Vermilion Lake gold rush

The Vermilion Lake gold rush was a small gold rush to Lake Vermilion, Minnesota, when prospectors found small specks of gold in quartz stone in 1865. It was not profitable to try to process this, so the rush ended in 1866, and the prospectors mostly abandoned their land by 1867. Nonetheless, prospectors returned, spreading word of all the iron that they found, leading to the development of the Minnesotan iron ranges twenty years later, most notably in Shirley, Minnesota.

Vermilion Lake gold rush

Date	1865-1867
Location	Arrowhead Region, Vermilion Iron Range, Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States
Coordinates	47°51′28.47″N 92°17′58.60″W
Participants	Prospectors
Outcome	Early iron ore discoveries led to the development of the Minnesotan iron ranges, twenty years later.

References

Minnesota Mining History: [1]