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See active Iron Range mines or tour virtually
This Thursday brings the first of the Hibbing Taconite mine tours available via the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. The tours run every Thursday afternoon from June 25 to Aug. 6. The Hibbing Taconite mine tour takes you through an active iron mine and processing facility. You see how iron is blasted out of the ground and turned…
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Metsa’s Cats Under the Stars to reunite on the Iron Range
Paul Metsa, the Minnesota folk/rock troubadour, will reunite his signature band from the 1980s, Cats Under the Stars,” for a reunion concert in the Iron Range town where they formed 40 years ago. Cats Under the Stars will perform 7 p.m., Thursday, June 18, at the Lyric Center for the Arts at 510 Chestnut Street…
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Great Northern Radio Show live Saturday from Grand Marais
(To the tune of “Do You Know the Way to San Jose“) Do you know the way to Grand Marais? I’ve been away so long. I may go wrong and lose my way. Do you know the way to Grand Marais? I’m going back up the North Shore to Grand Marais. 61 is a great…
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Debunking many immigrant family legends
Every year I read the names at the Hibbing Community College graduation ceremony. That means I’ve become unusually accustomed to pronouncing names that originate from areas all over Europe. In recent years, an influx of students from Africa have added new challenges to my elocution. I am from a land of immigrants but walk around…
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Great Northern Radio Show in Grand Marais on 6/13
On Saturday, June 13, we’ll broadcast a new edition of my Great Northern Radio Show live from the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais, Minnesota. We’re really excited about this one for a few reasons. One, the location. It’s a summer weekend in one of the most beautiful parts of Minnesota. Two, the…
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Chief Bemidji statue to be dedicated June 6
For many, the history of Northern Minnesota is wrapped up in the fictional story of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, adorable figures found on display in towns like Brainerd or Bemidji. But in Bemidji, a remarkable cultural reclamation is taking place. A statue of the Ojibwa leader Shaynowishkung, often known as Chief Bemidji, the…
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Timeless sound from Rich Mattson & the Northstars
When they performed in my Great Northern Radio Show in Ely last summer, I referred to Rich Mattson and Germaine Gemberling as “the First Couple of the Iron Range music scene.” The pair, based at Sparta Sound in a nearly abandoned mining location near Gilbert, is involved in so many projects and affiliated with so…
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Local film festival to mark 10 years of ‘North Country’
The sixth annual first ever Duluth-Superior Film Festival opens today in downtown Duluth and runs through Sunday, June 7. Local films and those with a Minnesota connection will be screened for audiences at popular Duluth cultural sites including the Zinema Theater on Superior Street, Clyde Iron Works, The Red Star Lounge and Teatro Zuccone. The festival…
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Ely Folk School slated for June 6 opening
In a digital world, one is often left to ask, Who is it that actually knows how to do stuff? Make things. Build structures. Produce crafts and useful items. Get by when the power goes out. Who does that now? Enter the Ely Folk School, slated to open on June 6. A story about the…
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Chisholm teen in Scripps National Spelling Bee today
An Iron Range eighth-grader is competing right now in Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Cade Klimek from Chisholm High School will be representing Minnesota while spelling alongside the nation’s best today. Preliminaries: Wednesday, May 27, 8am – 4:45pm EDT. Streaming live on ESPN3. Semifinals: Thursday, May 28, 10am – 1pm EDT. Live on ESPN2. Championship Finals:…
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Duluth wraps up Dylan Fest, starts new era
Bob Dylan’s birthday of May 24 passed me by this weekend with little fanfare. In years past as organizer for Dylan Days in Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, I’d spend that day with Dylan fans from all over the world. This year, we had made the tough decision to let the event go in our…
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Bob Dylan among Letterman’s last guests
I’m working on a column about David Letterman’s retirement from the Late Show this week. I wrote about Letterman and late night TV some back in April, but the reality of it is upon us. Wednesday will be Letterman’s last show and the guests haven’t been announced. But Tuesday’s show brings a big name with…
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Duluth Dylan Fest opens Sunday
My May schedule is a little different this year. For the first time in 14 years I’m not organizing a Bob Dylan-themed music, literature and arts event in the folk/rock legend’s Northern Minnesota hometown of Hibbing. We announced the reasons why we folded Dylan Days late last year, but the reality of it has arrived. Nevertheless,…
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NPR chuffs into the Island of Sodor’s philosophical vortex
It’s been a couple years since I’ve “visited” Sir Topham Hatt’s Island of Sodor and his many sentient machines, including most famously Thomas the Tank Engine. Our boys are older now. One boy practices archery. One boy plays video games. One boy draws dramatic, intricate scenes of human carnage and calls out at night, “Mom, I…
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The human connection lives on
I was moved to read this post by Minnesota blogger Aaron Rupar, previously of City Pages and Fox 9, but writing this for his personal site. His grandfather, George Raskovich of Nashwauk, died when he was a young boy, but he recently formed a connection with the man’s memory thanks to the writing of another Northern Minnesota writer…