Volunteers remove tires, glass and antlers from Iron River cleanup
A cleanup in Iron River pulled out tires, broken glass, antlers and even a doll’s head, raising fresh concerns about dumping in the Blue Ribbon Trout Stream.
Volunteers working in the Iron River pulled out an ugly mix of trash that went well beyond cans and bottles: tires, broken glass, metal, plastic, rubber, a steering wheel, deer antlers and even a creepy doll’s head.
Ed The Diver and Christie B returned to the water two days after their first cleanup earlier in the week and said they filled the kayak up two more times while continuing to clear debris from Iron River, Michigan. They described the river as surprisingly loaded with garbage and said some of it appeared to have been collecting for more than 100 years.
The haul matters because Iron River Township promotes the river as a Blue Ribbon Trout Stream that flows through the city, making water quality a public issue for anglers, residents and the local tourism economy. The cleanup also showed that the river is still carrying the burden of old dumping and runoff, even in a community that relies on the river’s image as clean, fishable water.
The pair said they saw a bunch of little trout in the clear water as they worked, a reminder that the river is both habitat and dumping ground. Their cleanup on May 18 came despite cold temperatures, and the range of debris they pulled out suggested that trash has been entering the stream from more than one source over time. Fully intact bottles and jars, in particular, pointed to long-term neglect rather than a one-time spill.
Iron River is the largest city in Iron County, with 3,007 residents counted in the 2020 census. The city was incorporated as a village in 1885 and as a city in 1926, and Iron County’s waterways feed into the Lake Michigan watershed, which gives local dumping a wider reach than the riverbank itself. County history also ties the area to logging and mining, industries that helped shape the landscape and may help explain why old debris still turns up in the water today.
For Iron River, the cleanup was more than a volunteer effort. It was a warning that trash is still finding its way into a river central to recreation, wildlife and the city’s identity, and that prevention will matter as much as removal before the next load shows up downstream.
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