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Lyric Center for the Arts needs help
Unfortunately, this is the first of a couple “save this Iron Range arts and/or culture institution” posts I’ll be dropping this week. The Lyric Center for the Arts is the group restoring the old Lyric Opera House in downtown Virginia, Minnesota. They’ve opened the First Stage performing hall, where music, literary and visual arts events…
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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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Some guy: Big steel company will not screw us
The Grand Rapids Herald Review reports on a discussion held during a recent Itasca County Regional Rail Authority meeting that pokes at a persistent rumor around northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Namely, it’s been suggested that Essar Minnesota, the local affiliate of India-based Essar, a major global corporation moving up the ranks of the steel, ore…
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Hey, wanna buy a bunch of rocks? We’ve got some
“Overburden” is more than just the title of my award-winning book (though principally that’s what it is). Overburden is also a real word that means something “miney.” Miney is my new word for things related to the mining industry. You start saying things like this after a few years of covering the mining industry. Anyway,…
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Lake, Cook counties to see broadband to all homes
Lake and Cook counties in Northeastern Minnesota will receive millions in funding to create a publicly-owned network of broadband internet access for all their households. (Note: Link is to a private company’s press release). News items like this will continue to circulate as federal grants surrounding rural broadband start circulating outward from Washington, but I…
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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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This is a post about manhole covers and Bob Dylan
Duluth continues to expand its homage to its native son Bob Dylan with new manhole covers on Dylan Way. The heavy metal discs celebrate Dylan by way of his song “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” featuring some kind of fancy image of sandals and candles. The vandals and handles will be forthcoming, I’m sure. You might know…
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Carp czar risks assassination by bullhead-sheviks
I’m still getting hot-off-the-press media dispatches from the pro-lock and dam, anti-carp, pro-common sense, anti-bureaucracy lobby, which opposes Asian carp to the degree which it affects shipping on the Great Lakes. CONFUSION IS PEACE! Seriously, Asian carp may soon invade the Great Lakes, which is hella bad considering how just one Asian carp can fly…
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COLUMN: The empire of Iron Range past
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Once again, this is inspired by a blog post earlier in the week. The empire of Iron Range pastBy Aaron J. Brown Last week the family and I headed out to Palo, another of the wonderful scrub-brush townships…
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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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Mini retreat boasts bold agenda
Sometimes I have to post a local link just for the headline: “Chaos is the focus of Women’s Mini Retreat” (Hibbing Daily Tribune). So much material here. A lot might focus on “chaos” as the funniest thing about this headline, but I choose to highlight “mini.” Indeed, if chaos can be handled at a mini…
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Empire past
David Schneider writes at 3quarksdaily about how maps don’t mean what they used to. That’s a very simplistic way of describing a strong, creative piece exploring a changing world. He writes about Brooklyn. I’m working on the Iron Range version of this, which is weighed down by a lot of haul truck references and, thus,…
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Happy Labor Day from the Iron Range
From the Iron Range, one of the ancestral lands of the American labor movement, Happy Labor Day! The workers of the world may not yet have united, but we do spend a lot of time on Facebook. It’s only a matter of time. It’s Farmers Day in Bovey, with other Labor Day events all over…
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For Range broadband, entrepreneurs may hold the key
In rural Texas a 24-year-old entrepreneur has figured out a way to expand broadband internet access to residents who aren’t along the cable routes of big providers while making money in the process. J.W. Breeden, who wrote his business plan in high school, works out of his parents basement and has a plausible vision of…