Everybody to the primary in House 3A special

The local DFL will not hold an endorsing convention for the Sept. 29 primary in the House 3A special election to replace the late Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake). This settles an important question many had about the process spurred by the loss of the popular, moderate DFL lawmaker to cancer last month. That means Koochiching County… Read More →

Big mix of candidates, intrigue in House 3A special election

Filing has closed for the Sept. 29 primary and Dec. 8 general election in the House District 3A special election to replace the late State Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake). Six candidates spanning the wide geographic and ideological spectrum that characterizes this enormous rural Northeastern Minnesota district will vie for one ticket to St. Paul. Early… Read More →

McCollum bill seeks to protect BWCA from mining

As the mining industry readies its strategy for the next few years, those seeking environment protections in Northern Minnesota generated headlines this week as well. Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), representing the St. Paul metro district, introduced legislation that would prevent mining in the same watershed as federal wildernesses like the Boundary Waters Canoe… Read More →

Getting ‘Happy’ on the Iron Range

Because it’s Friday and because I’ve been so dang grumpy lately, here are the students and staff of Tower-Soudan Elementary doing a music video for “Happy” by Pharrell Williams: Have you heard this song before? Yes. Has this kind of video been done before? Yes. But I still share and recommend this work of art as anthropological… Read More →

MN iron ore: changing history for 130 years

William Henry Brown was born in Northern Michigan during the peak of copper and iron mining in the Upper Peninsula. He was the son of a Cornish immigrant whose family had perhaps known mining since the Roman Empire. When he was a child he would have heard about new iron mining to the west in… Read More →

Casting call for new movie at Soudan mine

This Saturday, July 26, producers of the new movie “Sdanka’s War” will be holding an open casting call at the Soudan Underground Mine State Park on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. You need to be there by 7 a.m. The Duluth-based production by LZ Productions and Almighty Dog Entertainment is seeking “20 or more guys dressed in plain tees,… Read More →

Vermilion Range Old Settlers Picnic this Saturday

After talking about the Cuyuna Iron Range yesterday, we have to spend a little time talking about the Vermilion as well. I was just up there last month with my Great Northern Radio Show, and am happy to pass along word that the Vermilion Range Old Settlers Picnic will be held this Saturday, July 19… Read More →

To the Nether and back

Summer vacation is well underway, and not more than a few days into the annual ritual the boys had trod well-worn digital paths across the pretend universe of the video game Minecraft. They are obsessed with finding virtual ore to make tools, houses and various contraptions. Though the geology of Minecraft is a bit suspect… Read More →

Physicists who inspired Soudan lab win Nobel Prize

The scientists who first theorized about the Higgs boson particle, the so-called (usually by non-physicists) “God Particle,” will share this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics. Normally that’s not something you’d see touted here on this unusual regional website, but it so happens that there is a sophisticated laboratory located deep beneath the Iron Range at… Read More →

Ain’t no party like a Range nerd party cause a Range nerd party don’t (PUNCH) (BLEEDING)

How did I miss this? On July 17, Northland’s Newscenter reported on the fact that Popular Science named the Soudan Underground Mine as its top travel destination for nerds. (Attention media nerds, Northland’s Newscenter is a conglomeration of several formerly autonomous TV network affiliates in the Duluth, MN market). Feast your eyes on the story:… Read More →