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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…
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Dylan Days in Hibbing calls for poems, stories
Every year a group of folks, myself included, throw together a grassroots event in Bob Dylan’s Iron Range hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, celebrating Dylan’s work and influence and the enduring art and culture of northern Minnesota. One of the things we do is a writing contest named in honor of the English teacher who turned…
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Bob Dylan pitches for Chrysler in Super Bowl ad
Folks who stuck with the Seattle Seahawks blowout in the Super Bowl were treated to one of Chrysler’s trademark American heartstrings ads: this one featuring Hibbing’s own Bob Dylan. The reclusive folk/rock troubadour waxed poetic about America, the road, and the Detroit-made goodness of Chrysler automobiles. My local social media feed did not lack the…
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PolyMet hearings highlight our misdirected passion
The purpose of the meeting was to parse the language of a 2,000-page tome of geology, hydrology, chemistry and economics. That’s a tough sell. Even offered free donuts, average humans would duck a meeting of that description. But this particular meeting on Jan. 16, 2014 — first of three hearings for the PolyMet Mining environmental…
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Find Iron Range mining jobs at Jan. 24 event
With all the hullabaloo over the proposed PolyMet mine and other controversial proposed mining projects, let’s not forget northern Minnesota’s Iron Range remains a mining region anyway. And that iron mining industry is having a pretty good year. Qualified applicants for Iron Range mining jobs have a pretty good chance at getting one. The Minnesota…
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City workers authorize Hibbing strike
Hibbing AFSCME workers voted to authorize a strike late last week. Now the city and its contract employees enter a cooling off period (no pun intended amid the record-setting cold today). The Hibbing strike could begin as soon as Jan. 14 unless talks are successful. The main issue appears to be the city’s request for…
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Heartwarming reunion of Hibbing civil war brothers
The holidays are a time to reunite families. I was interested to read a June 7, 1913 story from the (Hibbing, Minn.) Mesaba Ore, reprinted Sunday on Jack Lynch’s history page in the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Two Hibbing civil war brothers, separated for 35 years, realized late in life they had been living in different…
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Bob Dylan and the Iron Range
I happened across a 2007 essay “A Trip to Hibbing High” by the Bob Dylan historian Greil Marcus, one of the best known scholars of Dylan’s work, after his trip to Hibbing that year. I recall his visit because of my work with Dylan Days, but had not read the piece before. He describes a…
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First winter storm bears down on Duluth, Iron Range
A three-day winter storm is underway here in northern Minnesota. That sounds worse than it is. It will snow gently but steadily for three days, resulting in predicted snow totals of about a foot. But the plow drivers will be out. These are weekdays, so relatively little overtime is required. Track the storm if you…
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Iron Range nursing program offers advanced degrees
This week officials announced that a new shared program by Minnesota State University-Mankato and Hibbing Community College will create the opportunity for nurses to earn their RN Baccalaureate degree, Masters degree in Family Nurse Practitioner or Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees on the Iron Range. Dubbed Iron Range Nursing and modeled after the successful Iron…
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Minnesota native Bob Dylan awarded Légion d’honneur
The nation of France awarded iconic singer/songwriter and northern Minnesota native Bob Dylan its highest distinction this week, the Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor). According to the BBC, French cultural minister Aurelie Filippetti gave a glowing speech Nov. 13, 2013, citing Dylan’s influence by French poetry and how he inspired student uprisings in the 1960s,…
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Hampton Inn plans Hibbing hotel
It was announced at the Wednesday Hibbing Economic Development Authority meeting that Hampton Inn and Suites plans to develop the former Ogle’s Foods lot into a new Hibbing hotel. The Hibbing Daily Tribune reports and will have more in tomorrow’s paper. Plans could involve construction beginning as soon as December. This is a bit of good…