Trains hauling iron ore are an intractable part of the landscape on Minnesota’s Iron Range, but delays in hauling other cargo across the Upper Midwest has forced many iron mines to stockpile pellets, waiting for their trains to arrive. (PHOTO: Jerry Huddleston, Creative Commons)
I just finished reading “Mesabi Pioneers” by Russell Hill and Jeffrey Smith, a new historical novel set in the early days of iron mining on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. I’ll have more thoughts about the book in my Sunday newspaper column, but the story did remind me of the central struggle facing the pioneering Merritt Brothers, first to recognize the potential of America’s greatest source of iron for making steel some 120 years ago. The Range is in the middle of the woods. Without a railroad, you’re not moving ore to Lake Superior. (The Merritts couldn’t afford one, but John Rockerfeller and Andrew Carnegie could).
The Star Tribune’s Tom Meersman recently reported that iron mines in Northern Minnesota are stockpiling taconite pellets due to continuing delays on the railroads that bring ore to loading docks on Lake Superior.
The issue came to light when Sen. Amy Klobuchar raised it recently at a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing. She said one mining company in Minnesota has 250,000 tons of taconite sitting on the ground and another has 85,000 tons stockpiled as a result of rail service disruptions.
“In total we have 2 million tons of iron ore pellets that we want to send out — and make money for our country and get more jobs — that are just sitting there in a pile,” she told Ed Hamberger, president and chief executive of the Association of American Railroads.
Canadian National (CN) and Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNSF) are the corporate descendants of the famed Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range (DM&IR) and Great Northern railways on the Iron Range. Both say that an increased flow of commodities across the Upper Midwest are causing the delays, but that they will catch up. Iron ore producers are concerned, however, because if they can’t unload the stockpiles along with what they mine this fall, steelmakers could find themselves short on iron.
The rails of the Upper Midwest have been busy for more than a century, but they haven’t moved oil out of western North Dakota like they have this last decade. So often it seems history repeats itself. So, here we are in the 21st Century — and the Iron Range sure could use some more engines and cars.
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