-
Saturday rigatoni feed to help my aunt beat cancer
My aunt Cheryl Johnson from Keewatin is the kind of person who quietly takes care of everyone around her and never expects or receives much in return. Though she never married, she is the person her five sisters and many, many nieces and nephews have counted on for last minute care, rides, help and support.…
-
EPA offers mixed view of PolyMet EIS
The 90-day comments period for the PolyMet Environmental Impact Statement closed yesterday. More than 50,000 people and organizations offered questions, support and opposition to the proposed copper/nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes in northern Minnesota. That is, by all accounts, a record. The final and perhaps most important comment issued was the final opinion of the…
-
St. Urho and the outcasts who settled the Iron Range
Sunday, March 16, brings St. Urho’s Day, a Finnish-American celebration of a fictional saint who did something that never really happened. You won’t see the holiday in Finland, because that’s not where the tradition comes from. St. Urho’s Day is a 1950s vintage fabrication of an American Finn on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Richard Mattson…
-
No ice for you! Lake Superior ice begins to recede
John Myers at the Duluth News Tribune reports that Lake Superior ice cover is at about 91 percent, down from 95 percent last month. This means that the hard winter of 2014 almost, but ultimately did not produce the rare total ice-over of the world’s largest freshwater lake. Though it may take several weeks and…
-
Chisholm musher finishes Iditarod as top rookie
Nathan Schroeder, the Warba native and Chisholm-area musher who won the Beargrease earlier this winter, just finished the grueling Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska. Schroeder crossed the finish line in Nome earlier today in 17th place, first among all rookies. He and his dogs are all safe and, presumably, somewhere warm right now. It’s…
-
Great Northern Radio Show in Virginia, MN on 3/22
My next Great Northern Radio Show will broadcast live from Mesabi Range College in Virginia, Minnesota, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, 2014. Our traveling radio variety show doesn’t have a home theater; so being on the Iron Range is as close to home as we get. For this and several other reasons, I’m…
-
Man vs. Moose: nature’s fury in northern Minnesota
Greg Clusiau’s Iron Range fishing report is usually the place you find out where the crappies are biting, but this week the Itasca County fishing guide’s weekly newspaper column instead recounted memorable mammalian news. In a March 3 item published in the Scenic Range News Forum and elsewhere, Clusiau describes Nashwauk-area trapper Donny Newman’s encounter…
-
Northern Minnesota musher has Nome-where to go
Nathan Schroeder of Chisholm, originally of Warba, is mushing in the Iditarod Sled Dog race in Alaska right now. After winning last month’s John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in Duluth for the third time, Schroeder and his canine racers are making their first-ever run at the best-known and most grueling sled dog race in the world.…
-
WWII mystery over the skies of northern Minnesota
“I believe submarines Underneath deep blue seas Saw the flags: Japanese No one will believe me” ~ “Submarines,” by The Lumineers In 2014, history seems buried six feet under the bookshelves. Grandparents know a little more, doling out dusty recollections over the meat and potatoes of family gatherings. If there was a sculpture struck, a…
-
“Spring Ahead”
“Spring Ahead” is part of my 2014 winter/spring sanity project. I will post original cartoons about modern life in northern Minnesota every Friday until the snow melts. Related posts: No related posts.
-
‘Not Dark Yet,’ but iconic Zimmy’s Restaurant in Hibbing closes
Today my friends Linda Stroback and Bob Hocking announced that they would be closing Zimmy’s Restaurant tonight until further notice. A year of tough economic conditions in downtown Hibbing and back taxes is forcing the closure, with the hope of the restaurant restructuring and reopening in the near future. Linda described the company’s woes in…
-
TPT explores Iron Range political influence
Twin Cities Public Television’s “Almanac: At the Capitol” with Mary LaHammer dedicated last night’s show to the influence of the Iron Range on state politics, including a discussion about Range political history and the current nonferrous mining debate. Since I’m still working on my script for the Great Northern Radio Show, maybe this will tide…
-
‘Lost Iron Range’ airs tonight on public television
I am sometimes asked to explain why I chose to stay in northern Minnesota instead of chasing some faster life under brighter lights of some big city. My answer is simple: I am a writer at heart; writers need stories; the Iron Range is teeming with past, present and future conflict; and the complete story…
-
No really, science agrees that it’s cold this year
On Dec. 4, I wrote about the above scene outside my office at Hibbing Community College in my post “Insider Tips on How to Dress for Cold.” At the time I thought I was merely waxing poetic about the first of the “really cold” weather we experience every year in northern Minnesota. What I didn’t…
-
Best picture of 2014?
KENT: Action! This is Kent Winsington with Movie Time Reviews. Joining me today is Aaron Brown. AARON BROWN: Hey, everyone. I like movies. KENT: Of course, we all like movies! And it doesn’t get any better than Oscar Sunday, when the best movies in the world compete for timeless glory, provided they are predominantly about…