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Enough! Commemorating 1916 Mesabi Range Strike
I’m not a historian. I like to say I’m a “histrotainer.” I cherry pick interesting aspects of local history and share them with new audiences. Occasionally I happen upon some original source material, but mostly I rely on the work of actual historians. When I was a young newspaper reporter at the Hibbing Daily Tribune, I…
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Louisiana Pacific eyes Cook for siding plant
During the 2016 legislative session, the prospect of a potential Louisiana-Pacific wood siding plant in Northern Minnesota drove the agenda of the Iron Range legislative delegation. The original concept made Hoyt Lakes the preferred site. A deal in the tax bill offered tax incentives, but the tax bill never became law. So the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board…
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New airplane manufacturer on Oct. 17 IRRRB agenda
The Grand Rapids/Itasca County airport (GPZ) could become home to an airplane manufacturing company employing 20 professionals at first, with the potential of more jobs once production ramps up. On Oct. 17, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board will consider loans for ACC Manufacturing, a subsidiary of One Aviation, that seeks to make airplanes in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.…
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Hibbing elementary school mulls future of gun range
In one of those “only on the Iron Range” headlines, today’s top banner on the Hibbing Daily Tribune reads “Lincoln Elementary gun range may close.” The story isn’t that there’s a gun range in an elementary school. It’s been there for 60 years, and other Range schools have gun ranges too. The story is that after all…
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Magnetation to shut down operations
A U.S. bankruptcy court ruling today released AK Steel from its contract with Magnetation, effectively ending the Grand Rapids-based mining company. Efforts by Magnetation officials to find a buyer for the project before this outcome were unsuccessful. Business North reported this week that Magnetation’s chief prospective buyer walked away from the project. The company will now proceed with closing Plant…
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Chisholm has a clown problem
The local paper doesn’t issue “Breaking News” alerts very often. Mine closures, fires and meth busts, mostly. But on Wednesday night the Hibbing Daily Tribune issued a breaking news alert about a clown. What’s the big deal? Well, the video below, which originated from a tweet by William Butkovich, shows someone dressed as a clown throwing around a…
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‘Makers’ in the STEM spotlight on the Iron Range
The Range Engineering Council will host its annual Iron Range STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Showcase this Friday, Oct. 7, at the Hibbing Memorial Building. Among the exhibitors will be Iron Range Makerspace, the new company seeking to create space for creative people to build and design things using sophisticated technology that few garage tinkers…
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Time runs out for Northland Building
In a follow-up to an earlier story, St. Louis County will demolish the historic Northland Building in Virginia, Minnesota, next year, according to this Jerry Burnes report in the Mesabi Daily News. The building is owned by St. Louis County, which seeks to replace the facility with a new office complex. Attempts to find new tenants or a new…
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Milford Mine now a regional park
In 1924, the Milford Mine near the Cuyuna Iron Range town of Crosby, Minnesota, was the site of the worst mining disaster in state history. Forty-one miners died when a lake flooded the underground mine. I’ve written about the story before, and we explored the history in the Crosby edition of my Great Northern Radio…
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Shred some trail on Lookout Mountain
On Thursday, Sept. 22, the U.S. Forest Service and Iron Range Off-Road Cyclists (IROC) will celebrate the opening of the Lookout Mountain Multi-Use Trail system. This new single-track mountain bike trail and recreational area hugs the Laurentian Divide overlook just off Highway 53 north of Virginia, Minnesota. From the U.S. Forest Service press release: Local mountain…
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Road construction blitz mars Iron Range travel
Just as spring turns to summer, and summer gently fades to fall, so too will road crews hustle hard when the temperatures drop. The old joke goes, “Minnesota only has two seasons, winter and road construction.” Since road construction is limited by weather, the end of the season is often a mad dash against time.…
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Northern MN co-op to further expand fiber network
As I pointed out in July, Paul Bunyan Communication continues working on its Central Itasca Fiber Project. In fact, this week they’ve been laying cable on the little dirt road that leads to MinnesotaBrown World Headquarters in Balsam Township. Readers know that I’ve long advocated for ubiquitous high speed internet as a means of economic diversification for…
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N. Minn., Canada share deep economic ties
The other day I got a note from a longtime reader saying something I wrote “sounded positively Canadian.” And while I’m a proud citizen of the U. S. of A., it’s true that my beloved homeland here in Northern Minnesota is very near (and rather influenced by) Canada. A Northern Minnesota accent sounds more like a Canadian accent than…
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Magnetation facing potential Sept. 30 shutdown
Magnetation, LLC, announced today it would prepare for a potential Sept. 30 shutdown of its Plant 4 scram mining operation in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and its processing plant in Reynolds, Indiana. Magnetation is an iron ore mining and processing company based in Grand Rapids. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) of a potential shutdown relates to an effort to…
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Essar owes $1.1 billion in bankrupcy
Bankruptcy proceedings began recently for Essar Steel Minnesota, the struggling subsidiary of the Indian company Essar Steel, which seeks to build a new iron mine in Northern Minnesota. The story draws rapt attention from residents and leaders on the Mesabi Iron Range. For good reason. The outcome of this case will determine if hundreds of new…