Big Iron,

River Description

Quick Facts:

Location: White Pine to Silver City
Shuttle Length: 6.1 miles. (See details in "Directions" Tab.)
Character: Ledge drops in a fairly uniform-width channel.
Drainage area at put-in: approximately 97 square miles.

Put-in is approximately 760' elevation.
Take-out is approximately 600' elevation (Lake Superior, mean level).
Thus total elevation change is approximately 160'.

Reach consists of alternating sections of light bedrock/ledge rapids and moving water, plus a bigger drop, Bonanza Falls. Bonanza comes at 4.5 miles into the run and may easily push into class IV territory at higher flows.

A couple of good photos of the falls are available online at: UpNorthMichigan.com and Hunts-UPguide.com.

The resolution on Google Maps for this area is excellent. Therefore, we highly recommended going to the 'Map' tab, clicking 'Satellite', zooming in to the maximum resolution available (without losing image), and doing a 'virtual walk' of this reach!

Those seeking a longer run may wish to put-in about five miles upstream of White Pine (if the logging roads are passable for access).

The (rather smaller) Little Iron lies immediately to the West of this run, and may be a great 'companion-run' (if they prove both to be at runnable levels) or the Big and Little Iron runs may be 'fall-back' runs for each other in the event one is too high (or low) and the other may be runnable.

There are also runs nearby on the W.Br.Big Iron and Mineral River. Accessing these rivers (as with the aforementioned upper section of the Big Iron) may require navigating the maze of logging roads in the area, many of which are not seasonally maintained. This will likely stymie any early spring attempts at access, but should allow later spring or early summer runs.