A family rides on the trails of the Cuyuna Country State Recreational Area near Crosby, Minnesota on the Cuyuna Iron Range. Organizers there are trying to build a sustainable economy based on the attractiveness of outdoor recreation. (PHOTO: Aaron Hautala)
Today is the day my big story about the Cuyuna Range is live on The Daily Yonder, a fantastic national publication dedicated to rural people and rural issues.
The story is entitled “Pedaling New Hope for an Old Mining Town” and features a wide array of pictures, interviews and perspectives about a set of small towns that have turned things around by building on top of what was abandoned by the mines 50 years ago.
It begins:
They say riding a bike is easy once you learn how. I’m not so sure about that. Several thousand country miles on bicycles didn’t seem to matter much the first time I shot down the jagged trails of Cuyuna on a fat-tire mountain bike.
The curving, sloping trails allowed tremendous speed in remarkably tight spaces. Saw-toothed shelves of low-grade iron rock sailed past my right ear while 30-year poplar trees brushed my left shoulder. I relished the chance to attack the iron-stained red hills because it seemed like the only part of the ride I controlled; the rest was an exercise in survival.
This was like no physical activity – certainly no bike ride – I had ever experienced before. It was exhilarating. As a young GenXer/old Millennial I would crudely compare the ride to a most excellent video game. That’s exactly the feeling that leaders in the small towns of the Cuyuna Iron Range in north central Minnesota hope will draw new people and create a stable economy.
“Most people who come here leave with an amazing, dynamic story,” said Aaron Hautala, president of the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew. “We’re not here to be good for Crow Wing County, or good for Minnesota. We’re here to be one of the top 10 in the world. We have the opportunity. We have the landscape.”
Your intrepid Minnesota blogger, moments after sweating out all his fluids and throwing up along the Cuyuna trail system. But he would do it again. It was awesome.
The rest explores the opportunities and shortcomings of tourism-based economic growth, explains how this is about much more than mountain bikes and paddle boards, ties in entrepreneurship and community work, and espouses the enthusiasm and hope that I witnessed when I visited Crosby two weeks ago.
I just thoroughly enjoyed this project and I hope you like it as much as I liked writing it. And I say that even though I biked so hard that I threw up.
Please read the story, and please support and follow The Daily Yonder. And yes, I feel better now.
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