Vulcan Mine, were discovered and patented from 1904 to 1908. World War II created new demands for steel, and the construction of the Kaiser Steel Mill at Fontana, made development of the Vulcan Mine possible.

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