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No hope on the Iron Range, but for hope we create
To drive the Iron Range spine of Highway 169 is to see a sleeping giant not unlike the region’s namesake, Missabe — the Dakota and Ojibwe “big man” resting on the divide between all that is north and south. Missabe’s body is not like that of a man. Its fluids are water. Its bones are timbers.…
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I can’t believe we never saw the signs
About 100 acres of forest fires have burned this week in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. They are now mostly contained (though fire danger remains high in the BWCA) and weren’t especially bad given how dry the region has been lately. However, they have prompted the daily airing of this corresponding BWCA forest fires graphic…
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Meantime, Ely escapes raging fire
While I was sipping water and preparing to read the names at the Hibbing Community College graduation (congratulations graduates, by the way), on the other side of the region the Vermilion Range city of Ely was being evacuated from the path of a raging wildfire. This photo is from Wayne Erickson at the U.S. Forest…
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Thank you, Ely
Last night brought another fine evening of discussion on my “Overburden” Iron Range book tour. This time the venue was the lecture hall at Vermilion Community College. Though the audience was primarily “captive” (my colleague and host Pam Brunfelt’s Minnesota History class) many community members and other students also came out for the reading and…
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‘Overburden’ tour reaches the gates of the Boundary Waters tonight
Moving away from political and economic topics (but not too far away), I remind you all of my community lecture in Ely this evening. At 7 p.m. in the CL104 lecture hall of Vermilion Community College I will give a brief lecture and reading from my new book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”…
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‘Overburden’ tour explores northern edge of the Iron Range
Below is the press release for my Tuesday night lecture and book signing at Vermilion Community College. Ely by starlight makes for a great evening. Stop on by! November 18, 2008Press ReleaseFor Immediate Release Aaron Brown, Author of Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range, to speak at Vermilion Community College on Tuesday, November 25…
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Vermilion state park plan lives
One of the odd things that happened last year is that Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposed something new for the Iron Range that the state and even some local leaders didn’t even ask for or especially want. Pawlenty suggested that the state buy land along Lake Vermilion from U.S. Steel to create a new state park.…
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Somebody really hates bears
Do you remember the big controversy last month when the DNR announced it was going to shoot one-eared female bear named Solo and her two cubs because they were hibernating underneath a cabin near the Vermilion Range town of Tower? Right, well, after the media flurry the governor “pardoned” the bear, asking the DNR to…
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Project Firefly
Check out this press release about “Project Firefly.” I’ve heard about this before and it seems like an interesting way to enhance homegrown economic development near Ely. It would be a pilot project that could be duplicated across the entire Iron Range or any area like ours. Essentially, inventors are given funding to take their…