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Summer tours of active taconite mine are back
If you’ve never seen an active taconite mining operation on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, you can this summer. MDC, Hibbing Taconite to provide summer mine tours CHISHOLM, Minn. – Minnesota Discovery Center, Hibbing Taconite and Shubat Transportation have once again teamed up to provide a bus tour of Hibbing Taconite to the public. The tours,…
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COLUMN: Drive youth home, not away
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 12, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Drive youth home, not awayBy Aaron J. Brown “If you’re going to write in the paper, put my name in there and say that I want a car.” That would be Doug, one of my boys about to…
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Entrepreneurship and the future of places like the Iron Range
This post from Dr. Steve Wyckoff of the education reform blog “What’s Become Clear” explores the notion of teaching entrepreneurship to high school students as a form of economic development. I have to say, upon reading his ideas, there is merit here that could be applied to the Iron Range. So much money is spent…
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Judas was from the Iron Range
This is the film Professor David Leaver of Manchester Metropolitan University presented at Dylan Days 2011 in Hibbing, Minnesota. It explores some of Dylan’s past (including his northern Minnesota roots) and how his path intersected with one important place, the Manchester Free Trade Hall. Related posts: No related posts.
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Art in the Park brings youth orchestra to big Range venue
The Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm announces its evening “Art in the Park” event for tonight. June 9 Art in the Park features Crescendo Youth Orchestra Crescendo Youth Orchestra will perform at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 9, for Minnesota Discovery Center’s Art in the Park series. The Orchestra’s performance is part of a five-day…
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The business of art on the Iron Range
Here at the blog I call for harnessing creativity for the economy of the future. Musician, CPA and friend of this blog Carolyn Flaschberger will lead a workshop tomorrow on the art of keeping good record for your business as an artist at the Lyric Center for the Arts First Stage in Virginia, Minnesota. From…
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MPR: Shutdown would have big impact in northern Minnesota
The Minnesota Public Radio MinnEcon blog took a hypothesis of mine and ran with it. A while back I theorized that a state government shutdown could have a disproportionate effect on rural Minnesota and here on the Iron Range. Molly Bloom reports that, indeed, the hit would come from the fact that state government wages…
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The meaning, value and future of place in rural Minnesota
Gregg Aamot has a compelling commentary over at MinnPost today talking about how young adults from small towns feel the sometimes simultaneous urge to stay and leave. Growing up outside the metro means growing up in a place with an unpredictable economy and a highly specific local culture, two factors that create this dichotomy. I’ve…
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COLUMN: Don’t retread on me
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, June 5, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Don’t retread on meBy Aaron J. Brown The entertainment writers call this the summer of the sequel. In a May 15 Newsweek column, film critic Roger Ebert describes a popcorn movie season of unoriginality and safe choices for…
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‘Art in the Park’ returns to Iron Range’s MN Discovery Center tonight
The Thursday evening summer music series at the former Ironworld, now Minnesota Discovery Center, returns tonight in Chisholm. Here’s a press release that includes other interesting tidbits as well. Art in the Park begins June 2 Minnesota Discovery Center’s summer music series begins Thursday, June 2, at 7 p.m. with Mark Pommier’s acoustic performance in…
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Range 911 calls now headed for Duluth
The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department has announced that emergency calls from the northern half of the massive northern Minnesota county will now be handled in Duluth. The “Midway” call center, as it is known, will be closed. One dispatcher I’ve talked to, understandably upset about an additional 2-3 hours of drive time, also fears…
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The Iron Range’s highway connundrum
A while back I wrote about the ongoing Highway 53 reroute affecting the Iron Range Quad Cities of Mt. Iron, Virginia, Eveleth and Gilbert, really the central artery of the region. The Laurentian Chamber of Commerce has a project home page with updates, including this map. Eveleth is that gray blur in the center, Virginia…
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MPR: Northern Minnesota’s politics is about to get ugly
I have the MPR News Commentary today with a piece about the changing nature of Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District after Rep. Chip Cravaack’s defeat of former Rep. Jim Oberstar in 2010. Check it out and pass it along if you can. Related posts: No related posts.
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Range energy project given breath of life by desperate lawmakers
I did not miss the fact that the state legislature expanded the exceptions and special language for a proposed Iron Range coal gas power plant advocated by Excelsior Energy, a new company formed in 2001 by energy industry lobbyists. I saw the news. I was well aware of this bill’s slow slinking through the back…
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Excitement over Dylan week builds in northern Minnesota
Dylan Days opens tonight in Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing and Dylan Fest is ongoing in his birthplace of Duluth. A host of music, arts and literature events are on tap for a celebration of the folk rock icon’s 70th birthday. Media coverage is starting to pick up with a fascinating collection of reflections and musings…