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Skypocracy rules in northern Minnesota city
A state ruling indicates that Cohesset city councilor Dennis Blankensop did not violate the open meeting law when he attended a Jan. 8 council meeting via the internet video service Skype. The Grand Rapids Herald-Review has the story. The Minnesota Newspaper Association continues to argue that a city councilor attending a meeting from another state…
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West route for new Highway 53 now back on table
Officials are returning to the drawing board on the required relocation of Highway 53 between Eveleth and Virginia, including a controversial plan to locate the highway west of Eveleth. The Mesabi Daily News reports that costs and the immense value of the ore seem to be driving the project toward a dramatic re-imagination from how…
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Magnetation expansion could impact recreation
Magnetation continues its expansion on the western Mesabi, upping production of its iron concentrate to serve what will be its first taconite processing plant in Indiana. It’s also exploring the possibility of opening new iron mining near Coleraine which would be more involved than the company’s current scram mining (essentially reprocessing mine dumps with new…
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Johnson tapes show history’s many possibilities
As a student of history, it’s hard not to marvel at stories like this (“The Lyndon Johnson Tapes: Richard Nixon’s ‘treason’“). It was President Lyndon Johnson who installed the famous policy of recording everything that happened in the Oval Office. His idea was that the tapes would provide the historical record to correct the speculations…
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See this stunning collection of Iron Range images
The old Dupont power house, just before it was demolished thistime last year, shot by Minneapolis photographer Vance Gellart. I’ve paged through just some of the many photos shot by Minneapolis photographer Vance Gellart from his travels across the Iron Range trying to capture the unique colors, gritty ambiance and stunning contrasts found in this…
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A little bit of Earth sails beyond our known world
Bob Collins at MPR’s NewsCut reminds us that Voyager 1 has left the solar system. This little unmanned spacecraft documented so much of what we know about a tiny corner of the universe we ourselves cannot travel in a lifetime, even if we got off our duffs and tried. I knew that Voyager 1 had…
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Spring (shipping season) arrives in Port of Duluth
The Mesabi Miner loads coal for shipment to Marquette, Mich. It will return to pick up iron ore this weekend. Spring in northern Minnesota has officially begun, despite the bitter cold, blowing snow and ice-snared harbor. Today the ship Mesabi Miner departs from the Port of Duluth and Superior by way of a channel carved…
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Three great music acts perform tonight in Hibbing
Rachael Kilgour There’s a pretty cool-sounding concert slated for tonight at Hibbing Community College. I wasn’t aware it was Women’s History Month, but if that inspires people to put three of the best northern Minnesota singer-songwriter’s on one showbill I’m all for it. HCC Music Series presents, Women’s History Month Showcase featuring singer/songwriters Rachael Kilgour,…
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Jobs, jobs, jobs at the mall, mall, mall
A major job fair will be held at the Thunderbird Mall in Virginia, Minnesota, today. Representatives from several companies hiring on the Iron Range will be on hand to take resumes and applications. Tell your kid. Tell your cousin. Tell your buddy. Related posts: No related posts.
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Riding the Iron Range’s urban rail service of yore
Many are surprised to learn that the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota once boasted an interurban rail service called the Mesaba Railway. Hourly trains between Hibbing and Gilbert served the St. Louis County side of the Mesabi Iron Range, a row of towns that follow a rich iron formation that gives the region its name.…
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Wisconsin Range viewpoints run thicker than cheese
The debate over potential iron mining in Wisconsin has turned the gaze of many a Wisconsin media outlet upon my native Minnesota Iron Range, where iron mining has gone on for more than a century. Some paint us as a picturesque paradise poised for economic strength, some call us a charming region of boom and…
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Comet Theater in Cook launches existential Kickstarter
The small towns of the Iron Range once each had their own small movie theaters. There were several theaters in the bigger towns like Hibbing. Up in Cook right now, they’ve got longest continuous single-screen theater in Minnesota, open since 1939. But the Comet Theater is in danger, as this film shows: They need digital…
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The Ides of March: culture on the Iron Range
The Death of Caesar, by Jean-Léon Gérôme Friday is the Ides of March, the famous day in which Roman Emperor Julius Caesar took a little walk down to the forum in 44 B.C. and was stabbed 23 times by 60 prominent conspirators. The term comes from a warning he received on the street, “Beware the…
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Poll shows rising opposition to new mines
A poll paid for by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership shows flagging support for copper-nickel mining in northern Minnesota. For the first time in almost five years of polling, more Minnesotans say they oppose such new mining than support it. The question asked: As you may know, new mines are being proposed near the Boundary Waters…
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Radinovich named to famed ‘Range Delegation’
State. Rep. Joe Radinovich (DFL-Crosby) has been officially granted membership in the Iron Range Delegation of state lawmakers. Here he is with Reps. Jason Metsa (DFL-Virginia) and Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing). Radinovich is already on the record making elementary teachers swoon. Though in recent decades membership has been limited to representatives and senators with active mining…