Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: columns

  • New lumberjack history exposes plaid-clad myths

    New lumberjack history exposes plaid-clad myths

     I live in the woods. So do a lot of my relatives. Go back a few generations and you’ll find lots of us from the woods. So I could say, as do many of my kind, that I know all about the woods.  But I don’t. And neither do you.  No one alive fully understands…

  • Wrestling our demons

    Wrestling our demons

    Last hunting season I was determined to read more books than I shot deer. Since I saw as many bucks in the woods as I did elephants or hippopotamuses, this bar was easy to clear. But I was nervous. Both books that I brought to camp featured the word “demon” in the title. My religiosity…

  • Iron Range helium shows quality; now, what about quantity?

    Iron Range helium shows quality; now, what about quantity?

    Activity at the Pulsar Helium Topaz drill site near Babbitt picked up recently with the drilling of a second test well, Jetstream #2. I was there two days before drilling commenced on Jan. 16. It was everything you’d expect from a gas drilling site. Heavy equipment groaned beneath a tall derrick near an office trailer…

  • TikTok dustup exposes empty menace of social media

    TikTok dustup exposes empty menace of social media

    I hope you survived the Great TikTok Shutdown of 2025. For a few hours last Sunday, the popular social media app went dark in the United States. The company wasn’t required to shut down this way, but acted in response to an impending ban that had been upheld in a rare unanimous Supreme Court decision.…

  • Global instability will hit home

    Global instability will hit home

    The zany comedy, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” came out in 1963. The band R.E.M. released “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” in 1987. A couple years later, Billy Joel gave his famously frantic history lesson, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Despite these facts, those…

  • The U.S. Steel deal is dead; long live uncertainty

    The U.S. Steel deal is dead; long live uncertainty

    When it comes to the U.S. Steel/Nippon merger, it’s all over but the crying. And there will be quite a lot of expensive crying in federal courtrooms over coming months and years. But that doesn’t mean the story is over. We’re going to learn a lot. This is the start of something, not the end.…

  • After Carter, decency is up to us

    After Carter, decency is up to us

    Jimmy Carter was president when I was born. As a squishy infant with limited cognition, I knew nothing about inflation, gas shortages or the Iran hostage crisis. My memories of American politics begin with Ronald Reagan’s steely eyes glinting at me through our color TV. But I heard Carter’s name time to time, sometimes confusing…

  • Which came first? Polarization or brain rot?

    Which came first? Polarization or brain rot?

    A quiet afternoon spreads before me like a workaholic smorgasbord. These are the mother lodes. Without classes, meetings or interviews to occupy my time, I can accomplish anything. Grade papers. Edit the book. Write. I might even finish this column. And I will, just after I watch another video. A tanker truck turned in front…

  • The hope in counting birds at Christmastime

    The hope in counting birds at Christmastime

    For me, the holidays really start with the Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count. This year, my local event took place on Dec. 15. Despite sharp winter winds, last Sunday proved a good day to hoof through the snow to spy on tiny dinosaurs.  I started participating in this annual event in 2017, mostly because of…

  • ‘A Complete Unknown’ in Bob’s hometown

    ‘A Complete Unknown’ in Bob’s hometown

     What were you doing two years after you graduated from high school? Going to college? Raising kids? Turning a wrench? Perhaps you were fighting a war in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. Or maybe you were fighting one of 22 wars in the Call of Duty video game franchise. Me? I was commuting from Hibbing, Minnesota,…

  • Let’s not be weird about regular winter

    Let’s not be weird about regular winter

    Henceforth, we are left to wonder whether each of the upcoming seasons on our meteorological calendar will be “regular” or “weird.” For instance, this past fall was weird. Warm and dry. Last winter? Really weird. Far warmer and much less snowy than usual. We had a completely brown Christmas and a dismal season for winter…

  • Local Cold War connections remind that some wars never end

    Local Cold War connections remind that some wars never end

    When the red flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics first snapped in the cold wind above St. Petersburg, Russia, the world changed. Though some 7,000 miles away from the Iron Range, this event altered life here more than most American towns. First of all, the Iron Range was, in 1917, a land of…

  • Life exists within a thin candy shell

    Life exists within a thin candy shell

    We live in a world of Dairy Queen Blizzards, smooth fabrics, heated seats and cars that cover a day’s walk in less time than it takes to watch your favorite TV show on something called Netflix. Heck, we can watch that show in the car if we so choose. We live soft and easy compared…

  • For whom the skunk sprays

    For whom the skunk sprays

     We’ve lived in the fetid heart of skunk country our whole lives — without incident, until recently. My wife Christina grew up north of Nashwauk and I was raised in the swamps of the Sax-Zim Bog, each of us well acquainted with skunks. In my case, the family junkyard was overrun with the striped stinkers.…

  • Rightward swing will impact Iron Range projects, prospects

    Rightward swing will impact Iron Range projects, prospects

    For the first time in living memory, Republicans control all the State House seats on the Iron Range. Meantime, a resounding national victory for President-elect Trump in last Tuesday’s election holds immediate and long term implications for our region. The local GOP legislative wins weren’t unexpected. DFLers maintained hope that they might keep District 7B…