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‘Pro-union’ Republican Farnsworth enters 6A race
On Friday, Republican Rob Farnsworth of Hibbing entered the House 6A race to succeed Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing). He’ll seek the GOP endorsement at the Feb. 9 local convention. Farnsworth described himself as a “pro-union” Republican, who cites his family connection to the iron mining industry. “I want nothing more than to see this region…
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Busy Hibbing intersection to get roundabout
One of the reasons the Highway 53 bridge project garners so much attention is that, for Iron Rangers, everything that happens on Highway 53 matters. It’s one of the two major highways that connects the band of communities that comprise the Range. The other major Iron Range highway is 169. Though also listed as a…
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Teacher Julie Sandstede enters 6A race
Julie Sandstede, a music teacher who lives in Hibbing and teaches in Virginia, is the first candidate to announce for the House 6A DFL nomination. The central Iron Range seat is open due to Rep. Carly Melin’s Jan. 14 announcement that she will not seek re-election. Sandstede made her announcement in today’s Hibbing Daily Tribune.…
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Talkin’ middle school parking lot blues
Let me be clear. I do not plan to murder anyone. But if I did the crime would almost certainly take place in the parking lot of my son’s middle school. Winter parking in Northern Minnesota is hard enough. Ice and snow cover the yellow lines. Every slight maneuver involves spinning tires and the risk…
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Iron Range Rep. Carly Melin won’t seek re-election
Today State Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) announced that she would not seek re-election to the House of Representatives. Her announcement was a surprise to many, but those in politics knew the challenges she faced in balancing her job as a lawyer in Hibbing with a young family and legislative service. Melin won a special election to…
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Iron Range lessons from Mars
Every time NASA beams down new pictures from Mars we are reminded how much this desolate planet resembles an Iron Range taconite mine. The red landscape. Pits like craters. Dumps like dunes. Yet, every time commodities prices tumble in topsy-turvy global trade we are also reminded that economic survival here can seem just as difficult…
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Iron Range miner to be State of the Union guest
Dan Hill, a laid off Steelworker from United Taconite in Eveleth, will be Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s guest at the State of the Union address on Jan. 12. Hill and his family live outside Hibbing. Hill has been an outspoken union miner during the current downturn in the Iron Range mining industry. According to people present, he…
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A nod to Iron Range roots on every Greyhound Bus
A century ago, a pair of iron miners in Hibbing, Minnesota, began charging 15 cents for a ride on a seven-passenger Hupmobile from Hibbing to Alice Location. Alice, then a bedroom community for miners and their families, would later become the new townsite when Hibbing was moved to access the ore beneath the ground. From this inauspicious beginning, a…
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NY Times paints grim picture for Iron Range mines
A business story in yesterday’s New York Times carries this headline: “If It Owns a Well or a Mine, It’s Probably in Trouble.” And since that describes many of the largest businesses on Northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, we can rightly take warning. Companies that produce commodities — oil, iron, copper or the like —…
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Iron Range Makerspace: Making something new
In 2014, engineering student Andrew Hanegmon of Hibbing was walking through downtown Pittsburgh when something in a window caught his eye. It was a person working with a laser engraver. He went into the building to find an active maker space, a sensory smorgasbord of computers, electronic equipment, lathes, saws, 3-D printers and more. “I…
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Rich history, stark present, unknown future for iron and steel
From the beginning, humans forged a special relationship with iron. Ancient people knew the mineral before they had the ability to mine it, discovering slabs of pure iron that fell from the sky in meteorites. The Sumerians and Egyptians called it “heaven stone,” according to Brooke C. Stoddard’s in his new book “Steel.” The strength…
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Immigrant experience brought to life by Hibbing violinist
Hibbing native and world-traveling violinist Sara Pajunen will appear in her hometown for a special concert at Hibbing Community College on Tuesday night. Here is the information: Exploring the Immigrant Story: Violinist Sara Pajunen will perform Laatikko/Box at the Hibbing Community College Theater on Tuesday, November 24th at 7 p.m. This is a FREE multimedia concert.…
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Is this the 1980s again on the Iron Range?
I grew up in the 1980s on a junkyard just a few miles south of Eveleth Taconite. Growing up on a junkyard is probably the best way to understand the things humans build, sell, use and discard. So let’s consider a new car. I’ve only ever bought one brand new car fresh off the lot. It…
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See author of historic Range cookbook in Hibbing, Chisholm
You might recall my review of the wonderful new Iron Range-themed cookbook “Come, You Taste” by B.J. Carpenter. I thought the book was a fantastic cultural artifact, historical document and functional cookbook. My wife Christina Brown recently reviewed the book for her site, the Northern Cheapskate, and actually made one of the recipes! (PS: Yum!) Carpenter…
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Stop it. Dot com. Dot … html.
Remember that cantankerous “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney? Or the old Chicago metro columnist Mike Royko? Even the Duluth News Tribune had Jim Heffernan. They each had an opinion about everything. As a young writer I admired them more than would be considered normal. I remember one of them, Heffernan I think, wrote something about…