Iron and Water

A memoir of family, mining pioneers and unscrupulous magnates, and the fight for Minnesota’s natural resources In 1855 the Merritt family arrived in Minnesota, where a descendant, Alfred, would one day become one of the “Seven Iron Men”—builders of the first mines to tap the state’s great mineral wealth in the Mesabi Range. Another Merritt, more than half a century later, would lead the efforts to protect Lake Superior from damage caused by mining. Iron and Water is Grant J. Merritt’s memoir of