Tag: Gilbert

  • Mixed Blood theater spotlights Iron Range culture

    Mixed Blood theater spotlights Iron Range culture

    Sometimes I hear folks here say they don’t have a culture. Other people have cultures — people on TV, people from someplace else. But us? We’re just … regular.  Iron Range history demonstrates that a collision of many cultures produced a local culture so unique we share a distinct dialect studied by linguists. Outsiders talk…

  • To build and rebuild

    To build and rebuild

    When I was young, I could spend a whole afternoon building a city of blocks, filling its streets with Matchbox cars. But if my mom asked me to spend one hour cleaning my room, I’d declare bankruptcy. I don’t have time for THAT! We like to build things, or have them built for us, but…

  • Final Goodman show marks new era on the Iron Range

    Final Goodman show marks new era on the Iron Range

    This year, the Goodman Auditorium in Virginia, Minnesota, will become a memory. A new era arises. The merger of the Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert districts produced Rock Ridge High School and its modern state-of-the-art auditorium. The new school replaces a lot of storied architecture in these towns, including one of the classic high school theaters built…

  • ‘Hockeyland’ comes home

    ‘Hockeyland’ comes home

    Northern Minnesota’s obsessive relationship with hockey has endured since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. For some, the hockey lifestyle defines an entire 20-30 year period of life, perhaps longer as new generations continue the tradition.  Even those who don’t play hockey see their lives affected by the game. Classrooms empty during state tournaments. Local fast…

  • Iron Range 4th of July returns with gusto in 2021

    Iron Range 4th of July returns with gusto in 2021

    Today I present one of my favorite annual features at MinnesotaBrown: the annual Fourth of July weekend lineup of Iron Range regional parades, street dances and fireworks displays. I’ve only been posting my newspaper columns this year as I finish my book. But I just had to come out of my book-writing cave to put…

  • Eveleth-Gilbert, Virginia voters approve school district consolidation

    Eveleth-Gilbert, Virginia voters approve school district consolidation

    On Tuesday citizens in Eveleth, Gilbert and Virginia voted to approve the consolidation of two Mesabi Iron Range districts. More than 77 percent of Virginia district voters backed consolidation while almost 54 percent of Eveleth-Gilbert voters supported the move. Both districts needed to approve the measure for it to take effect. The new district will…

  • There was a peaceful school called Rock Ridge

    There was a peaceful school called Rock Ridge

    Tonight the Eveleth-Gilbert Golden Bears and Virginia-Mountain Iron-Buhl Blue Devils renewed their storied Iron Range high school hockey rivalry. But this game was less about the final score (Bears won 4-1) than about the announcement made on the ice between periods. Last year, voters from both school districts authorized the building of a new shared…

  • Virginia, Eveleth, Gilbert approve shared high school plan

    Virginia, Eveleth, Gilbert approve shared high school plan

    Tonight voters in the Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert school districts appear to have approved a plan to build a shared high school that would serve both communities. The districts have not yet released vote totals, but will on Wednesday. Unofficial reports showed the measure passing in all three communities. Despite the lack of information, referendum supporters…

  • Monumental school vote approaches in Virginia, Eveleth-Gilbert districts

    Monumental school vote approaches in Virginia, Eveleth-Gilbert districts

    This Tuesday, May 14, voters in the Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert school districts will vote in a school bond referendum. The result will shape the future of these communities and, quite possibly, the entire educational strategy of the Mesabi Iron Range. If that sounds like I’m laying it on a bit thick, consider the following: If…

  • 10-week sprint to special election for Iron Range school plan

    10-week sprint to special election for Iron Range school plan

    On May 14, voters in Virginia, Eveleth and Gilbert will decide whether a new $181 million shared high school plan becomes reality.

  • New Virginia/Eveleth-Gilbert high school plan gains major funding boost

    New Virginia/Eveleth-Gilbert high school plan gains major funding boost

    Two rival Iron Range school districts will build a consolidated high school if voters approve a now greatly subsidized school levy. Last Friday, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board recommended to its state department a $100 million investment in a shared Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert high school. Almost $5 million per year would space out…

  • Why livability is key to Northern Minnesota strategy

    Why livability is key to Northern Minnesota strategy

    The Iron Range, all of Northern Minnesota, and most of rural America share many problems, while maintaining some unique ones. Nevertheless, we could all make good use of one potential solution: We need people. Our small towns and rural institutions were built for a certain number of people. Not a ton of people, but a…

  • Iron Range districts eye shared school, new model

    Iron Range districts eye shared school, new model

    Student desks form even rows on hardwood floors. A chalkboard at the front of the room frames the teacher’s heavy, spacious desk. Heavy vinyl maps roll down from the ceiling. Most of us recognize this picture as school. In fact, this scene so imprints our minds that decades later we still dream about it. It’s…

  • Drunk birds maintain Gilbert’s wet reputation

    Drunk birds maintain Gilbert’s wet reputation

    Some birds got drunk in Gilbert, Minnesota. They didn’t mean to. That’s not what they planned when they went out with their friends. But that’s what happened. And now their antics have reached the Washington Post. This isn’t the first time alcohol consumption has landed Minnesota’s Iron Range in the national press. Nor is it…

  • Iron Range parades, street dances and fireworks

    Iron Range parades, street dances and fireworks

    As a young kid I marched in the Keewatin Fourth of July parade as a patriotic penguin, Donald Duck, and other flag-festooned creatures. As an older kid I remember piling into a car with my friends, touring Range towns for street dances and fireworks. Before cell phones we would often try to anticipate where we…