Fruit Trees for Iron Mountain, Kingsford and the Menominee River, Michigan

On February 17, 1979, the old Brule Island weather station, in the Florence County uplands northeast of Florence, read −48°F. The station at the Iron Mountain-Kingsford wastewater plant, down by the Menominee River 13 miles away, read −34°F that same morning. That 14°F gap is the first thing to know about fruit trees for Iron Mountain, Kingsford and the Menominee River: where you plant on this side of the Upper Peninsula matters more than which side of the state line you're on. This map covers Iron Mountain, Kingsford, Quinnesec and Norway, north up M-95 to Sagola and Channing, and the northeastern Wisconsin side from Niagara up to Florence and Spread Eagle.

Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The big number is the 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, built from NOAA station records with a small nudge for the ground right around you. It leans cold on purpose: a safe number to plan around, not the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones, and the typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of average USDA's map uses. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than Iron Mountain on a still, clear night at bloom.

Iron Mountain plans for −32°F (MFTC 3b), with a typical winter of −19°F, near the warm end of this map. The middle of the growing ground plans for −36°F, and half of it falls between −38°F and −34°F. The warmest ground is on the big hills around Iron Mountain: Pine Mountain plans for −28°F and Millie Hill −29°F (both MFTC 4a). The coldest is the far northwest corner, where Kelso Junction plans for −42°F (MFTC 2b).

Why the map looks the way it does

In most cold valleys the lowest ground is the coldest. This one breaks that rule at the big scale and keeps it at the small one. The Menominee valley around Iron Mountain, Kingsford and Norway, at about 900 to 1,140 feet, is the warm end. The sandy Florence County upland and the country toward Sagola and Channing, at 1,300 to 1,440 feet, is where the cold lives. NOAA station records show it: over 47 years the Brule Island station (1,250 feet) ran a median 6°F colder on the year's coldest night than the river-level station in Kingsford (1,071 feet), and Florence (1,300 feet) runs 4°F colder than the river station and 3°F colder than the Ford Airport (1,126 feet).

Nobody has published why, so here's how we read it. The Menominee isn't a closed basin. It forms where the Brule and the Michigamme meet, about 10 miles northwest of Iron Mountain, and falls from about 1,070 feet at Kingsford to about 910 feet at Niagara, so cold air on the river floor has somewhere to go. Iron Mountain and Kingsford are also the biggest built-up area on the map, and town heat counts on still nights. The Florence County uplands are the opposite: sand and gravel outwash plains pitted with kettles, closed hollows that hold every bit of cold that drains into them. That's an inference, not a published finding, but it fits every station pair we have. Green Bay is too far downstream to help.

Close to town the usual rule comes back. The hills around Iron Mountain stand roughly 450 to 600 feet above the Menominee bottom, and on a still night they sit in the thermal belt, where milder air rides over the cold pool below. Pine Mountain (400 feet above the floor) plans for −28°F, Millie Hill (490 feet up) −29°F and Briar Hill by Vulcan (450 feet up) −31°F, against −34°F on the valley floor within 3 miles of Iron Mountain. At bloom those hills run 12°F to 16°F warmer than Iron Mountain. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found the same: a valley floor averaged 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 feet higher.

The cold drains to the river. Kingsford's town spot sits in a cold-air drainage channel, the route night air takes toward the Menominee, and at bloom Skidmore on the bottom runs 4°F colder than Iron Mountain and Aurora, Niagara and South Norway 3°F colder. The lakes don't rescue that ground: Crystal Lake in Iron Mountain freezes over (a 1920 drowning came through an air hole in its ice), and lakes only shelter their shores while they're relatively free of ice.

The most striking measured cold is in the Spread Eagle Barrens about 4.3 miles southeast of Florence, pitted outwash laid down about 12,300 years ago, sand and gravel that collapsed around buried glacial ice. From June 22 to August 24, 1996, one of its frost pockets frosted 16 times and bottomed at 23.9°F, a ridge top about 100 feet higher frosted 3 times, and the Iron Mountain station never got below 42.1°F. On average the pocket ran about 17°F colder at night than town. A closed hollow fills with cold air up to its lowest notch before it spills.

All of this is strongest on still, clear nights. Some nights the low ground loses its edge: on February 1, 1938, the river station and Brule Island both read −39°F, and on February 4, 1996, the river station hit −39°F while the Goodman station at the map's edge, 377 feet higher, read −35°F. On January 9, 1977, the uplands pulled far away: Brule Island −41°F, the river station −30°F. When deep arctic air fills the whole country, drainage buys little; on calm, clear nights the flats and hollows drop below everything else. Iron Mountain averages 61 inches of snow a year, and air over fresh snow runs colder, but 4 to 10 inches of it insulates roots well.

