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The ’72 Floodwood student insurrection
I enjoyed this story from the vault of the Duluth News Tribune, shared in the paper’s online “News Attic” feature. In 1972, students at Floodwood High School staged a rather dramatic walkout and protest surrounding the dismissal of a popular young English teacher. Floodwood is one of the hayfield swamp towns south of the Iron…
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Notable Range history, culture center names new CEO
Lisa Vesel, former communications official for the Hibbing hospital, was named the permanent CEO of the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm last Friday. She replaces Paul Dwyer who had been the interim CEO after the facility re-opened this year from its embarrassing shutdown last year. It’s been good to see the place open, fulfilling its…
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Lincoln, Power and Perpich
With another political season upon us, the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm has opened a new exhibit reminding us of times when politics was even more important (and somehow even dirtier). “Abraham Lincoln, a Man of His Time, a Man for All Times” debuted this week, with a localized exhibit highlighting two important Iron Range…
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120 very important years, ctd.
I wrote last week on Pam Brunfelt’s lecture about the significance of the Iron Range in U.S. history. KAXE just shared a 12 minute interview of Pam which is a pretty good distillation of her talk. You should give it a listen. Related posts: No related posts.
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120 very important years
Today I attended Pam Brunfelt’s Minnesota Humanities Center lecture on the significance of the Iron Range in American history at Valentini’s in Chisholm. Pam detailed the modern history of Minnesota’s three iron ranges starting back in the 1880s until today, showing how this one small place in northern Minnesota changed the course of history. Without…
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How the Iron Range altered American history
As a nerd engaged in a lifelong battle with body weight, an event called “Lunch and Learn” is a siren call to be heeded. Maybe for you too? Iron Range historian Pam Brunfelt will be the featured speaker at this Minnesota Humanities Center event Thursday, Sept. 9 at Valentini’s in Chisholm. I’ll be there. Join…
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Whitepine down
When we first considered building our current house in the country, what struck me about the site was this tall white pine along the property line. The woods around northern Minnesota’s Iron Range once teemed with some of the largest white pine in North America, a fact that literally put the place on the map…
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Thank you, Britt!
Thanks to the Britt Community Historical Society and all the wonderful people I met last night at the group’s annual dinner held in the Sandy Town Hall. I was honored to give the keynote speech and share more of my theories about Range past, present and future, the roots of which are in my book…
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Britt History and Iron Range Future talk today
Join me later today in Britt, Minnesota for my keynote at the Britt Community Historical Society annual dinner! The event is at the Sandy Town Hall at 4 and there is a ticket cost. Either way, have a great summer Sunday afternoon. If you’re interested in the kinds of things I talk about at events…
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What/where is Britt? Find that and more Sunday
I never signed up to be a historian (an historian? See, I don’t even know) but write a book that tangentially involves history and BAM you be one. The bar is low, but I aim high. That’s why I’ll be the keynote speaker at the Britt Community Historical Society Annual Dinner on Sunday, July 11…
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Another reason to love Range history: soccer version
If you’ve read my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range,” you know that I like making abstract, sometimes comical connections from history to the present. In that spirit, here is another reason I think northern Minnesota’s Iron Range can be a cool place sometimes. We all know the World Cup is coming up,…
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Former Ironworld facility to reopen
Word has come from St. Paul that the Iron Range Resources Board has approved a plan that would reopen of the Minnesota Discovery Center to the tune of about $1 million. This would entail a stripped down version of the operations seen before the facility closed amid financial struggles late last year. Details will be…
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How iron becomes steel, starring the Range (for beginners)
Video: mxylkaxl by way of History Channel, found via MinnPost. This is the geeky sort of thing that inspired my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range,” though I throw in more jokes and talk about my feelings. Related posts: No related posts.
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COLUMN: ‘Problems of an iron world demand iron will’
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Problems of an iron world demand iron willBy Aaron J. Brown Ironworld (by any other name) is, or was, the interpretive center designed for the sole purpose of telling the story of the Iron Range. In a fitting…
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COLUMN: "A ‘vital’ life in the ‘zone of plenty’"
The following is my weekly column for the Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Fans of the blog might recognize part of this column that ran as a post last winter. Check it out to see an image of the Great Northern ad I talk about. A vital life in the…