Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: Newspaper Columns

  • Mining for Dinosaurs

    Mining for Dinosaurs

    For decades, Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range has labored under the belief that most of our fossils were walking around above ground, not buried below. Now scientists exploring a state park on the western Mesabi seek to turn this notion on its head. Most Iron Rangers know the Hill Annex Mine State Park in Calumet as…

  • Blazing trails to sustainable Iron Range economy

    Blazing trails to sustainable Iron Range economy

    To quote a line from William Blake, “Expect poison from the standing water.” True of water. True of spirit. True of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. The kind of poison I’m talking about comes from hopelessness. Our Iron Range economy has suffered in recent months, years and decades. We have watched young people leave, and worse…

  • Paying raptors attention

    Paying raptors attention

    We have a bonafide naturalist in our house in the form of our oldest son Henry. At 10, he knows more about the birds that live in the woods of Northern Minnesota than I ever have. Of course, he’s kind enough to bring the rest of us up to speed. Part of Henry’s fascination with…

  • History’s human forge

    History’s human forge

    Throngs of civilians gather inside the ramparts of Fort Snelling in St. Paul. The heat, nearly 100 degrees, oppresses all movement. Ladies fan themselves while the men soak stiff collars with sweat. Cooks fry and boil a feast over open flames; the smell hangs heavy in the air. At once a light breeze blows in…

  • Somebody in the crowd

    Somebody in the crowd

    People get a certain look on their faces as they shuffle about events like this weekend’s St. Louis County Fair. They abruptly look up from their phones or fried snack with sudden optimism, a hopeful gaze that pierces even dark sunglasses. They’re looking for something or someone: a change agent to liven their world. Most…

  • A more fashionable future for the Iron Range

    A more fashionable future for the Iron Range

    Fashion has never been my forte. I often dress in the dark by feeling for the most comfortable fabrics in the closet. Last semester, an art major sitting in the front row of my class informed me that my old grey shirt was, in fact, green. Time finally taught me why my father wears one…

  • The human story in every place

    The human story in every place

    Most every Iron Ranger knows an old timer’s story about living off the land, harvesting timber to build the home where the children would be raised, the names of traditional foods and songs. Sure, some of us are Italian, some Slovenian, others Norwegian, Finn, Swede or Ojibwa, but the cold fact is that these stories…

  • Building s’more character

    Building s’more character

    My youthful excursions to Cub Scout and Boy Scout camps run together in a blur. Tents. Fires. Tripping on tree roots. One thing I do remember is that my dad was there, especially for my first camping trip as a Webelos Scout. He could only stay one night and his snoring shook the tent flaps…

  • The woods and us

    The woods and us

    I smile to see the midnight fireflies from my darkened bedroom in the woods. The fireflies of my youth in the Sax-Zim Bog twinkled like stars. We see fewer today, but still enough to inspire wonder. Suddenly my smile drained away. What if my boys remember a few fireflies when there are none? We read…

  • Un da’ Raynch: Revisiting Iron Range’s unique dialect

    Un da’ Raynch: Revisiting Iron Range’s unique dialect

    This time of year many people who grew up on the Iron Range come home to see family, friends and the summer splendor of Northern Minnesota. For these prodigal children, just a few minutes at the cafe, gas station or local street dance quickly reminds them that this isn’t the King’s English; it’s Iron Range…

  • Lessons from a decade of parenting (I’ve learned nothing)

    Lessons from a decade of parenting (I’ve learned nothing)

    “What size shirt does George wear?” my mom asked a few days before my son’s birthday. “I don’t know,” I said. “Kinda big. He’s bigger than Doug (his twin brother). But not taller. Doug is taller. They’re both kinda tall. They wear shirts. Sometimes I pay for the shirts, but not always. I don’t know…

  • All about that bass

    All about that bass

    He didn’t go fishing often. He lived near a lake, so that wasn’t the issue. He owned a fishing pole, so that wasn’t it either. He just realized that when grandpa took the kids fishing, he could watch old movies and no one would bother him. So he didn’t go fishing often. One day, the…

  • A short version of the longest day

    A short version of the longest day

    Of all the birds in the forest, crows are the most likely to wake you up. Leave the window open on the morning of a summer solstice and they call from the tall dead tree. Don’t miss this! Don’t miss this! This is the longest day of the year. Some coffee drinkers might disagree, but…

  • The waste of doom and gloom

    The waste of doom and gloom

    “Come on, children You’re acting like children Every generation thinks It’s the end of the world “All you fat followers Get fit fast Every generation Thinks it’s the last Thinks it’s the end of the world” ~ “You Never Know” by the band Wilco If you are reading this, you are going to die. Now…

  • Shining steel in the summer of change

    Shining steel in the summer of change

    On a map the thin red line of the Mesabi iron Range seems to cradle the vast green forests and dark blue lakes of Northern Minnesota. Mesabi, an industrial frontier these last 125 years, has always been where nature meets human progress — for better and worse. So it continues this ever-warming summer of 2015.…