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MinnesotaBrown’s Top Posts of 2017
Farewell, 2017! Another future year over and yet still no flying car in my garage. Nevertheless, the Minnesota Vikings are contenders and Donald Trump is President of the United States, so the past would still be baffled by our present. Let’s take a look back at the year that was on MinnesotaBrown.com. We cover news,…
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Land deal gives Cliffs edge on Nashwauk mine
Earlier this month, Cleveland Cliffs announced that it acquired land associated with the former Essar Steel Minnesota mine project in Nashwauk. At the time, I and others wondered how significant this news would be. Well, the Mesabi Daily News reports that an anonymous source says Cliffs now controls a critical part of the project, including…
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IRRRB boost for school project raises important issue
The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board is winding up its business for the year. As usual, the commissioner brings a number of projects to the docket. One provokes an important discussion about regional strategy regarding school consolidation. The IRRRB oversees a unique state agency, which is actually run by a commissioner appointed by the…
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You could use a sauna right now
The Star Tribune’s Jenna Ross recently profiled the Ely Steam Sauna, a century-old public sauna in this Vermilion Iron Range city. It might seem counterintuitive for Minnesotans to go into a public steam room au natural. Or, for that matter, in the presence of those who most certainly are. We are known as a prudish lot. But…
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Cleveland-Cliffs noses in with Nashwauk land buy
Earlier this year, Cleveland-Cliffs lost its bid to acquire the former Essar Steel Minnesota project in the Mesabi Iron Range town of Nashwauk, Minnesota to Chippewa Capital Partners. However, Business North reports that Cliffs is back on the scene today after buying land and mineral rights previously attached to that project. From that story: The…
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Iron Range newspaper profiles early ‘silence breakers’
On Sunday, the Mesabi Daily News featured a major story about the #metoo movement with a special tie to Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Penned by editor Jerry Burnes and reporter Leah Ryan, “One of the First Silence Breakers” includes an interview with Lois Jensen, the original Eveleth Mines sexual harassment case plaintiff. This story is…
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‘Blue-Collar Battleground’ opens at Chisholm museum
Job creation. Job training. Worker shortage. Part time work. Stagnant wages. Higher productivity. Health care. Retirement savings. These words filter through our news like water down a pipe, presenting clear evidence that the “labor history” of America is hardly finished. Rather, we’re living in the continuation of an unresolved labor movement. This Thursday, Dec. 7,…
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Beep-Boop, you can drive my car
News coverage of driverless cars tends to skew from “Oh, wow, look at these fancy gadgets” to “Look out, the robots are taking over!” But we’re going to need to take a very real look at autonomous vehicle technology. After all, it will dramatically reshape our lives in Northern Minnesota. Like most change, the issue…
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Rural housing crunch hits home
One of the biggest challenges in moving to Northern Minnesota is finding housing. The same struggle broadly applies to all of rural Minnesota. Sure, we’ve got lots of houses. “For sale” signs dot the streets of Iron Range communities. But if you’re not looking to buy, or especially if you’re not looking to buy what…
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Hill Annex Mine State Park to change … but how?
Rumors of the demise of Hill Annex Mine State Park have abounded for a long time. For one thing, it’s an odd state park. Hill Annex serves as more of a museum of mining history coupled awkwardly with a massive trove of pre-historic fossils. (The amount of fossils blown to smithereens in the history of…
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Make or break moment for Iron Range mining projects
I’m part of a tortured, high-strung group of people who receive regular e-mail and social media updates about the mining business. It’s part of my duty to better understand the industry that shapes Iron Range history and its current economy. And in recent months the news has been far less depressing than usual. For instance,…
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‘Cool view’ at the Iron Range’s new Highway 53 bridge
Though it’s been in use for a couple months now, I made my first trip to the other side of the Mesabi Iron Range to see the new Highway 53 bridge last week. An online contest gave this 1,000-foot-tall span the moniker “Taconite Sky Bridge.” (The legislature must act to make that official). What the…
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Minnesota moose decline stems from spread of deer
Scientists say they’ve solved the mystery of the missing moose. The brain-eating bacteria that kill so many moose, and leave others more vulnerable to wolf predation, is carried by the spread of whitetail deer into Northeastern Minnesota. For the past several years, we’ve been wondering why Minnesota’s moose population — once a strong feature of…
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Blandin layoffs highlight divided economy
Wall Street is surging. Minnesota’s economy continues to add jobs. But in Grand Rapids, a set of layoffs reminds that the United States has two economies heading in different directions. On Tuesday, UPM-Blandin announced the impending closure of its Line 5 plant amid declining demand for its coated paper products. The move will cause 150 people…
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Gov. Dayton OKs Chippewa Capital Partners plan
One way or another, a long awaited new taconite mine and iron briquette mill near Nashwauk, Minnesota, puts new meaning in the old phrase “take a slow boat to China.” On Saturday, Gov. Mark Dayton said he was satisfied with the financial package put together by Chippewa Capital Partners, the new owner of the former…