Big Iron

White Pine to Silver City (5.6 miles)

Difficulty	II-III
Length	5.5 mi
Avg Gradient	28 fpm
Gauge	Big Iron Approximation
Flow Rate as of 26 minutes	30 cfsbelow recommended
Reach Info Last Updated	March 17, 2025

River Description

Quick Facts:

Location: White Pine to Silver City
Shuttle Length: 6.1 miles.
Character: Innumerous small ledge drops in a wide, 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'.

This reach consists of alternating sections of short bedrock ledges, rapids and moving water. Most of this bedrock breaks diagonally (rather than perpendicular) to the flow, making for some interesting running! One quite significantly bigger drop, 'Bonanza Falls', comes at 4.5 miles into the run and may push into class IV- at higher flows.

Good photos of the falls are available online at: coppercountry.com

The resolution on satellite views for this area is excellent. We highly recommended going to the 'Map' tab, clicking the put-in (white dot), then clicking 'Google maps' or 'Apple Maps'. You'll be taken to GoogleMaps, where you can click the 'Layers' icon to switch to 'Satellite' view and do a 'virtual walk' of this reach! (HINT: The river flows North from the put-in.)

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 are both at runnable levels) or the Big and Little Iron runs may be 'fall-back' runs for each other in the odd event that one is too high (or too low) and the other may be runnable.

There are also runs nearby on the

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River Features

Put In

Access PointDistance: 0 mi

Put-in at an empty wooded lot between two houses at White Pine, then bushwack 100 yards to the river.

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Note:

OtherDistance: 0 mi

Do not let the near total absence of marked/named features deter you from exploring this run. While it is not nearly as challenging as many U.P. runs, with the right flows, this should be a great change of pace and a lot of fun in its own right.

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USGS sampling site

OtherDistance: 1.16 mi

USGS lists a sampling site at this location with drainage area of 98.1 square miles.

(NOTE: Photo is not meant to represent the gauge location, but rather just highlights some of the early action on the run.)

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Bonanza Falls

Waterfall / Large DropClass: III+Distance: 4.45 mi

A broken bridge abutment (with graffiti on it) on river left makes an easy marker for when Bonanza Falls are next.

Bonanza Falls has been described as a '60-foot-wide falls consisting of two separate drops spaced about 200 yards apart. The upper falls drops about ten feet; the lower about three feet.'

It is easy to scout the Falls ahead if time from a road that goes down to the Falls on river right. A well-trodden path here also allows easy take-out (while running the river) to scout or portage the Falls.

After Bonanza Falls, do not relax your guard, as the ledges become taller and closer together, kicking the class/rating up half a notch!

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Take Out

Access PointDistance: 5.47 mi

Take-out in Silver City at the boat launch (river-right) at the mouth on Lake Superior. The take-out has good parking, easy access out of river, and a port-o-potty.

BTW, it is a local tradition (before you take-out) to paddle out into Lake Superior to do some rolls for 'good luck'.

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Trip Reports

Paul Lange

May 6, 2019

We ran this stretch on May 3, 2019. The West Branch of the Ontonagan near Bergland USGS gauge was ~1100 cfs, 5.17 feet. The Big Iron virtual gauge on AW was ~661 cfs. We thought this was minimum. Shallow and scrapey in spots, not pushy, several good surf spots. We put-in at an empty wooded lot between two houses at White Pine (the co-ordinate listed as the put-in on AW) and took out in Silver City at the boat launch at the mouth by Lake Superior. A local neighbor said it was OK to put-in where we did, although it did require some bushwacking down to the river, maybe 200 yards. Per this neighbor, this put-in is the closet spot to the river with 'permitted' access unless you go way upstream. No specific trail down, just head straight down, weave through the pines, stay right of the creek you encounter towards upstream. Easy flat spot to put-in at river level just downstream of the creek. The take-out has a port-o-potty and good parking, easy access out of river. Be sure to do some rolls in Lake Superior before you take-out, brings good luck, I have been told! As described, this is river has multiple ledges which provide fun play and multiple boofs and one waterfall near the end. At this level, it was scrapey in spots. We felt it could use at least 200 more cfs. It is a wide river. A broken bridge abutment on river left with graffiti on it makes an easy marker for when Bonanza Falls are next. It is easy to scout the Falls ahead if time from a road that goes down to the Falls on river right. Most of us ran the Falls on the river right side, entering mid-right and zig-zagging back far right to boof the ledge as there was a big tree far right. We did not scout the Falls from the left. Easy portage path around the Falls on the right. At this level, we felt the section from White Pine to the Falls was CL II to easy III. The section from the Falls to take-out more CL III to III plus as the ledges are taller and closer together. There are multiple taller ledges after the Falls to the take-out; therefore, do not relax too much after your great run of Bonanza Falls. These ledges come faster. Be sure to look upstream after the Falls as the view is gorgeous. It would be easy to do a self shuttle from the Falls to Silver City, making a short but fun run. One could also take-out at the Falls, using the White Pine to the Falls as a 'step-up' run with some adventure getting down to the river. Our guess is that the play would only get better with more water. At this level, everything except Bonanza Falls was boat scout able.