Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: columns

  • Stress, isolation erode mental health in rural areas; human connection seeds new growth

    Stress, isolation erode mental health in rural areas; human connection seeds new growth

    Today, the second in my series of columns about mental health issues appears in the Minnesota Star Tribune. I began this series after contemplating the loss of a family member to suicide many years ago. My goals: build hope for recovery from mental illness while sharing valuable resources and elevating worthy public policy ideas. This…

  • Economy, company commitments to determine real fate of NorthMet project

    Economy, company commitments to determine real fate of NorthMet project

    Today, I’ve got a new column on some of the latest twists in Minnesota’s copper-nickel mining debate. I’m well aware that my position on copper-nickel mining in northern Minnesota is like some rare single-cell organism that only survives within a narrow temperature band found near active volcanos at the bottom of the ocean. I know…

  • Part hockey, part pro wrestling, part culture war

    Part hockey, part pro wrestling, part culture war

    Yelling feels good. But yelling isn’t the solution. I fear we have reached this point in the debate (is it a debate?) over the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth. You can read more in my latest column in the Minnesota Star Tribune. Naturally, Iron Rangers don’t want the Hall of Fame Museum to…

  • If a duck can be brave, we can be brave

    If a duck can be brave, we can be brave

    Nature functions because it is certain despite its uncertainty. I’ve seen proof. Like most people of my time and place, I’ve had to live with a fair amount of uncertainty. In school, I agonized. Would she ever love me back? Was dad going to keep his job? Would I be able to afford the elite…

  • A strategy of pragmatic hope to improve mental health

    A strategy of pragmatic hope to improve mental health

    Mental health is often in the news these days. It’s an epidemic putting enormous pressure on our health care system. It’s a burden weighing down our kids as they navigate a more complex and cruel world. We hear about ending the stigma of mental illness through open dialogue. I’ll start. Mental illness in my immediate…

  • How much capital is the public good worth?

    How much capital is the public good worth?

    My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune is out now. It pertains to one of the most important companies in the Northland: Minnesota Power. I never claimed to be an economist or an MBA. But I’ve listened to a lot of people of that description over the years and have come to the conclusion…

  • Bringing back the shanty craze, for safety

    Bringing back the shanty craze, for safety

    Today begins with a question. Will the Minnesota Star Tribune let their newest columnist write a goofball satire in the form of old time workers’ shanties? The answer, to my own surprise, is yes. Please enjoy, “Why have regulations when you can have safety shanties?“ About nine years ago I became more serious about historical…

  • Logging off from myths in forest products

    Logging off from myths in forest products

    Even today, logging shapes life in the North Woods. Sure, most people here aren’t loggers. Even in rural areas, most people don’t even own their own chain saws, though many do. But logging is all around us. It’s even the subject of my latest column. As I drive from Balsam to Grand Rapids these days,…

  • Building energy resilience in rural Minnesota

    Building energy resilience in rural Minnesota

    My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune is out today, entitled, “Green shoots of hope: Despite harsh political winds, renewable energy can help communities weather the storm.” If we boil all things down to ideology and opposition, there are some people who will never accept renewable energy as anything worth their time or consideration. Meanwhile,…

  • When the thundering noise hits home

    When the thundering noise hits home

    It’s been a momentous couple of weeks on the Mesabi Iron Range, notably marred by a major layoff at two mines. But let’s be honest, it’s been a momentous year for the country. Our world is changing. American political institutions are falling apart. People disagree about whether this is good or not, but it’s happening…

  • On butts: colon health begins with early screening

    On butts: colon health begins with early screening

    When I took the new job at the Minnesota Star Tribune, I wondered about the size of my yard. In my old column, I got to wander pretty far from the house, into the woods even. Nobody seemed to mind that much, perhaps because the stakes were low. But what would the new editors say…

  • Kindling a small, but growing flame in rural manufacturing

    Kindling a small, but growing flame in rural manufacturing

    The manufacturing industry has always been a tough nut to crack in northern Minnesota. This place produces great amounts of raw materials, such as iron ore and timber, but lies far away from customers who buy manufactured goods. Thus, only small scale and specialty manufacturing has succeed, and less so as time has gone by.…

  • On joining the Minnesota Star Tribune editorial page

    On joining the Minnesota Star Tribune editorial page

    At last, I can share a really big update. This week, I joined the Minnesota Star Tribune as a full time columnist and member of the editorial board. I’ll be working remotely, based here at MinnesotaBrown World Headquarters in Balsam Township, with liberty to travel the state as necessary. In fact, I’ll be the first…

  • All good things end

    All good things end

    This will be my last column in the Mesabi Tribune. No sense in burying the lede. But to end something, you really should start from the beginning.  My first professional byline was in the erstwhile Hibbing Daily Tribune shortly after I graduated high school. I met my wife Christina in the newsroom. In June 2001,…

  • A note to historical researchers, 100 years hence

    A note to historical researchers, 100 years hence

     For about three years, I spent much of my free time reading century-old Hibbing newspapers on a microfilm machine in my basement. Please don’t throw your undies, ladies; it’s not as sexy as it sounds. My book research took on added meaning as I slowly absorbed the sensibilities of the 1910s and ‘20s.  After a…