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To be for it, or not to be for it
The Iron Range is a hard place to be an intellectual “Hamlet” type. This is partly because some of our most powerful officials and opinion makers have no idea what that means. It’s also because it’s a place that operates best when you pick a side and stick with it. Loyalty, old relationships, stubbornness, and…
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Trapper envy
Everyone gets the wrong mail sometimes. Postal workers are humans, after all. Maybe you’ve received someone’s college alumni newsletter or some kind of notice from a cell phone company. You just put it back in the box and assume that the matter is corrected. Well, in northern Minnesota you get some different kinds of mistaken…
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Adapting fast, insiders say Range mines could recover quickly
Northern Minnesota iron mining is surely in a down cycle, with current and planned temporary taconite mine shutdowns looming over the Iron Range. But Mike Jennings of the Hibbing Daily Tribune has an interesting story in Sunday’s edition about the optimism of steel industry insiders in the long term strength of steel prices and the…
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The Lone Pine India Holi Polka
Most followers of Range news have been tracking the Essar Steel development in Nashwauk, a new mine and steel plant owned by an international India-based steel company. Iron Range officials and educators are trying hard to embrace the Indian culture of the Essar managers and employees being assigned to the new facility as it begins…
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OmniBob
This post at Wonkette explores how Duluth native and Iron Range-raised Bob Dylan’s last two albums correctly predicted significant (largely negative) events that shaped the last decade. Indeed, some of Dylan’s older material also foretold historic events. His latest album, “Together Through Life,” subtly suggests the end of humanity, according to one critic. I’m just…
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Here we snow again
Driving snow on the first day of spring on the Iron Range. I’d call it an omen if this sort of thing didn’t happen every spring. Related posts: No related posts.
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What the missing steam means
Most mornings my drive from the woods north of Nashwauk to Hibbing orients around the enormous steam cloud billowing out of Keewatin Taconite. The wind points the steam like a finger, to the north on a warm day and angrily to the south on a cold, bitter day. On a calm day the finger points…
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An Iron Ranger in a strange land
As readers of this blog know, I subsidize my blogging by begging readers to buy my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” (available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble). Last week I took the “Overburden” road show to the Twin Cities for the first time. It was an exciting trip and I’m now…
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Dirt work at Essar Steel on the Range
Lee Bloomquist has posted video and and update on the Essar Steel Minnesota project near Nashwauk at the Iron Range Resources blog “Rangeviews.” The information matches the media reports seen over the past week, but it’s interesting to see the actual dirt work going on. Gov. Tim Pawlenty told reporters when he was in town…
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Bob Dylan portable toilet flap leads to desperate plea from Duluth paper
Something is “blowin’ in the wind” at Minnesota native and Hibbing High School alumnus Bob Dylan’s home in Malibu. It appears neighbors are upset about the smell coming from a portable toilet on Dylan’s property. Ha ha! I wonder if anyone else will think to use the term “Blowin’ in the wind” for this story.…
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Dead skunk in the middle of the road
When the headline reads “Iron Range teen faces charges after skunk prank goes awry,” I’ll bite. So will you. (Duluth News Tribune). Oh, and if you’re wondering: Gilbert. Related posts: No related posts.
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Reports: Essar forging ahead
Word up north is that Essar Steel Minnesota is proceeding with plans to build a mine and eventually a steel mill near Nashwauk on Minnesota’s Iron Range. This, despite financing problems that are delaying the next phase of construction. The Star Tribune had a story today. The interesting observation to me is that Essar CEO…
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Sunday fun links: snow, Alaska, the Russian Empire and more
My friends the Rudstroms in Brevig Mission, Alaska, posted a great video about what happens when a snow drift blocks the door to your house in an Alaskan Inuit Village not far from the Bering Strait. (h/t Rudstrom Family Blog) And, on the subject of things that are close to Russia, via “TYWKIWDBI” here are…
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Biden to St. Cloud? What, the Eveleth Hippodrome was booked?
Vice President Joe Biden is coming to St. Cloud this Thursday. The agenda: a town hall meeting about how to strengthen the middle class. What better place to explore middle class issues than a town known for its all-you-can-eat buffets! St. Cloud is called the Granite City. I know this because one time I was…
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More commotion in Range economic development
I’m still catching up from my trip to the Twin Cities. Here are some of the headlines from the last two days. Essar Steel is delayed eight months because of financing issues. This is the combined mine and steel mill in Nashwauk that’s been talked about in some form for approaching two decades but that…