Iron Mountain, Chapin Location and the hills above town

Iron Mountain began at the Chapin Mine on North Stephenson Avenue (Chapin Lake is the flooded pit), and the old neighborhood names date from the mining days: the North Side, the East and West Sides split by Stephenson Avenue, the Ludington Location. Downtown sits at 1,135 feet, 50 feet above the local floor, with the most pavement and building on the map. It plans for −32°F (MFTC 3b). Within 3 miles the floor runs −34°F, the benches −31°F and the warmest tenth of the growing ground −30°F.

The hills are the best fruit ground. Pine Mountain, once Roosevelt Mountain, rises on the north edge of the West Side to about 1,500 feet: −28°F (MFTC 4a), 15°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Millie Hill, east of the East Chapin Pit, tops out near 1,560 feet: −29°F (MFTC 4a), 16°F warmer at bloom. Trader Hill, about 3 miles northeast, plans for −30°F, and Prospect Hill, overlooking Lake Antoine, is hill ground too. Pine Mountain and Millie Hill are steep (17 and 11 percent at the points we checked, against the 4 to 8 percent grade Montana State recommends), so look for gentler shelves, and Pine Mountain's top is windy, so plant below the crest.

The city's own bottoms are Crystal Lake in the south part of town, the marshy Mud Lake north of it and the Catholic Woods toward City Park. Treat them like the floor, −34°F, and expect frost there first. On Iron Mountain's better lots, Lapins and Gold sweet cherries, Superior plum and Siberian C peach (all −35°F) clear −32°F, and on Pine Mountain and Millie Hill Rainier cherry and Contender peach (−30°F) clear the number too.

Kingsford, Aurora and the Menominee bottom

Kingsford, once called Breitung, is Ford's town: the Ford Addition was company housing, and Ferndale was platted near the plants in 1920. The town spot sits at 1,096 feet, 40 feet above the floor, and plans for −33°F (MFTC 3b), 1°F colder than Iron Mountain at bloom. East Kingsford, a third of a mile east and 70 feet above the floor, also plans for −33°F but runs 2°F warmer at bloom. Skidmore, lower at 1,080 feet, plans for −34°F and runs 4°F colder at bloom, the coldest spring reading of any place we list. Across the river, Aurora, Wisconsin sits right on the bottom at 1,069 feet: −34°F (MFTC 3b), 3°F colder than Iron Mountain at bloom. Benches within 3 miles of both run −31°F and are worth hunting for.

Here's the wrinkle. The wastewater plant station by the river in Kingsford is the warmest station here in frost season (130 frost-free days, against 122 at the Ford Airport on the upland west of town), yet the map at the plant reads −35°F in winter, right on that station's own 30-year number. It sits in town beside the river and Cowboy Lake, the Ford dam's backwater, and town heat and river fog can both delay a freeze, but nobody has measured which it is. Our read: a town lot near the river does better in frost season than the terrain suggests, and open bottomland away from town is the cold ground the map shows.

Quinnesec, Niagara and the falls

Quinnesec, on US 2 about 3 miles east of Iron Mountain, is named for Big and Little Quinnesec Falls, from an Ojibwe word meaning smoky. The village is on valley floor at 1,037 feet, 60 feet above the bottom. It plans for −33°F (MFTC 3b) and reads about even with Iron Mountain at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor runs −35°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −31°F.

Niagara, Wisconsin was founded in 1900 on the Menominee at Little Quinnesec Falls. At 912 feet it's the lowest town on the map, on a toe slope right at the river. It plans for −33°F (MFTC 3b) but runs 3°F colder than Iron Mountain at bloom, since the river corridor collects the spring cold. The benches within 3 miles run −32°F, so the higher streets are the place for anything that blooms early.

Norway, Vulcan and Hanbury Heights

Norway sits on US 2 near where US 8 crosses into Wisconsin, with Piers Gorge nearby. The village spot is a toe slope 80 feet above the floor: −34°F (MFTC 3b), 5°F warmer than Iron Mountain at bloom, with the floor nearby at −36°F. The neighborhoods split by height. Hanbury Heights, on a bench 120 feet above the floor, plans for −32°F and runs 5°F warmer at bloom. Old Norway, on a bench 100 feet up, plans for −34°F but reads 7°F warmer at bloom. South Norway, on the floor at 931 feet, plans for −35°F and runs 3°F colder at bloom. That's about 9°F of spring frost between two neighborhoods a mile apart, plenty to be the difference between a cherry crop and none.

