Click here for the 2019 Iron Range parade, street dance and fireworks lineup. The Fourth of July holds special meaning on Minnesota’s Iron Range. Part of it is patriotism, sure, but there’s a sort of midsummer primal yawp going on here as well. I could provide thousands of words of information about every little town’s… Read More →
Louisiana-Pacific starts siding line in Canada, not Cook
May 7, 2017 by 3 Comments
Officials with Louisiana-Pacific announced Friday that the company would start a new line of wood siding at its plant in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. That plant currently produces OSB, or oriented stand board, a form of wood paneling. That means that the company’s development of the former Ainsworth plant in Cook, Minnesota, moves to the back burner. William… Read More →
Hibbing opens roads, some streets to ATV traffic
April 11, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The Iron Range city of Hibbing is opening its roadways to all terrain vehicles (ATVs). Hibbing joins Itasca County and other Iron Range towns in considering and ultimately adopting looser regulations for the popular recreational vehicles. The Hibbing Daily Tribune reports on the ATV ordinance, passed in a March 22 council meeting. It opens up… Read More →
Layman, Bakk IRRRB reform bills get closer
March 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Following up on my post earlier this week, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board met this week in St. Paul. Also this week, two Iron Range legislators, one Republican and one DFLer, moved toward each other with bills to reform the agency. In a contentious 5-4 vote, the board endorsed a plan to privatize Giant’s… Read More →
Midsummer festival at Mesaba Co-op Park
June 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This weekend, the living vestige of Iron Range history known as Mesaba Co-op Park holds its 87th annual Midsummer Festival. The park, located near Cherry east of Hibbing on North Star Lake off Highway 37, was built by Finnish-Americans in 1929. The Midsummer Festival includes fun for all ages, music, food, storytelling, outdoor activities and more… Read More →
Glencore implosion shows troubling reality of Range projects
September 29, 2015 by 7 Comments
Right now people are voting on DFL primary day in the Minnesota House 3A Special Election. It’d be safe to assume that a good number of people are voting at least in part based on their opinion of controversial Northeastern Minnesota nonferrous mining proposals in the Lake Superior and BWCA watersheds. Some for. Some against. But the outcome… Read More →
Smoke Week
July 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Here in Northern Minnesota, we’ve been dealing with a thick haze of smoke from Canadian wildfires for more than a week. Just this week the smoke finally dipped further south, blanketing the Twin Cities and Southern Minnesota. Yesterday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency recorded air quality indexes as high as 200 in the Twin Cities,… Read More →
Eveleth mine celebrates 50 years with public event
September 12, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I spent most of my childhood trying to find shapes in the steam cloud billowing out of Eveleth Taconite’s plant at Forbes. Now known as United Taconite, the Iron Range iron mine and processing facility will celebrate 50 years of mining this Sunday with a public event. EVELETH, MN – Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:… Read More →
Cliffs to close Duluth office
September 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
WDIO is reporting that Cliffs Natural Resources will be closing its Duluth office at the end of the month. About 30 people work at the office. Some will be moved to mine sites, while others will be offered jobs at company headquarters in Cleveland. Cliffs has a long history of operations in Northern Minnesota. The… Read More →
Ely explorers retrace Teddy’s fateful journey on Rio Roosevelt
July 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
During the last Great Northern Radio Show, broadcast live from Ely (click and save the podcast!), Amy Freeman detailed the North American expedition she and husband Dave embarked on last year. Dave couldn’t be on the show because he was on the Rio Roosevelt in Brazil, conquering the same jungle waters that almost claimed the life of… Read More →
