I tend not to subscribe to doom and gloom. Even as real world problems stack up, I know from history and experience that humans remain a crafty species, capable of adapting to all sorts of hardships. But there is one area where I think we struggle more than we know. As we humans grind through…

In old North Hibbing of 1913, the village hired a man to shoot spent horses before dumping the carcasses in a pen full of ravenous hogs. Nevertheless, the most controversial municipal function in the history of Hibbing might be its public utilities department. In recent decades, contention over the power plant arises from failing infrastructure…

When I was 21 years old I was named the editor of the erstwhile Hibbing Daily Tribune, which has since merged into the Mesabi Tribune newspaper you read today. How does a 21-year old get to be a daily newspaper editor? That’s a good question that lots of people had at the time. After the…

The other day I sat in a fast food restaurant listening to the gentle din of humanity. At one booth, a young mother struggled with a toddler. The scene brought back somewhat recent memories for me and my wife. An older woman stopped at this woman’s table to give unsolicited advice. My eyes widened, however,…

Who are we, fellow Americans?  Are we words printed on sacred documents? Are we a melting pot or a tossed salad? Doubtless, we are new growth on a gash in the Earth.  Now, as we revel in our annual celebration of independence, we would do well to consider what that word means. In 1863, John…

Today is Juneteenth.  On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers informed enslaved people near Galveston, Texas, that they were now free. The date was colloquially referred to as Juneteenth. From that day forward, it became a celebrated holiday among these newly freed people. Within African-American communities, Juneteenth stood as America’s “Second Independence Day.” That’s a good way…

The belated, perhaps even aggressive arrival of spring this year draws attention to the sport of baseball. For me, baseball season means driving all over hell and back with our son’s travel team. But baseball was an even bigger deal a century ago. And in researching the past, I found a remarkable Iron Range story…

You might remember the old Zimmy’s restaurant on Howard Street in Hibbing. Boomtown is there now, but for several decades this was a bar and grill that paid tribute to Hibbing’s hometown singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. For years, the only picture in the place that didn’t include Bob Dylan was a framed, autographed headshot of the…

Just after World War II, Abram and Beatty Zimmerman moved their family from Duluth back to Beatty’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. But not really.  Beatty’s real hometown had been destroyed. The houses were ripped away; brick buildings scrapped. In 24-hour shifts, machines stripped away the earth below like flesh from the bone. Men dynamited solid…