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Emerald ash borer at the gates of northern MN forests
Creative Commons, Duane Tate Emerald ash borer, Creative Commons, USDA The emerald ash borer has been found in Superior, Wisconsin, across the bridge from Duluth, Minnesota. This ash tree parasite has been slowly making its way north where forest ecologists have long feared it could seriously damage the ash tree populations of northern Minnesota. The…
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Spec no more
While I was gone the Hibbing Daily Tribune reported on a press event held by the city of Hibbing and officials from Detroit Diesel, who will occupy the spec building out by the airport in 2015. I just wrote about that project a few days ago. It’s a big job-creating project and I join everyone…
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PolyMet optimistic after EPA letter indicates progress
I’m back from a family trip to the Brainerd Lakes area. Let’s see, what have I missed. Hmmm. Oh, look, more nonferrous mining news that can be interpreted differently based your worldview. Well, I can’t pass on that. This week, PolyMet released a letter from the EPA indicating that significant progress has been made on…
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Minnesota, land of 10,000 geological blotches
Are you ready to rock? Behold this geological map of Minnesota: Note the snake-like grey line of the Mesabi Iron Range in the northeast, how it divides several distinct geological formations. It also divides biological zones and even weather zones. The people are a little different here, too, something we cover at length on this…
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Vaudeville throwback show slated for two-week Range run
The Lyric Opera House in Virginia, Minnesota. The Lyric Center for the Arts in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, will be doing a Vaudeville throwback called “The Last Train to Winnipeg.” Set in Virginia of the 1920s, the show depicts a Vaudeville troop trying to catch the last train north. “The Last Train to Winnipeg” runs…
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Ex-editors dish on conditions in corporate community journalism
Business North has an exclusive story that might interest readers of Northland newspapers. The former editors of the Ashland Press in northern Wisconsin recently dished on the reasons they left the American Consolidated Media-owned paper. A taste: “It was clear to me that if I wanted a day off, I was going to have to…
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IRRRB actions invest in schools, continue quixotic land plans
The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board gathered last Thursday for a meeting. The headline was a $3.65 million investment in education initiatives and jobs projects. Business North has a roundup of the activities, including a decided tilt toward higher education spending. I’m biased (I teach for a community college that benefits from these deals),…
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Top Iron Range, Canadian officials to meet in Hibbing Tuesday
Things you see through your windshield at train crossings on the Iron Range. Tmrw, 11:30, Hibbing: Canada and #IronRange convo w/ @IRRRB @Tonysertich @Jamshed_MPLS cc: @duluthnews @minnesotabrown @HibbDailyTrib @mntoday— Canada in Mpls (@CanCGMPLS) August 12, 2013 When the Canadian consul general’s office tweets you, you’d better pay attention. Canada’s top Midwestern official, Jamshed Merchant, will…
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Saving cute animals on the Range by eating delicious ones
The Iron Range of northern Minnesota is the kind of place where people are capable of loving animals and eating animals with similar fervor. If push comes to shove, we’ll eat an animal we love. We might even name an animal we plan to eat, if only to have something interesting to write on the…
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Doc ‘Moonlight’ Graham Days begin in Chisholm, MN
Doc “Moonlight” Graham Days begin today in Chisholm, Minnesota. The long weekend of events pay tribute to the longtime town doctor who enjoyed a short stint in Major League Baseball, unbeknownst to many he served. This served as the inspiration for a character of the same name in the W.P. Kinsella novel “Shoeless Joe,” which…
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Pat, Donna Surface offer free Range show at Abraham Center
It’s a busy weekend on the Range as Saturday, Aug. 10 also brings Pat and Donna Surface to the B’nai Abraham Cultural Center in Virginia, Minnesota for a special show. These talented musicians are from Ely with ties to the LaPlant musical family of Grand Rapids. Abraham Museum and Cultural Center Presents…REMEMBER WHEN – A…
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Essar Steel wants to preserve Hill Annex Mine State Park
Calumet’s water tower boasts of Hill Annex Mine. Essar Steel Minnesota, which is currently building a taconite mine near Nashwauk, released a statement today stressing that, despite having mineral rights in the area, the company does not want or plan to close the Hill Annex Mine State Park in Calumet. You may recall that there…
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Bullying, school shootings have northern MN history
Most of us trace our understanding of school shootings back to Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1998. I remember being a college freshman, watching the news in the cafeteria, having not fathomed that people would do a thing like that. It sparked a nationwide conversation on guns and the way kids treat each…
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Tamburitzan show slated for Iron Range on Aug. 11
This looks cool. The Duquesne University Tamburitzans will perform at the Minnesota Discovery Center (nee Ironworld) on Sunday, Aug. 11 from 2-4 p.m. This eastern European folk music is practically a soundtrack of Iron Range history, and Duquensne — from the steel town outside Pittsburgh — is one of the best purveyors of the craft.…
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Minnesota Power to meet renewable goal 10 years early
Duluth-based Minnesota Power, one of the state’s big energy producers and employers, will hit the renewable energy goal set by state environmental law 10 years early, according to the Strib’s David Shaffer. Minnesota Power still operates several coal fired plants in northern Minnesota, but has made great headway in both reducing emissions at those plants…