BlockFrom the record
One of 80 National Register listings published here for Iron County · listed in 1983 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Spies Boardinghouse
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 5 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
- Address. 700 Grant St., Mineral Hills, 49935
- When was it listed? December 1983
- Category. building
- Also known as. Iron County MRA
- City. Iron River city
- National Register reference number. 83003750 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
15 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Spies Boardinghouse between 1995 and 2020, burning about 93 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 August 2019 | Other causes | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | LOG CABIN |
| 20 June 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | WEST IRON COUNTY FD 0023-19 - 2019 |
| 6 May 1995 | Debris and open burning | 4.9 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 May 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | WEST IRON COUNTY FD 0002220 - 2020 |
| 26 May 2019 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | WEST IRON COUNTY FD 0020-19 - 2019 |
| 21 May 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | WEST IRON COUNTY FD 0019-19 - 2019 |
| 15 May 2018 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | WEST IRON COUNTY FD 0021-18 - 2018 |
| 7 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Ottawa National Forest | IRON LAKE |
Mines and quarries near this property
10 of 562 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 562 workings within 5 miles of Spies Boardinghouse: 442 prospects, 97 past producers, 15 occurrences, 7 producers. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Manganese, Aluminum, Iron, Manganese, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Silica, Water, Free. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cannon Mine | Iron, Manganese | Past Producer | ||
| Sherwood Mine | Aluminum, Iron, Manganese, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Silica, Water, Free | Past Producer | 1851, 1943 | |
| Anderson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Caspian Construction Co. Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Highway Us 2 Pit and Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Iron County Road Comm. Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Proksch No 1 Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Arlington Mine | Iron | Prospect | Secondary Enrichment | |
| Aronson Hole 97 | Iron | Prospect | ||
| Aronson Iron Mine | Iron | Past Producer |
Storms near this property
3 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mineral Hills, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2010 and 2022: 1 tornado, 1 heavy rain, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Mineral Hills | $15,000 | The tornado touched down just west of Homer Road between Forbes Road and West Mineral Avenue approximately 1.5 miles northwest of Iron River. The tornado uprooted trees and caused some damage to a few out buildings before lifting back off the ground. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mineral Hills | $7,000 | There was a report of a swath of 20 trees knocked down laying on top of each other on someone's property. Power lines were also reported down with the tops of some trees sheared off. This was a delayed report and the time of the event was estimated from radar. |
| June 2014 | Heavy Rain | Mineral Hills | - | There was a report of 2.25 inches of rainfall in 24 hours approximately two miles northwest of Iron River. Most of the rainfall fell on the morning of the 24th. |
Map coverage status
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 milesOther National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Scalcucci's Grocery | 0.3 miles | 1983 |
| James Mine Historic District | 0.6 miles | 1983 | |
| Lincoln School | 0.7 miles | 1983 | |
 | Iron County Fair Exhibition Hall | 0.9 miles | 1983 |
| Van Ornum's Addition Historic District | 1.0 miles | 1983 | |
 | Robert H. Sturgeon House | 1.1 miles | 1983 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 83003750 in Record Group 79. |
| Iron County | All 80 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.