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The ‘shrooms and smelt shall set us free
It’s hard to find peace in a culture war. It’s designed not only to divide us, but to perpetually push us apart like two north magnets. Today, I write that it takes something common to bring us together. In Minnesota we have the woods, the water, and each other. Last weekend, I picked mushrooms in…
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The hope in counting birds at Christmastime
For me, the holidays really start with the Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count. This year, my local event took place on Dec. 15. Despite sharp winter winds, last Sunday proved a good day to hoof through the snow to spy on tiny dinosaurs. I started participating in this annual event in 2017, mostly because of…
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Now batting …
Green grass grows from Pipestone to Grand Marais. That means one thing: summer baseball in Minnesota. Town ball. Legion ball. VFW ball. Little League. Believe it or not, Minnesota’s summer baseball legacy dates back farther than our state’s obsession with hockey. Earlier this summer I volunteered as the public address announcer for a VFW baseball…
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Quiet craftsman builds things to last; so can we
Sad fact is, most of the expensive junk we buy won’t last any longer than us. My wallet is wearing out. I could use a new cell phone. In just the past few years, I’ve dumped an entertainment center, television and propane grill at the county waste station — each a valuable item in its…
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‘The Wild Mississippi’ starts close to home
“But I never saw the good side of a city, ‘til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen.” “Proud Mary,” by John Fogerty John Fogerty wrote “Proud Mary,” arguably the definitive song about the Mississippi River, for Creedence Clearwater Revival. But Fogerty isn’t from anywhere near the river. Rather, he was born and…
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Racing for solutions in rural EMS crisis
A financial crisis threatens rural emergency medical services across the country, especially right here in our own back yard. Increased attention to the issue in recent months has yet to improve the situation. But, at last, more leaders at every level of government are beginning to act. Their efforts will determine whether regions like ours…
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A world that grew from stumps and slash
This weekend, I’m giving another lecture stemming from an unexpected twist in my book research. “A World That Grew From Stumps and Slash,” will be Saturday, Jan. 20, from 1-3 p.m. at the Forest History Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The cost is regular park admission, but that means you can check out the museum…
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Notions of race in an immigrant culture
In almost eight years of research, writing and editing on my current book, I’ve learned a few things. One is that our views of history are shaped by our preexisting knowledge of how it turns out. We become enamored with alternate outcomes or unusual events that seem to have shaped fate. However, the people of…
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Ironweed
Today the Minnesota Reformer published my latest essay about about the new $68 million cannabis facility proposed for a shuttered Grand Rapids factory. The short version is that I’m skeptical. The long version gets to the root of that issue. The title of this post refers to the notion of commercial weed on the Iron…
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Local autonomous vehicles drive change
Someone has to be the first. In 1922, a Paris tailor named Franz Reichelt jumped off the Eifel Tower with a homemade parachute suit. He died, of course, but this was part of a process. A century later, adventurers scream through canyons in sleek wing suits while recording YouTube videos from their helmets. Better material.…
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Amid ‘disruption,’ the people deserve their share
Our language pulses with buzzwords, twists of phrase that sound substantial but can’t be defined. One such word is “disruption.” The last 10 years, it would seem, have been a time of disruption. Disruption, we are told, is really just an opportunity for the bold, the brilliant, and the worthy to seize success. LinkedIn, prosperity…
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Spitting bile won’t bring economic success
Last week, the Mesabi Tribune reported that Huber Engineered Woods will build its next plant in Mississippi. Months ago they opted not to build that plant at Cohasset in northern Minnesota. Huber pulled out after a legal challenge from the neighboring Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe required them to submit more detailed environmental paperwork. The…
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Rural housing prices rise with changing times
Memorial Day weekend approaches, a time when residents of northern Minnesota welcome the residents of southern Minnesota for the long weekend. Perhaps before you log off to enjoy the next few days you might read my latest for the Minnesota Reformer, “The northland has its own housing crisis.” Summer custom dictates that visitors from the…
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Beaver dams inspire bad ideas
Setting off an explosion that floods your neighbors’ property sounds bad. I guess it is bad. But I see how it might happen. Last month in northern Michigan’s Montmorency County, a man shoved a large block of Tannerite into a beaver dam near his property. Tannerite is a kind of explosive used in firearm targets.…
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Snacks, dogs and rock ‘n’ roll
Music festivals are to the music-loving introvert what a seed catalogue is to the over-enthusiastic gardener. They seem like a good idea months in advance of what will actually become hard work. And, like any hard work, the results are worth it. (Though, usually, not until well after the fact). Last weekend, my wife Christina…