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Hibbing’s Dylan named Rolling Stone’s top songwriter
Last week, Rolling Stone magazine named Hibbing’s own Bob Dylan the greatest songwriter of all time. Dylan’s vision of American popular music was transformative. No one set the bar higher, or had greater impact. “You want to write songs that are bigger than life,” he wrote in his memoir, Chronicles. “You want to say something about…
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Somebody in the crowd
People get a certain look on their faces as they shuffle about events like this weekend’s St. Louis County Fair. They abruptly look up from their phones or fried snack with sudden optimism, a hopeful gaze that pierces even dark sunglasses. They’re looking for something or someone: a change agent to liven their world. Most…
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A more fashionable future for the Iron Range
Fashion has never been my forte. I often dress in the dark by feeling for the most comfortable fabrics in the closet. Last semester, an art major sitting in the front row of my class informed me that my old grey shirt was, in fact, green. Time finally taught me why my father wears one…
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Cliffs has bluster, but does it have luster?
Mining, despite its booms and busts, is still vitally important to the economy of Northern Minnesota, but its mechanics are typically so boring as to drive men to drink and/or high-rent metropolitan neighborhoods. For those who follow the doings of the Iron Range mining industry, the conference calls of Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves have become…
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The human story in every place
Most every Iron Ranger knows an old timer’s story about living off the land, harvesting timber to build the home where the children would be raised, the names of traditional foods and songs. Sure, some of us are Italian, some Slovenian, others Norwegian, Finn, Swede or Ojibwa, but the cold fact is that these stories…
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St. Louis County offers generous lease to Hibbing Taconite
This week, the St. Louis County Board approved a rather lopsided lease agreement with Hibbing Taconite. The deal gives the Cliffs-run mining company access to 21 acres of land for a one-time cash payment of $20,700 and annual lease payments of $1,650 for up to 25 years. If those numbers sound more like a home mortgage…
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Talking Iron Range on Strong Towns podcast
A while back I had a conversation with my friend and fellow Northern Minnesotan Charles Marohn for his Strong Towns podcast. Chuck is an engineer, planner and nationally-renowned thinker on the topic of sustainable development and small town survival. Aaron Brown — author, college instructor and radio producer from Minnesota’s iron range — joins the…
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A tale of two junkyards
I was raised in the 1980s and early ’90s on a family-owned junkyard along the storied Iron Range Highway 7 on the edge of the Sax-Zim Bog. Two trailer homes rested upon these swampy grounds: one filled to the ceiling with hubcaps and the other which housed my family. The steam cloud from Eveleth Taconite filled…
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Un da’ Raynch: Revisiting Iron Range’s unique dialect
This time of year many people who grew up on the Iron Range come home to see family, friends and the summer splendor of Northern Minnesota. For these prodigal children, just a few minutes at the cafe, gas station or local street dance quickly reminds them that this isn’t the King’s English; it’s Iron Range…
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Researcher to revisit Iron Range dialect
Though probably not surprising to visitors and natives alike, the Iron Range region of Northern Minnesota is home to its own researched and defined dialect. I‘ve written about this before, but the topic takes on new relevance as linguist Dr. Sara Schmelzer Loss of Oklahoma State University (and a Hibbing native) returns to her hometown…
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Northern Lights Music Festival brings classics back to Range
The Northern Lights Music Festival is returning to the Iron Range this summer with its annual classical music and opera tour across the region. Last summer, I spoke with Veda Zupancic, the accomplished musician and director from Aurora who founded the event. This year, the Northern Lights festival kicks off today and includes events that run through July 20.…
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With contracts looming, Range mines crunch numbers
No matter your job or politics, ten dollars is always ten dollars. By some reports, that’s how much money some Iron Range mines need to shave off their cost for a ton of taconite iron ore to survive the coming global steel industry contraction. John Myers at the Duluth News Tribune reported on this last weekend, highlighting…
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See active Iron Range mines or tour virtually
This Thursday brings the first of the Hibbing Taconite mine tours available via the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. The tours run every Thursday afternoon from June 25 to Aug. 6. The Hibbing Taconite mine tour takes you through an active iron mine and processing facility. You see how iron is blasted out of the ground and turned…
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The lobbying cycle that limits Iron Range progress
Last weekend, the Star Tribune continued its investigative reporting on Iron Range politics and economic development with a Jennifer Bjorhus story that focused on Iron Range lobbyist Gary Cerkvenik and one of his highest profile projects, Mt. Iron’s Silicon Energy. The story received almost no attention on the Iron Range, but I’d like to revisit…
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Vincent Bugliosi, a Range kid who left his mark on the world
The most commercially successful author ever to hail from Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range region was Vincent Bugliosi. An accomplished Los Angeles attorney, the man who prosecuted Charles Manson and wrote on topics from conspiracies to philosophy, Bugliosi died Monday at the age of 80. His book “Helter Skelter,” an account of his involvement in the Charles Manson case,…