The second episode of our podcast “Power in the Wilderness” dropped over the weekend. You can listen online now if you missed it. The episode is entitled “El Pulpo,” Spanish for “The Octopus.” Our show is a special production of KAXE-Northern Community Radio. It’s funded in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund…. Read More →
Latest Power podcast episode connects desert car chase with Minnesota mines
July 15, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Media mergers in northern Minnesota and beyond
July 14, 2020 by 3 Comments
By now you may have seen the last column I wrote for the Hibbing Daily Tribune and the first that I penned for the newly merged Mesabi Tribune. Then last Friday I did a couple interviews about the merger of the Hibbing Daily Tribune and Mesabi Daily News. First I went on the KAXE Morning… Read More →
125 years of iron ore from Hibbing’s Mahoning mine
July 5, 2020 by Leave a Comment
At sunrise on Friday, July 3 workers raised a 44-star American flag at the edge of the the Hull Rust Mahoning Pit in Hibbing. The historic flag commemorated the day in 1895 when the first shovel lifted iron ore from the Mahoning Pit. “That open pit of course started with a single scoop of ore… Read More →
2020 Iron Range Fourth of July schedule battered, not beaten
June 28, 2020 by Leave a Comment
As you might know, each year I enjoy sharing the schedule of Iron Range Fourth of July parades, street dances and fireworks displays. July 4 is a American holiday that holds special meaning here in the immigrant communities of northern Minnesota. This year we enter the Fourth of July holiday week with much more uncertainty… Read More →
Iron Range daily newspapers to merge
June 24, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Today, the Mesabi Daily News and Hibbing Daily Tribune announced that the newspapers would merge operations beginning Wednesday, July 8. The new Mesabi Tribune will publish six days per week, making it the only remaining daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. Print publications have been reeling from lost ad revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic. These immediate… Read More →
Redhead Mountain Bike Park looks wild
June 9, 2020 by 1 Comment
The manufactured landscape of the Iron Range looks like nothing else. It’s a cyborg. Half natural, half unnatural. Steep cliffs made by shovels, trucks, and explosives overlook deep, clear lakes that are not lakes. They’re pits dug through generations, reclaimed by a water table that once existed underground. Nature always stands ready to reclaim what… Read More →
Even northern towns under curfew tonight after chaotic week in Minnesota
May 31, 2020 by 3 Comments
UPDATE June 1: A peaceful night passed on the Iron Range. Further review indicates that internet rumors prompted Range towns to set curfews. Efforts to organize peaceful protests in these towns became wildly misinterpreted. Original May 31: Today, peaceful demonstrations took place in towns across northern Minnesota, including Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Hibbing and Virginia. In… Read More →
Eveleth-Gilbert, Virginia voters approve school district consolidation
May 13, 2020 by 3 Comments
On Tuesday citizens in Eveleth, Gilbert and Virginia voted to approve the consolidation of two Mesabi Iron Range districts. More than 77 percent of Virginia district voters backed consolidation while almost 54 percent of Eveleth-Gilbert voters supported the move. Both districts needed to approve the measure for it to take effect. The new district will… Read More →
Minntac lays off 260 miners
May 1, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Less than 24 hours after announcing that a Canadian steelmaker was buying a quarter share of Minntac, U.S. Steel announced 260 layoffs at the largest iron mine in the U.S. The layoffs provide a clearer picture of the tumultuous situation in the U.S. economy and North American steel markets. We now see that U.S. Steel… Read More →
Stelco poised to buy 25% of Minntac
April 30, 2020 by Leave a Comment
During its quarterly earnings call today U.S. Steel announced that Canadian steelmaker Stelco holds the option to buy up to 25 percent of Minntac in Mountain Iron. The taconite plant is the largest in the United States and the “king” of Mesabi Iron Range mines. Stelco will pay $100 million for this option and then… Read More →
