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Sammy’s Pizza turns 60
Sammy’s Pizza, the place that introduced an entire generation and region to the glorious kinda-sorta Italian food known as the pizza, turns 60 this year. WDIO put together this nice report: Founded in Nashwauk before moving to Hibbing, Sammy’s remains the most iconic pizza place on the Iron Range, if only because of its longevity…
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Grammy’s Bob Dylan photo exhibit coming to Hibbing
Here’s a stroke of great news amid a rough year for Bob Dylan fans in the music legend’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. The Grammy Museum exhibit “Daniel Kramer: Photographs of Bob Dylan” will be making its United States debut after stops in Paris and London. Not in New York. Not even in Minneapolis. The Kramer…
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Iron Range Pizza Hut zero hour
I’ve encountered a number of reports that Pizza Hut restaurants in Hibbing, Grand Rapids and other locations in the region have closed today. I don’t yet know how many Pizza Hut restaurants have closed and I have not yet confirmed why they are closing, or if the closings are permanent. One employee suggested a franchisee…
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Hibbing VFW Post 8510 closes
The Hibbing Daily Tribune reports that Hibbing VWF Post 8510 Club has closed. This is the big bar and event hall visible from the main highway through town. The club had previously struggled with money, but had clawed its way out of the red. The reason for the closure is simply that the VFW post…
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Education, broadband as economic development
Two items across the wires today illustrate the often unheralded spurts toward actual economic development and diversification in rural, post-industrial places like northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. First, the work of my colleague Ken Strukel at Hibbing Community College was featured in today’s Hibbing Daily Tribune. He’s developed a computer application design program at HCC, training…
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Hibbing grapples with beer brewhaha
Communities across the country are working on an abstract concept called “wellness.” Healthy, happy people are more productive and efficient, costing local, state and federal governments less money to pump full of drugs and replacement joints. So, that’s why there’s a wellness committee at my job, and a wellness event scheduled in Hibbing, Minnesota, next…
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Dylan Days 2014 to continue despite Zimmy’s closure
As many of you know I’ve been part of the team that organizes Dylan Days in Hibbing, Minnesota, since 2001. This has been one of our hardest years yet, with the closure of Zimmy’s Restaurant, the spiritual and cultural hub of Dylan Days, where “Dylan pilgrims” have landed for decades. Well, Dylan Days 2014 will…
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Minnesota DNR maps help explore state with new eyes
The above image was created with a maps feature from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources web site. You can use data to create all kinds of different maps. This is the Mesabi Iron Range, as seen from the air in 2010. Naturally, I spent my time on the site checking out places around the Iron…
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Mesaba Concert Association gets you 15 shows for $35
When we talk about building a vibrant, diversified, creative future for the Iron Range we can’t discount the things we’ve already got going for us. For decades, the Mesaba Concert Association, and their counterparts in Virginia and Ely, have brought quality professional musical entertainment to the Iron Range. They keep the cost to the audience…
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Gathering crisis; hopeful challenge
I’m not sure how many of my birthdays I spent at Zimmy’s in downtown Hibbing, Minnesota; but I know my 21st was on the list, and so was my 30th, and several other random numbers I’ve since forgotten. I do know I’ve spent 13 Dylan Days — all of them — at Zimmy’s. I’ve given…
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Saturday rigatoni feed to help my aunt beat cancer
My aunt Cheryl Johnson from Keewatin is the kind of person who quietly takes care of everyone around her and never expects or receives much in return. Though she never married, she is the person her five sisters and many, many nieces and nephews have counted on for last minute care, rides, help and support.…
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‘Not Dark Yet,’ but iconic Zimmy’s Restaurant in Hibbing closes
Today my friends Linda Stroback and Bob Hocking announced that they would be closing Zimmy’s Restaurant tonight until further notice. A year of tough economic conditions in downtown Hibbing and back taxes is forcing the closure, with the hope of the restaurant restructuring and reopening in the near future. Linda described the company’s woes in…
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No really, science agrees that it’s cold this year
On Dec. 4, I wrote about the above scene outside my office at Hibbing Community College in my post “Insider Tips on How to Dress for Cold.” At the time I thought I was merely waxing poetic about the first of the “really cold” weather we experience every year in northern Minnesota. What I didn’t…
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Metrodome pitcher, bullpen mounds head to the Range
I’ve been following this in conversations at my day job (instructor at Hibbing Community College) but today it’s official: the pitcher’s mound and bullpen mound from the Metrodome are headed to northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. From the employee newsletter this morning: There are no stadium seats for sale, but HCC baseball coach Dave Bevacqua bid…
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Notes on a changing Iron Range
The wheels of fate keep turning on the Iron Range. Over on the east central Mesabi, Mountain Iron-Buhl, Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert schools are considering a new shared high school. We await resolution of some sort on expensive, long anticipated mining projects like Essar Steel and PolyMet, all while the reality of our lack of economic…