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… Read More →
The Picture Grace, almost a century later
May 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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:… Read More →
Happy Labor Day from the Iron Range
September 6, 2010 by 2 Comments
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… Read More →
Scary flood pit to be drained
May 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
Drain that pit
April 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
Wanted: Young People
March 15, 2010 by 2 Comments
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… Read More →
Mine pit waters still rising on western Range
June 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
Despair, I shall name you Canisteo
February 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
Range superintendent swap has consolidation implications
January 14, 2009 by Leave a Comment
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… Read More →
On hockey and the Iron Range’s real problems
November 21, 2008 by Leave a Comment
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…. Read More →
