The publication “Business Insider” has posted an item entitled “Take a Tour of the Mongolia of America.”
Mongolia of America? Where could that be?
Turns out, I’m in Mongolia. They’re talking about northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Bob Dylan once compared the region to Mongolia (favorably, if that helps) and they ran with that. Like Mongolia, the thin red ridge of the Iron Range is among the oldest land on earth.
Business Insider’s photo tour comes from an Iron Range photographer’s Flickr feed. He narrates the photos with short descriptions. It’s a good glimpse inside the pit operations of several Iron Range taconite mines.
Photo: one of my photos taken of the Hull Rust pit at Hibbing Taconite several years ago.
This interests me in one unusual additional way: I have a local friend who works for some company that supports mining. He may sell equipment or be a consultant, not exactly sure. But he travels to Mongolia regularly as part of his work. Sleeps in a yurt there that has WiFi.
It’s odd that they mention Hibbing, Two Harbors and even (give me a break) Proctor, but neglect to mention that fully a quarter of the photographs were taken in Duluth.