Vulcan, about 3 miles east of Norway, is one of the old Menominee Range mine towns (the Vulcan and Breen mines shipped the range's first ore in 1877). It sits on a bench 100 feet above the floor and plans for −32°F (MFTC 3b), though it runs 2°F colder than Iron Mountain at bloom. The Sturgeon River bottom near Vulcan was called very fertile in the county's farm history; fertile or not, it takes the frost first. Briar Hill, right by Vulcan, plans for −31°F and runs about 15°F warmer than Iron Mountain at bloom, and Iron Hill, 2 miles north of Norway, plans for −32°F and runs 12°F warmer.

Florence, Commonwealth and the Spread Eagle sand country

Florence, the Florence County seat in the Nicolet National Forest country, sits about 11.5 miles northwest of Iron Mountain at 1,300 feet, on the same sandy upland as the barrens. The town spot is valley floor 40 feet above the bottom: −38°F (MFTC 3a), typical −24°F, about 1°F colder than Iron Mountain at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor runs −40°F and the benches −36°F, a spread worth using. The Florence station has never recorded colder than −31°F since it opened in 1998, while the map plans for −38°F in town; the older station here hit −39°F in 1899, so the number covers a night recent winters haven't brought.

Commonwealth, just southeast of Florence on a toe slope, plans for −37°F (MFTC 3a) and runs 2°F warmer than Iron Mountain at bloom. Hematite plans for −37°F, Ridgetop −35°F, and the Brule Island station's site, 2.5 miles northeast of town, just past −40°F (MFTC 2b). Spread Eagle, at the south end of Railroad Lake in the Spread Eagle Chain, plans for −36°F (MFTC 3a). The barrens are next door, and that 1996 study is the warning for anybody on this sand: plant on the rims and ridges, never in a kettle. Farther west into Wisconsin's Northwoods, our Rhinelander, Minocqua and Northwoods map takes over.

North on M-95: Merriman, Randville, Sagola and Channing

Head north on M-95 and the planning low drops as you go. Merriman, about 7 miles north of Iron Mountain, plans for −36°F (MFTC 3a); Granite Bluff, where farmers were putting in orchards in 1909, −36°F; Randville −37°F. Sagola, the highest town on the map at 1,441 feet, plans for −38°F (MFTC 3a), and Channing, which began as Ford Siding, −39°F (MFTC 3a). Around both, the floors run −40°F and the benches −37°F. Most places up here sit on gentle ground within 80 feet of their local floors, the kind of flat that holds cold. West of Channing, Mansfield and Kiernan plan for −40°F (MFTC 3a), and Kelso Junction, at the foot of its slope at 1,351 feet, plans for −42°F (MFTC 2b), with a typical winter of −27°F.

The exception is Metropolitan, an old mine town about 8 miles east of Randville. It sits on a bench 140 feet above the floor at 1,249 feet and plans for −33°F (MFTC 3b), 4°F warmer than Randville at nearly the same elevation, and runs 8°F warmer than Iron Mountain at bloom, the best spring reading of any settlement on the map. Height above the local floor beats height above sea level. Farther north toward Ishpeming, our Marquette, Ishpeming and Negaunee map covers you.

Spring frost and bloom on the Menominee

The spring layer is built from the lay of the land, so it shows where frost settles first on a still, clear night at bloom. The hills win going away (12°F to 16°F warmer than Iron Mountain), then Metropolitan, Old Norway, Norway and Hanbury Heights (5°F to 8°F warmer). The river bottoms and low flats lose: Skidmore 4°F colder, Aurora, Niagara, South Norway and Golden 3°F colder. NC State's fruit people say 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one.

The layer doesn't carry the regional split between the river and the uplands, but the frost dates do. NOAA station records, 1991 to 2020 medians: at the river station in Kingsford the last 32°F comes May 21 and the last 28°F May 6, with 130 frost-free days. At the Ford Airport it's May 25 and May 19, with 122 days. At Florence it's May 28 and May 14, with 117 days. One spring in ten the last 32°F comes June 1 at the river station and June 6 at Florence.

We found no written record of a spring freeze that took a local crop, but the thresholds tell the story. Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F, and with the last 28°F landing between May 6 and May 19, a tree that blooms in early or mid May here blooms into hard-frost season. Apples forgive a lot, since only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and most fruit can lose half its blossoms with no real harm. Honeyberry (haskap) flowers take 19°F wide open.

