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Grandpa Taconite turns 56 today
Today marks the 56th anniversary of commercial production of taconite pellets on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. The first pellets rolled off the line at the Reserve Mining plant at Silver Bay, generated from ore mined inland near Babbitt on the northeastern Mesabi Iron Range. Today this plant still operates as Cliffs Natural Resources’ Northshore Mining.…
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Range trolley runs extended through fall (bring your jammies)
Etched into the woods north of many Iron Range towns is the faint outline of the trolley line that once spanned the mighty Mesabi iron formation, transporting workers from mine to mine, but usually from mine to the wet-and-wild city of Gilbert. (Gilbert would want you to know it is now a fine, upstanding small…
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BWCA fire reaches historical proportions
The big story in northern Minnesota right now is the raging Pagami wildfire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in the state’s arrowhead region. About 500 firefighters will be working by day’s end to battle the 100,000-acre blaze which now threatens the region’s tinderbox of timber blown down more than a decade ago. The Milwaukee…
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Dayton holds jobs summit on the Range
Gov. Mark Dayton held a jobs summit yesterday in Virginia, Minn. Northland’s News Center had the story: Related posts: No related posts.
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Governor, carp czar address Minnesota carp summit as carp fears mount
Last year this blog attempted to become the authoritative source for sarcastic commentary about the Asian carp infestation of the upper Midwest. I do believe we were successful for a time before the fame and power sent us crashing back to earth. It’s been exactly one year since my last carp post. The carp czar…
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The long money trail of Excelsior Energy on the Range
This is a quick update to the post earlier about the Duluth News Tribune investigation into Excelsior Energy on the Iron Range. Citizens Against the Mesaba Project (CAMP) released a response that includes this tidbit: The $1.46 million reported as spent on state lobbying does not include the $220,000 spent prior to 2005, or the…
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Duluth News Tribune details Excelsior lobbying, political contributions
Peter Passi continues his Duluth News Tribune investigation into Excelsior Energy, the start-up company that has spent 10 years and $41 million in public dollars without producing local jobs or any electricity. Today’s topic? The $1.8 million Excelsior and its officials have spent on lobbying and political contributions to state and federal officials of both…
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Gov. Dayton to hold economic summit on the Iron Range
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Governor Mark Dayton will hold his fourth regional economic development summit on the Iron Range in Virginia at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College. The event will take place at 10 a.m. in the college theater (F-100). Dayton is holding several such events around the state before hosting a larger statewide…
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Range hotel housekeepers to zig, zag, clean for sport
Hotel housekeepers will compete in some sort of gladiator pageantry on the Iron Range later this Morning morning. There will be a color guard. And I do mean American flag, not laundry. So many feelings. Experience the press release with me. Clean, fold and go for the gold!Iron Range hotel hosts seventh annual Housekeeping Olympics…
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COLUMN: Ten years, worse for wear
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Ten years, worse for wearBy Aaron J. Brown Ten years ago this morning the thing on my mind as I walked to work was a photograph I’d just seen of me hosting a country music show at the…
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Iron Range Maidens to derby battle Wisconsin women
The Iron Range Maidens roller derby team will host a Wisconsin team for a new “Grease”-themed bout next weekend on Saturday, Sept. 24. Christina and I attended their first home bout a few months ago and had a blast. I thought I knew what roller derby was when I went, but I learned that I…
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Brown on the Air: ETHNICITY!
My essay for this week’s 91.7 KAXE edition of “Between You and Me” is about “my people.” The show’s topic is ethnicity. Guest host Linda Johnson will be taking stories from you, the listener, and playing great music. I’ll have some amusing observations about my strange blend of Iron Range nationalities. You can hear “Between…
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Crime, car wash bath, cozy times in northern Minn.
The Grand Rapids Herald-Review is playing a hot hand. Their police reports, the style of which is local must-read material, included a couple gems this week: Things that make you go “huh?” A man stripped at the laundromat in Bigfork, put his clothes in a washer, then went to the car wash to bathe. He…
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One should only read the Whig papers
A letter by Michael Burger ran in Wednesday evening’s edition of the Grand Rapids (Minn.) Herald-Review declaring the organization of the Modern Whig Party. Burger cited the need to reconstitute the Whigs, defunct since 1856, because of partisanship in Washington and the Independence Party being a state party instead of a national one. He reminds…
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Autumn brings change, offline and on
Yesterday delivered a beautiful Labor Day in northern Minnesota. Forecasters predict a sunny, temperate early Fall week ahead. Today I waited with our oldest son as the bus came to take him to first grade. He’s first on the route out here in the woods. I saw him pause at the first seat where he…