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Mining may displace yet another Iron Range highway
By now we’ve talked plenty about the rerouting project for Iron Range Highways 53 and 135 near Virginia and Eveleth to accommodate new mining activity at Cliffs’ United Taconite mine. Now Cliffs says it will need to move Highway 5 between Hibbing and Chisholm to allow Hibbing Taconite to continue mining. The project would happen…
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‘Vintage’ baseball on the Iron Range
Here’s the deal, see. They’re forming a ball club, see. Up at the Minnesota Discovery Center, see. Yeah, the old Ironworld. Yeah, by the Glen Location, see. Grow your best muttonchops and handlebar mustache, see. We’re getting the Orators back together. That’s right, the Chisholm Orators, terrors of the infield back when Silent Cal Coolidge was…
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‘Last Call for the Mitchell Yards’ tonight
I’m excited to tell you about a new documentary you can see for the first time tonight on WDSE/WRPT PBS North. “Last Call for the Mitchell Yards” shares the story of the Mitchell Yards, an abandoned Iron Range railway station between Hibbing and Chisholm that once handled 80 percent of the iron ore used by…
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Political improv for a new Iron Range generation
A young professionals group on the Iron Range is bringing some cutting edge political humor to the Mesabi with a Saturday performance by the Theater of Public Policy improv group from Minneapolis. ReGen is sponsoring the show, which will be Saturday, March 14 at the Minnesota Discovery Center. Will they add some unique Iron Range…
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Film highlights rugged northern MN endurance race
Tonight at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm (formerly Ironworld), you can catch a free showing of “Among the Wild,” a documentary about the Arrowhead 135, an annual cold-weather endurance race in Northern Minnesota. Here is more information from the Minnesota Discovery Center. The Arrowhead 135 race is an annual endurance race which is held…
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Several Range-area communities to receive broadband
Lt. Gov. Tina Smith will be on the Iron Range today to announce $2.3 million in broadband grants for communities around the Iron Range. I’ve written recently about the slow warming to the economic potential of broadband here, where I’ve long argued the tremendous potential for entrepreneurship and education that this technology presents. Today’s announcement is…
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Mining career event at MN Discovery Center this Friday
Those interested in exploring a career in mining should check out the state Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Mining Industry Day at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm this Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Often my work here at MinnesotaBrown is painted as “anti-mining” and I really don’t care for that characterization. Five…
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Duluth airport gets Oberstar name; Hibbing gets plaque or something
The new Duluth International Airport terminal will be named for the late Rep. Jim Oberstar, a transportation and aviation titan during his 36 years in Congress. Duluth had been in competition with the Range Regional Airport in Hibbing for the rights to name their new terminal after Oberstar. Oberstar was instrumental in the development of…
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Range museum to host murder mystery (with buffet)
This Saturday, Jan. 24, the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm, formerly Ironworld, will host one of those murder mystery evenings that you sometimes hear about. They’re calling it the Clueseum. The Minnesota Discovery Center is a sprawling facility filled with mining artifacts, art and, until recently, stern and frightening papier-mâché sculptures depicting arguments over the contract…
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Andrej’s famous Iron Range potica now at Tobies
For many on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, Christmas time is potica time. This walnut-based dessert bread from the slavic states of Eastern Europe was long ago embraced by the whole region for its flavor and portability. (Like the pasty, Iron Ranger love foods that require no silverware and fit into the pockets of overalls). In addition…
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On the fair, tall timber and Thomas the Tank Engine
In a quiet summer reverie I hear the chuffing of a steam engine around the tracks of a country bend. What could it be? Why, it’s a train with a face, of course. Our boys are officially too old for Thomas the Tank Engine and his Island of Sodor; Sir Topham Hatt and all the…
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Duluth, Range airports vie for Oberstar name
When longtime northern Minnesota congressman and transportation titan James Oberstar passed away in May, everyone knew that an airport would deservedly be named in honor of his tireless work to expand aviation in northern Minnesota. The question, as the Duluth News Tribune now reports, is which one? Oberstar, a Chisholm native, was instrumental in the…
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Bringing aria to area: Northern Lights fest illuminates Range
Iron Range residents are often presented a simplified interpretation of the past: many of our ancestors came from overseas to mine the ore that built a nation. What is often missed in this description is why. Save for a handful of Cornish mining jacks, these men didn’t come here because they liked to mine heavy…
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Northern Lights Music Festival in full swing
“You can’t love the opera if you never see it.” That’s what Aurora native, concert pianist, and founder of the Northern Lights Music Festival Veda Zupancic told me when I interviewed her this week for my Sunday column. Indeed, the Northern Lights Music Festival combines an educational component for beginning and advanced music students and…
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Hibbing Taconite mine tours run June 19-Aug. 8
With all the talk about mining in Minnesota, maybe you’d like to see what a real northern Minnesota iron mine looks like in the year 2014. Never mind the picks and shovels, the technology and scope of today’s mining will surprise you if you haven’t seen it before. You can catch guided Hibbing Taconite mine tours in…