So put apricots, sweet cherries and peaches on the hills and benches where the layer reads warm, and keep the river bottoms and sand flats for apples, haskap and bush fruit. An east-facing slope is ideal, since it warms quickly on a frosty morning, and a north slope holds apricots and plums back. Through bloom, mow short and water a day or two before a frost night. On small trees, frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records, coldest reading on file:

• Brule Island (1,250 feet, 1937 to 1988): −48°F on February 17, 1979.
• Iron Mountain-Kingsford wastewater plant (1,071 feet, 117 years on file since 1902): −39°F on February 1, 1938 and again on February 4, 1996.
• Florence, the old station (1893 to 1934): −39°F on February 11, 1899.
• Florence (1998 to 2025): −31°F on February 28, 2014.
• Ford Airport (1998 to 2025): −28°F on December 25, 2004.

On February 28, 2014, Florence read −31°F, the airport −27°F and the river station −24°F. In the station table below, the airport's 30-year number (−31°F) reads warmer than the river station's (−35°F), but not because the airport is the warmer place: its record starts in 1998 and missed February 1996. The map plans for −32°F at Iron Mountain, colder than anything the airport has recorded.

The winter of 2013 to 2014 was Iron Mountain's coldest on record, with 22 days at or below 0°F in February alone. Winters have warmed about 2.1°F since 1951, but the cold still comes.

USDA's 2023 map puts Iron Mountain, Kingsford, Norway, Quinnesec, Channing, Sagola, Florence and Niagara all in zone 4b (−25°F to −20°F). Our MFTC zones run from 4a on the hills above Iron Mountain through 3b in the river towns and 3a around Florence and Channing to 2b at Kelso Junction. USDA's zones are built on an average winter's coldest night; ours plan for the bad one, so ours read a zone or more colder.

What you can grow here

Every plant we sell is zoned to the coldest temperature it has actually come through, so compare its rating straight to your number.

The hills above Iron Mountain and Norway, −28°F to −31°F

Pine Mountain, Millie Hill, Trader Hill, Briar Hill and the best benches in town: the only ground here with room for tender stuff and warmth at bloom to crop it. Sweet cherries: Lapins and Gold (−35°F), and Rainier (−30°F) on Pine Mountain and Millie Hill. Peaches: Siberian C (−35°F), which ripens very late, and Contender (−30°F) on the warmest hillsides. Apricots: Hardy Iowa and Zard (−35°F). Plums: Superior (−35°F) with Toka nearby to pollenize it; our pollination maps show other pairings. Pears: Bartlett and Red d'Anjou (−35°F). Apples: Macoun (−35°F) and everything below.

Iron Mountain, Kingsford and the river towns, −32°F to −35°F

Downtown Iron Mountain, Kingsford, Aurora, Quinnesec, Niagara, Norway and its neighborhoods, Vulcan, Metropolitan, Pulp and Ridgetop. Apples: Honeycrisp, Wolf River and Frostbite (−45°F), all on the Dickinson Conservation District's spring sale lists, plus Haralson (−45°F) and Zestar!® (−40°F). Pears: Summercrisp and Ure (−40°F). Plums: Underwood and Pipestone (−40°F), with Toka as a pollenizer. Tart cherries: Evan's Bali, good to at least −40°F to −45°F, and Meteor (−40°F). Apricots: Westcot (−45°F), on your highest corner. Lapins, Gold and Superior (−35°F) clear the town lots at −32°F to −33°F.

Florence, Spread Eagle and the M-95 country, −36°F to −38°F

Florence, Commonwealth, Hematite, Spread Eagle, Merriman, Granite Bluff, Randville, Turner and Sagola. Applecrabs: Kerr and Chestnut (−50°F). Apples: Parkland (−50°F), Haralson, Honeycrisp and Snowsweet® (−45°F), and Zestar!® (−40°F). Pears: Bolshaya (−50°F) and Summercrisp (−40°F). Plums: Brookred (−50°F) and Toka (−45°F). Cherries: Evan's Bali, Meteor and the Romeo dwarf cherry (−50°F). Apricot: Debbie's Gold (−50°F), on a rim or toe slope. The acid sand (about pH 4.9 on the barrens) suits the Cold Climate Blueberry Bundle (−40°F). Worth a try on Florence's benches (−36°F): Superior and Bartlett (−35°F).

