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Iron Range officials fear dangers of Hwy 53 reroute
New problems arising from the much anticipated reroute of the Iron Range’s primary north-south highway might require more funding, officials now say. Highway 53 has to be rerouted between Virginia and Eveleth next year to accommodate mining by Cliffs Natural Resources at United Taconite. One version of the Hwy 53 reroute would dramatically reshape the…
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Eveleth-Gilbert joins shared Iron Range school talks
After a meeting last Thursday, Eveleth-Gilbert schools have agreed to join districts in Virginia and Mountain Iron-Buhl in talking about a shared Iron Range school on the east central Mesabi Iron Range. We discussed the Virginia/MI-B cooperation concept last week. The first public hearing on this shared high school issue will take place tomorrow night…
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Highway 53 reroute might avoid need for new bridge
One of the big stories of 2014 will be the Highway 53 reroute on the Iron Range, altering the existing path of the north/south regional artery to accommodate new mining near Eveleth and Virginia, Minnesota. For most of last year, talk centered around a bridge that would possibly span the Roucheleau Pit outside Virginia. Now…
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MnDOT names costs of Highway 53 reroute options
WDIO reports on the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s cost estimates for rerouting State Highway 53 on the eastern Mesabi Iron Range. From the WDIO story: For the M1 route, which would take the highway through the current United Taconite mine pit, the costs are estimated to be between $248 and $319 million dollars. For the E1…
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Gilbert, Eveleth weekly newspapers shut down
The twin newspapers of the Eveleth Scene and Gilbert Herald published their final editions earlier this month. These two Iron Range weekly papers enjoyed a long history in two of the most interesting towns on the Mesabi. The Gilbert Herald in particular had published more than a century. Publisher Nathan Krause, who took over the…
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Iron Range soldier is ‘The Bomb Whisperer’
Another interesting read this morning, the Los Angeles Times profiled an Army soldier from Eveleth, Minnesota, known among his fellow troops in Afghanistan as “The Bomb Whisperer.” KHOGIANO, Afghanistan — Spc. Kyle Klobuchar spends his days listening intently to the beeps, hums and warbles of a hand-held explosives detector known as a Minehound. He likes…
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Enjoy Great Northern Radio Show podcast, live from Eveleth
Please listen to the podcast of the Eveleth Great Northern Radio Show from our Oct. 20 live broadcast on KAXE/KBXE Northern Community Radio. This was our fourth show and, arguably, our best yet. I think you’ll find this to be an excellent listen, funny, sincere and with some of the best music we’ve ever shared.…
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Remembering Wellstone on the Iron Range
Today we commemorate the lives of Paul and Sheila Wellstone, Marcia Wellstone Markuson, Tom Lapic, Mary McEvoy, and Will McLaughlin. We lost them ten years ago today in plane crash on the Iron Range, an event that changed the course of Minnesota politics. In the hyper-partisan world in which we now live, it’s hard to…
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The Lud Andolsek story, more than just hockey
Jayson Hron’s Historically Inclined has another fine post today about the early career of Chisholm’s Lud Andolsek, who emerged from Slovenian immigrant roots to build the sport of hockey in Minnesota, specifically the program at St. Cloud during the Great Depression years. Ostensibly this is a post about hockey and a guy who was good…
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Latto’s radio legacy shows local programming matters
Yesterday we learned that Duluth broadcasting legend Lew Latto died unexpected at his home as he prepared to go to work hosting his talk radio program. Latto was a pioneering local broadcaster and the owner of several Duluth and Iron Range stations. Though I never met him, I worked for Latto in my first media…
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The night I stole an hour from time
From 1996 to 1998, the years I was in senior high school, I worked weekend overnight shifts as an easy listening DJ at 97.9 WEVE in the iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota. Specifically, I’d come home from school on Friday afternoon, prepare a bowl of Campbell’s soup and cheese sandwich, take a sleeping pill…
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Johnny Cash and the Iron Range
My friend Jason Scorich wrote a history column for the Hometown Focus about the time Johnny Cash played the Iron Range (Eveleth, specifically) in 1958. This is worth a read. Scorich juxtaposes Cash with the Range’s own Bob Dylan. Then Robert Zimmerman, Dylan lived in Hibbing at the time of the Cash show and was,…