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What’s in a name?
Watching the nightly network newscasts this week has me wondering who really won the U.S. Revolutionary War some 235 years ago. Somewhere the ghost of Cornwallis smirks as Americans fawn over the heir to the British throne. A KING! HE WILL BE A KING! Despite our protestations those centuries ago, Americans then and now still…
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Ain’t no party like a Range nerd party cause a Range nerd party don’t (PUNCH) (BLEEDING)
How did I miss this? On July 17, Northland’s Newscenter reported on the fact that Popular Science named the Soudan Underground Mine as its top travel destination for nerds. (Attention media nerds, Northland’s Newscenter is a conglomeration of several formerly autonomous TV network affiliates in the Duluth, MN market). Feast your eyes on the story:…
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Hey Hey, Iron Range, time for the St. Louis County Fair
The St. Louis County Fair is this week, starting Thursday and running through Sunday at the fairgrounds in Chisholm. This is the “northern” St. Louis County fair, and I apologize for neglecting to discuss the southern one last week. The “North” is the Iron Range fair, the larger of the two, and the one that…
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From the junkyard; thoughts on movin’ on up
My sister Alyssa and I illustrate a heavy 1985 snow at Brown and Sons Salvage in McDavitt Township (Zim), MN. The “American Dream” is predicated on a simple concept. Unlike a lot of the 19th century European powers, America was to be a place where one could climb the ladder of social class based on…
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MN House select committee on jobs to visit Hibbing, Duluth
This looks kind of interesting. Press release from Rep. Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley): Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs to hold hearings in Duluth and Hibbing ST. PAUL, MN – The Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs will be making their first outstate stops of their interim tour where they will ask workers across the…
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Trampled by Turtles ‘Alone’ to be featured in major film
Trampled by Turtles Yesterday, the northern Minnesota alt-bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles announced its hit single “Alone” is featured in the film “The Way Way Back” starring Steve Carell and Toni Collette. Here’s the film’s trailer. Looks pretty good: And, if you somehow missed it, here’s the Trampled by Turtles video for “Alone”: Related posts:…
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Unique story of underground mine radio show in Iowa
Photo / Martin Marietta Materials A longtime reader from Iowa, Fred Borgen, shared this story of a radio broadcast from an underground mine located under, of all places, the cornfields of his home state. I hadn’t heard about any mines in Iowa until this, and now I’m deeply upset that I haven’t done a radio…
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Catch me (but mostly music) at Miss. River Fest
This weekend Northern Community Radio is hosting its 9th annual Mississippi River Festival at the Rotary Tent near its studios next to Johnny Cash’s “Big River” in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. They’ll be broadcasting the event on their airwaves as well, but nothing beats seeing the music live with the Mississippi River flowing behind the performers.…
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Free clinic available to low income people on the Iron Range
Project Care is a volunteer organization that provides a free clinic to residents of northern Minnesota’s Iron Range region who don’t have insurance or can’t afford medical care. I just recently became aware of this group as they announced that they are adding a clinic in Virginia to their existing ones in Ely, Hibbing and…
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RIP Steve O’Neil
St. Louis County Commissioner Steve O’Neil died today after battling a rare, aggressive form of cancer. O’Neil was known as one of northern Minnesota’s strongest advocates for the poor, the mentally ill, the homeless and the desperate. If you were the kind of person who had no connections, Steve was your connection. Prayers of peace…
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‘Lark of Duluth’ crashes off Park Point
The Lark of Duluth replica / Duluth Aviation Institute A project to replicate one of the first planes to fly over Duluth, Minnesota, in 1913 has taken a dip. This afternoon, the Lark of Duluth had a “mishap” in Lake Superior off of Park Point. The replica plane has been in the works for a…
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Finnish American author debuts new mystery novel
Thought I’d highlight this recent release from North Star Press of St. Cloud. “Shadow Play” by Debbi Lampi follows a widow as she relocates her family to Rochester, Minnesota, only to encounter a dangerous woman from the asylum where she works. Author Debbie Lampi is a Finnish American. In recent correspondence with her I learned…
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Time to tell your northern MN story
A group from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design are spending the summer in residence in the city of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. It’s part of MCAD’s Greater Minnesota Arts Initiative (read more). Three artists are collecting stories — both face to face with people in northern Minnesota and online. They’re doing a contest of…
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Gilbert, Eveleth weekly newspapers shut down
The twin newspapers of the Eveleth Scene and Gilbert Herald published their final editions earlier this month. These two Iron Range weekly papers enjoyed a long history in two of the most interesting towns on the Mesabi. The Gilbert Herald in particular had published more than a century. Publisher Nathan Krause, who took over the…
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Iron Range ethnic foods draw national attention
The NPR show America’s Test Kitchen shared a two-part series that writer Carolynn Purpura MacKay penned for Cook’s Magazine about two popular ethnic foods from northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. She traveled to Hibbing last January to learn about the Italian spiced pork dish porketta and the eastern European dessert bread potica. (puh-TEET-za) It’s a very…