Channing, Mansfield and Kelso Junction, −39°F to −42°F

Channing, Golden, Mansfield, Kiernan and Kelso Junction. If you only plant one tree, make it Kerr (−50°F) or Trailman (−60°F). Centennial (−50°F) showed zero winter injury at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana after a winter that hit −47°F. Apples: Norda and Parkland (−50°F), plus Haralson and Frostbite (−45°F). Pears: Bolshaya. Plums: Brookgold and Brookred (−50°F). Cherries: Evan's Bali and Nanking Cherry (−50°F). Apricot: Debbie's Gold. The −40°F ratings clear Channing and Golden at −39°F and are worth a try at Kelso Junction.

Berries anywhere on the map

Montana Black Currant, Honeyberry, Aronia Berry and Serviceberry (−50°F) come through anything this map plans for, though serviceberry flowers are hurt at 28°F, so keep it off the coldest flats. Red Lake currant, Pixwell gooseberry and Boyne raspberry (−40°F) fit everywhere but the coldest few spots, like Kelso Junction, where they're worth a try under good snow.

Rootstocks, soil and the local problems

Roots are the weak link: dormant apple roots are seriously injured near 10°F while the wood above takes about −40°F, and snow keeps them alive. A windswept hilltop or a plowed-bare town lot doesn't hold snow, so pile it over the root zone and mulch. At Ed Schultz's farm, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow with no damage. Drip is the only irrigation we advise, tapered from mid-August so trees harden off. The county's old farm reports say some local soils were sour and needed lime, so test before you plant. Deer are the big pest (in 1904 Chas. Doane hung a lit lantern in his Floodwood orchard to keep them off), and rabbits too. Fence, guard the trunks, and paint them with white interior latex diluted half and half in late autumn against winter sunscald.

Fruit history here

This was potato, hay and dairy country, but apples were part of it. Dickinson County had 5,242 bearing apple trees in 1919 and 7,929 by 1922, along with 216 cherry trees, 25 pears, 6 grapevines and not one peach. In 1909 farmers near Granite Bluff, on the Stemmetz and Langsford farms, were putting in orchards, and in 1925 Jacob Smokovitz set out several hundred fruit trees on his State Road farm. MSU's 1958 Fruit Varieties for Michigan covered only the Lower Peninsula and sent U.P. growers to the experiment station at Chatham for their own list. We don't know of a commercial orchard or u-pick on this map today, but the Dickinson Conservation District in Kingsford runs a spring tree sale; its 2026 apples were Honeycrisp, Zestar, McIntosh and Wolf River.

Questions people ask

What zone is Iron Mountain, Michigan?

USDA's 2023 map puts Iron Mountain in zone 4b (−25°F to −20°F), along with Kingsford, Norway, Quinnesec and Florence. Our map plans for −32°F downtown (MFTC 3b), −33°F in Kingsford and −28°F to −29°F on Pine Mountain and Millie Hill (MFTC 4a). USDA's zone is based on an average winter; ours is based on the bad night we plan for.

What fruit trees grow in Iron Mountain, MI?

Honeycrisp, Wolf River, Frostbite and Zestar!® apples, Summercrisp pear, Underwood plum and Evan's Bali tart cherry all clear Iron Mountain's −32°F, and Lapins and Gold sweet cherries (−35°F) fit the better town lots and the hills. Florence and the north end, at −36°F to −42°F, need ratings at least that cold.

When is the last frost in Iron Mountain?

NOAA station records, 1991 to 2020: the median last 32°F is May 21 at the river station in Kingsford, May 25 at the Ford Airport and May 28 at Florence, and one year in ten it comes June 1 to June 6. The last 28°F comes around May 6 at the river station and May 19 at the airport.

When is the first frost in Dickinson County?

The median first 32°F is October 1 at the river station in Kingsford and September 22 at the Ford Airport. The river station's earliest on record came August 26, 1945, and frost pockets on the Wisconsin sand plains can frost in any month.

Can you grow peaches in the U.P.?

On the right ground, as a project. Siberian C (−35°F) clears Iron Mountain's −32°F, and Contender (−30°F) clears Pine Mountain and Millie Hill at −28°F to −29°F, hills that also run 15°F to 16°F warmer than town at bloom. Siberian C ripens very late, so the 122 to 130 frost-free days in town are the real question.

Where are the frost pockets around Florence and Spread Eagle?

In the kettles of the Spread Eagle Barrens and the sand plains around them. In summer 1996 a measured pocket there frosted 16 times and fell to 23.9°F, while the Iron Mountain station never dropped below 42.1°F.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.