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Winter in a place called ‘North’
Talking weather in Northern Minnesota is dangerous business. There is very little chance of being right about anything. Conditions change too quickly to allow anyone but a hibernating bear to be properly prepared. In short, conversations about weather are just meaningless filler between meaningful nonverbal grunts, the sounds actual Minnesotans use to communicate language, art…
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Hibbing native pens Thanksgiving immigrant tale in NY Times
Marie Myung-Ok Lee, a Korean-American writer from Hibbing, had a Thanksgiving memoir of her family’s time in the Iron Range city published in the New York Times today. Her story is touching and real. The town simultaneous fought to help her father, at one time the town’s only anesthetist, stay in the country, but she and…
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Despite appearances, this turkey is not lucky
Gov. Mark Dayton welcomed a tom turkey along with representatives of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and Hunger Solutions to the capitol on Monday to announce the traditional annual donation of turkey to people in need this Thanksgiving. Turkeys can’t smile, but even if they could it’s unlikely the turkey in the picture above would have…
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Star Tribune pens glowing Essar Steel update
Today’s front page feature in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota’s newspaper of record, was a Dee DePass story entitled “After seven years, Essar’s giant Iron Range project finds a groove.” The story is about progress at Essar Steel Minnesota, the spinoff of Essar Global, an Indian company which seeks to build a new taconite plant on…
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Iron Range musicians keep ghost town alive
It was a pleasant surprise to see a front page MinnPost feature on Rich Mattson and Germaine Gemberling of Sparta Sound over the weekend. This musical pair and their merry band are keeping the small mining location of Sparta alive with their church-turned-studio a stone’s throw from an active iron mine. From the Nov. 21…
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What’s left unsaid
Last Monday, we pinned ceremonial ribbons of red, green and yellow onto our oldest son’s Webelos uniform. It was a proud moment. I remembered having my Webelos ribbons pinned onto my Cub Scout uniform when I was his age. Remembering is like a hole in the dam; one hole quickly becomes many. It was a…
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New route, same cold for Duluth’s Christmas City parade
Tonight at 6:25 Duluth, Minnesota, hosts the Christmas City of the North Parade, a longstanding tradition of one of the local TV stations, NBC affiliate KBJR-TV (aka Northland’s NewsCenter). Designed to elicit holiday cheer, and excitement for the shopping season, the Christmas City of the North Parade has always been something of a paradox. For one thing, it’s…
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It might be cold out, but Minnesota job growth stays hot
Minnesota continues its economic expansion. Yesterday, the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development announced another stellar month of job growth in October. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has dipped below 4 percent for the first time since the 2008 recession. Highlights from the press release: ST. PAUL – Minnesota employers added 9,500 jobs in…
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UPDATE: MN DOT picks high bridge over mine pit for Hwy 53
Today the Minnesota Department of Transportation recommended its preferred alternative for the Hwy 53 Relocation project. MN-DOT wants the northernmost route, which will build the state’s tallest bridge — 1,100 feet — across the Rouchleau Pit outside Virginia. After hinting it would do so weeks ago, the DOT explains why it selected the northern route: After lengthy study of several…
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Duluth library faces dramatic, expensive fate
I’m 34, pushing 35. The other day I was thinking, hey there Me! I’ve lived some good life and still have plenty to go. Good for Me! Thanks, Me! And then I read this story about the 34-year-old, almost 35-year-old Duluth Public Library. Peter Passi reported in Sunday’s Duluth News Tribune on a grim view…
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U of M seeks another chance to revolutionize mining
The story of mining on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range is sometimes mischaracterized as the simple story of some guys finding the richest supply of iron in the world followed by generations of mining. There have been some dramatic twists involving high finance by Rockefeller and Carnegie, political alliances between old foes to pass the 1964…
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The global X-factor in Range mining projects
Reeling from lack of investor confidence, Duluth Metals allowed itself and its Ely, MN, mining development Twin Metals be acquired by the Chile-based Antofagasta Mining Company two weeks ago. An earlier gambit to get Antofagasta to buy part of the company had fallen apart, and in a shrewd bit of international wheeling and dealing, Antofagasta ended…
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Gov. Dayton calls for applications to lead IRRRB
Today, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton announced an open application process for the position of Commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB). The position is being vacated by Tony Sertich, who will assume the presidency of the Duluth-based Northland Foundation in January. As I’ve written, this is an important position in the leadership…
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Hibbing VA clinic at center of controversy
The national controversy surrounding wait times and service at Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics has been pinpointed at a VA location close to home. A group of former employees at the Hibbing VA clinic is alleging they were ordered to backdate the appointment times for veterans on paperwork submitted to the VA to make the…
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Why do we live here?
Like most Iron Range children of the 1980s, I once dreamed of a future in my state’s metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. My family’s rare visits to the Big City bright lights, shiny tall buildings and teeming freeways were such a contrast to the dull world of trailer houses, shuttered windows and forever…