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Minnesota DNR to allow extra fishing on Canisteo Pit
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will open a liberalized fishing season on the Canisteo Pit near Bovey, Minnesota from Oct. 17 until Dec. 1. The Canisteo has been rather infamous in recent years as it had flooded the city of Bovey, which required several million dollars in state aid to mitigate. Times have changed.…
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Happy Farmer Labor Day from the Iron Range
At 10:30 this morning they’ll hold the 100th Farmer’s Day Parade on the freshly repaved streets of Bovey, Minnesota. Bovey was bypassed in 2007 by the never-ending, never-complete expansion of the Cross-Range Expressway. City leaders have responded by installing a brickwork strip down the center of Old 169. Today they’ll break in that street with…
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The Picture Grace, almost a century later
Among several events going on these days, consider this one. Many might not realize that the iconic Picture Grace, which can be seen here, was taken in 1918 on the western Mesabi Range by Bovey photographer Erik Enstrom. The Minnesota Discovery Center is hosting a gallery opening for two related exhibits this weekend. Info below:…
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Happy Labor Day from the Iron Range
From the Iron Range, one of the ancestral lands of the American labor movement, Happy Labor Day! The workers of the world may not yet have united, but we do spend a lot of time on Facebook. It’s only a matter of time. It’s Farmers Day in Bovey, with other Labor Day events all over…
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Scary flood pit to be drained
Today saw a major breakthrough in the Canisteo Pit story on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. This old mine pit has seen rising waters since the end of mining activity decades ago, waters that now threaten, and occasionally moisten, the city of Bovey. Today the DNR announced plans to advance its vision of a solution over…
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Drain that pit
While I was busy at the convention I missed this Bob Kelleher MPR story on the Canisteo Pit by Bovey from last Friday. The mine pit waters in the Canisteo have been steadily rising since mining ended there decades ago and the water is now starting to flood Bovey. If the pit wall fails, parts…
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Wanted: Young People
The following is part of my news analysis series for the Thursday, March 11, 2010 edition of the Scenic Range News Forum of Itasca County, Minn.: For the Iron Range, demographic change is the challengeBy Aaron J. Brown The demographics on Minnesota’s Iron Range, trending toward an older society with fewer young families, may have…
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Mine pit waters still rising on western Range
This is a great update and background piece on the rising waters of the Canisteo Mine Pit near the Iron Range town of Bovey. These waters have been rising since they stopped mining there in 1985 causing an increasingly unsafe and obviously wetter situation there. This story comes from Margaret A. Happoja and the Northern…
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Despair, I shall name you Canisteo
Jon Collins, legislative correspondent for the Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and other northern newspapers, has a story today about the ongoing, never-dying, omnipresent, will-outlive-us-all problem of the retired Canisteo Mine Pit by Bovey. The pit has too much water, is considered a major flood risk and is currently causing all…
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Range superintendent swap has consolidation implications
Greenway Schools Superintendent Rochelle VanDenHeuvel has been named the new superintendent of the Virginia School District on the East Central Iron Range (Mesabi Daily News). Greenway, serving Coleraine, Bovey, Marble and Taconite on the western Mesabi Range, is one of the most financially troubled districts on the Range. The departure of its superintendent is likely…
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On hockey and the Iron Range’s real problems
I’ve been meaning to pass this along all week. Doug Grow of MinnPost profiled Mike Antonovich, the former Gophers hockey great and new mayor of the Iron Range town of Coleraine. Read it. The story seems to have several purposes. One, it shows how a hockey stardom is still great currency in Minnesota small towns.…
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From Farmers’ Day to the week ahead
You probably know I write this blog from the Iron Range, a labor bastion known for its mining. Labor Day is, thus, a suitably big deal on the Range. Nevertheless, on the western Mesabi Range, where I live, the seemingly odd local tradition of Bovey Farmers’ Day takes place on Labor Day. We attended Farmers’…
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Labor Day FOR REAL on the Iron Range
Every year writers make earnest efforts to pay homage to the labor movement and workers’ rights on Labor Day. Some have more success than others. This year, Labor Day means something on the Iron Range. With a contract deadline looming at three Iron Range mines, strike preparations are being made in Hibbing, Eveleth and Virginia.…
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Just deal with the scary flood pit already!
Janna Goerdt of the Duluth News-Tribune reports today on the ongoing saga of the Canisteo Mine Pit near Bovey. The long abandoned mine pit has been filling with water for decades, causing what many residents and scientists fear will be a major flood risk. Others, including those at the DNR charged with monitoring the pit,…
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Canisteo pit still watery and topographically higher than Bovey
From Sunday’s Grand Rapids Herald-Review: “DNR on Canisteo: Patience required to do it right“ Though it’s discouraging to see foot-dragging on an issue like this, this story shows an improvement over an earlier statement by the DNR commissioner that the Canisteo Mine Pit — a massive reservoir of water perched above the Iron Range town…