Category: history

  • The Empire Builder: James J. Hill be not forgotten

    The Empire Builder: James J. Hill be not forgotten

    Amy Goetzman begins her recent story “James J. Hill and the day the railroads roiled Wall Street” in Minnpost this way: James J. Hill was responsible, perhaps more than any other one person, for the rise of Minnesota industry and agriculture, and its lasting international impact. His robust railroad empire drew the state’s arterial maps,…

  • William Jennings Bryan in Duluth

    William Jennings Bryan in Duluth

    I played the narrator role of the “Stage Manager” in my high school junior year production of “Our Town.” I remember giving a line about how William Jennings Bryan once spoke in Grover’s Corners, a sign of some strange and isolated collision between this small town and the churn of national events. The Zenith City…

  • 50 years later: Kennedy’s visit to Duluth, Ashland

    50 years later: Kennedy’s visit to Duluth, Ashland

    It was 50 years ago today that President Kennedy walked out the doors of the Hotel Duluth in Duluth, Minnesota and flew off to another stop on his national tour. The day before he had landed and spoke in Ashland, Wisconsin at an airport that now bears his name before speaking and politicking in Duluth…

  • Dead guy wants me to stop talking about writing novel

    Dead guy wants me to stop talking about writing novel

    I subscribe to the Wordserve Water Cooler, a community blog that shares posts by writers, editors and publishing types as a resource for aspiring and practicing writers. I’ll admit, I mainly subscribe as a daily reminder that I should be writing more important things than navel-gazing columns and comedy sketches about talking fruit. I feel…

  • Vaudeville throwback show slated for two-week Range run

    Vaudeville throwback show slated for two-week Range run

    The Lyric Opera House in Virginia, Minnesota.   The Lyric Center for the Arts in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, will be doing a Vaudeville throwback called “The Last Train to Winnipeg.” Set in Virginia of the 1920s, the show depicts a Vaudeville troop trying to catch the last train north. “The Last Train to Winnipeg” runs…

  • Remembering Great Lakes’ worst labor movement tragedy

    Remembering Great Lakes’ worst labor movement tragedy

    The 1913 funeral procession in South Range, Michigan. More than 73 people died, including more than 60 children. A few days ago, the 100th anniversary of a tremendous strike and one of the labor movement’s greatest American tragedies — and some still say mass-murders — was marked in northern Michigan’s Copper Country. Beginning July 23,…

  • Ancient campsite points to earliest humans in Minnesota

    Ancient campsite points to earliest humans in Minnesota

    Karen Carr, image depicting ancient bison, mammoths. I found this Tom Meersman Star Tribune story to be quite interesting. Scientists discovered an ancient campsite along the Minnesota River at Chanhassen, MN. Eight thousand years ago, Minnesota was a different place — dryer and less forested. In fact, the only true forests at that time were…

  • Tall Ships depart from Duluth, Minnesota

    Tall Ships depart from Duluth, Minnesota

    Tall Ships at Bayfront Park, Duluth, MN The Tall Ships Festival ends today with the tall masted ships set to depart from the Port of Duluth, Minnesota, this morning. It was a mostly cold and wet Tall Ships weekend, though yesterday was nicer. My family and I made the two-hour trip down to Duluth on Friday.…

  • Maps combine art, propaganda, stories

    Maps combine art, propaganda, stories

    The other day I caught this 1914 Dutch political cartoon depicting the author’s perception of the great European powers at that time. Andrew Sullivan wrote about it at The Daily Dish, where he opined about the political, indeed, propaganda qualities of maps. Even without the caricatures shown here, anything from the color to the orientation…

  • Hail to Lake Agassiz, the mighty inland sea

    Hail to Lake Agassiz, the mighty inland sea

    This is my Sunday column for the July 21, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Hail to Lake Agassiz, the mighty inland seaBy Aaron J. Brown Living in the woods you get used to driving. You get used to complaining about gas prices, as though the 25 cent fluctuations common to any given summer…

  • Track the tall ships approaching Port of Duluth, MN

    Track the tall ships approaching Port of Duluth, MN

    U.S. Brig Niagara arrives in 2010 – Dennis O’Hara, via Visit Duluth Like many in northern Minnesota, my family awaits the arrival of the “tall ships” later this month in the Port of Duluth on Lake Superior. These masted wooden ships were a huge hit in 2010 and hundreds of thousands of people are expected…

  • B’nai Abraham welcomes classical & down-home musicians

    B’nai Abraham welcomes classical & down-home musicians

    The B’nai Abraham Cultural Center in Virginia announces another event this Saturday, July 13 at 7 p.m. It would not be summer without a much anticipated appearance by the Northern Lights Music Festival players, under the direction of their remarkable Festival founder, Veda Zuponcic. Her musicians come from all over the world, and study for…

  • Celebrating midsummer night’s eve in the people’s park

    Celebrating midsummer night’s eve in the people’s park

    I’ve written before about Mesaba Co-op Park near Cherry, the cooperative recreational facility built by Iron Range workers in the 1920s. Mesaba Park holds its annual midsummer festival this weekend. Cindy Kujala of the Hometown Focus in Virginia, Minnesota, compiled a historical column on Mesaba Park in a recent edition. You should read the whole…

  • Teen’s Range historical group meets today

    Teen’s Range historical group meets today

    Tucker Nelson is a pretty interesting guy. At 16, he’s a talented actor and musician at Virginia High School. He appeared in our Eveleth Great Northern Radio Show last fall. He also has an eye for history, frequently posting to popular Iron Range history pages on Facebook. Today Nelson is hosting the first meeting of…

  • ‘Ghost’ of the Henry B. Smith found in Lake Superior

    ‘Ghost’ of the Henry B. Smith found in Lake Superior

    The Henry B. Smith, from YooperSteez.com If you missed it, Andrew Krueger at the Duluth News Tribune had a fascinating Sunday feature about the discovery of a century-old shipwreck on Lake Superior. Most have heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking (thanks to Gordon Lightfoot’s song) in the 1970s, but a similar iron ore ship disaster…