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Northern Minnesota fall colors near peak brilliance
Here in northern Minnesota you can feel fall in the wind. The freeze warnings have come; the mosquitoes are dead or dying. This begins my very favorite time in this watery, forested landscape: northern Minnesota fall colors. The Minnesota DNR predicts this year’s season of fall foliage will be “brilliant,” according to the AP. I…
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Study: Wolves threaten northern Minnesota moose
The northern Minnesota moose population has been in crisis for a few years now. A precipitous drop in the number of moose in the region has led to the cancellation of the moose hunting season and widespread concern that disease, climate change and a crowded habitat are conspiring to drive moose from a state that…
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Talking northern Minnesota mining on MPR
This morning I was a guest on Minnesota Public Radio’s Daily Circuit program, talking northern Minnesota mining politics with co-host Tom Weber. It’s been a busy couple weeks of mining news with debate over the approaching release of PolyMet’s Environmental Impact Statement, Rep. Rick Nolan’s vote in favor of a pro-mining deregulation bill and a…
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UPDATE: Former Hibbing mayor dies unexpectedly
Former Mayor Rick Wolff died unexpectedly Tuesday according to the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Cause of death has yet to be announced but Wolff had recently undergone hip surgery. Wolff defeated Mayor Pru Lolich in 2002 and was re-elected in a memorable campaign against Jason “The Mechanic” Roebuck in 2006. (Roebuck was the only Iron Range…
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Iron Range mall at heart of latest Daily Yonder piece
The Daily Yonder published my second contribution today, “Decaying Malls Struggle to Find Niche.” I explore the specter of failing malls, a common site on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. I pay special attention to one Iron Range mall in Hibbing, the Irongate Plaza, which is still open but has never recovered from losing most of…
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Golf Channel profiles Iron Range golf courses
The Golf Channel’s Brandon Tucker recently profiled the Mesabi Iron Range and took a closer look at the two big golf courses at Giants Ridge near Biwabik. It’s a mostly-positive review of the Legend and the Quarry golf courses. The signature hole of the entire property — and arguably the entire state — comes courtesy…
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Solution to Mars colonization ‘madness’ problem
If you ever look at a taconite mine pit on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range you might remark on it’s similarity to pictures of Mars. Film crews have even considered the Range as an ideal site for science fiction movie shoots for just that reason. If you ever spend a winter in northern Minnesota you…
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The giant Missabe visits the Daily Yonder
Today I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be writing occasional contributions to The Daily Yonder, an online publication dedicated to rural improvement. Published by the Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies, The Daily Yonder explores life and policy in the many different kinds of non-metro areas found in the United States. My first article is…
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Catch Tower Soudan Historical Society event
The Tower Soudan Historical Society will hold its annual meeting and dinner Tuesday night from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The speaker this year will be Pam Brunfelt, giving a talk entitled “Why the People of the Iron Range Matter.” Brunfelt is an instructor at Vermilion Community College and well-published author on Iron Range history. She’s…
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No hope on the Iron Range, but for hope we create
To drive the Iron Range spine of Highway 169 is to see a sleeping giant not unlike the region’s namesake, Missabe — the Dakota and Ojibwe “big man” resting on the divide between all that is north and south. Missabe’s body is not like that of a man. Its fluids are water. Its bones are timbers.…
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Iron Range compared to Mongolia (in a good way)
The publication “Business Insider” has posted an item entitled “Take a Tour of the Mongolia of America.” Mongolia of America? Where could that be? Turns out, I’m in Mongolia. They’re talking about northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Bob Dylan once compared the region to Mongolia (favorably, if that helps) and they ran with that. Like Mongolia,…
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Community college education breaks barriers
Believe it or not, I don’t make a living writing hyper-regional tidbits for a sub-mid-level blog in northern Minnesota. I’m a teacher. Specifically, a teacher at Hibbing Community College (an institution not affiliated with my opinions here on the blog). I do, however, believe my role as a community college teacher is related to my…
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Enrollment surge fuels expansion at Cherry School
Enrollment at the Cherry School on the Mesabi Iron Range, my alma mater, has increased by 45 percent since a controversial reorganization plan by the St. Louis County school district. Enrollment this year checked in at 453, up from 312 in the 2009-2010 school year. The Cherry School is small, granted, but this is a…
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Iron Range pumpkin patch power void
This weekend the Hibbing Daily Tribune reported that Nordic Ridge Gardens in rural Calumet will no longer be in the Iron Range pumpkin patch business. While Nordic Ridge will continue some of its berry operations, it sold off the land where the locally famous pumpkin patch and autumnal adventure world were held. This was one…
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Iron Range mining commentary in the works
The nonferrous mining debate in northern Minnesota continues its holding pattern around the flaming, riot-scarred airport of Progress. I’ve written a two-part Iron Range mining commentary series for the Hibbing Daily Tribune, the first of which ran today. I have decided that instead of running the two-part series here on the blog, I’ll release an…