Iron Industry Museum hosts bike tours

There’s another way you can dig into the U.P. iron industry’s rich heritage, but it might take you outside the walls of the Michigan Iron Industry Museum.

The museum is hosting bike tours that travel through the heart of the Marquette Iron Range. The tours begin at the museum in Negaunee Township and ride on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail to the Jackson Mine, to Negaunee’s Olde Towne area, to Ishpeming and back.

“We can offer visitors not only an experience inside the museum, where they can see artifacts, but they can actually get out on the trail and see historic buildings, historic sites and features,” Michigan Iron Industry Museum historian Troy Henderson said.

The tours cost $20 and the first one of the season took place today. The route is about 15 miles long. It takes about four hours, including stops to have lunch and view historic sites.

“Some of the hoist houses and Cliffs Shaft and Jasper Knob,” Henderson said. “There’s so much to see on the Heritage Trail and there’s so much history of the iron industry along this route that we’ve been offering tours for the last three years.”

More tours are offered through the end of July. Early registration is encouraged because space is limited. The museum has registration forms on its website and at the front desk.