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Paul Metsa to star in musical based on trippy autobiography
One of the more successful musicians to emerge from the Iron Range later in the 20th Century was Paul Metsa, a singer-songwriter who certainly fits in the mold of the Range’s somewhat-more-successful star, Bob Dylan, crossed with a bit of Bruce Springsteen to boot. Metsa, who is from the Range city of Virginia, has lived and…
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Rock and a hard place, change coming to the Iron Range
Some of life’s biggest myths are that 30 years is a long time, that today doesn’t matter, and that anything is permanent. Here on Northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, the lessons of change that come from digging out the ground beneath our very feet have been hard learned. But what’s learned is so easily forgotten after those paltry 30 years.…
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Celebrate the solstice at Olcott Park Greenhouse
The longest nights of winter will be this weekend, but that doesn’t mean you can’t live it up in a warm tropical environment right here on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. The Friends of the Greenhouse will be hosting their second annual Celebration of the Winter Solstice this Saturday, Dec. 20, at noon at the Olcott…
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Local, weird, darkly funny: ‘The One Who Watches’
A new short film, “The One Who Watches,” by Duluth filmmakers Nicholas Sunsdahl and Molly Josefson, made the following impressions on me, in this order: 1) the mix of Bemidji, Iron Range and Twin Ports settings and characters, 2) the abject film school weirdness, and 3) the dark, persistent humor, punctuated by one scene that made me laugh…
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UPDATE: MN DOT picks high bridge over mine pit for Hwy 53
Today the Minnesota Department of Transportation recommended its preferred alternative for the Hwy 53 Relocation project. MN-DOT wants the northernmost route, which will build the state’s tallest bridge — 1,100 feet — across the Rouchleau Pit outside Virginia. After hinting it would do so weeks ago, the DOT explains why it selected the northern route: After lengthy study of several…
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Iron Range music teacher profiled on MPR
Minnesota Public Radio will periodically profile the work of music teachers around the state. This week, MPR’s Daniel Nass talked to Virginia High School’s Matthew Krage. Krage reinvigorated the program at this eastern Mesabi Range school and brought back musical theater after a 15 year hiatus. You can read the interview here, or listen below.…
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A dozen Iron Range concerts for price of one
Another season of the Mesaba Concert Association series is upon us. For a $35 membership, you have tickets to five shows at the historic Hibbing High School auditorium and other shows at the beautiful school theaters in Virginia and Ely as well. According to the Mesaba Concert Association, the schedule for this year is as follows:…
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A tale of two iron ranges
In the middle to late 1800s, prospectors discovered iron ore in a remote land far from the big cities, a place utterly insignificant in world affairs. This discovery, however, could not be ignored. The ore was too plentiful and valuable. The events that followed would bring people of many languages and cultures together to mine…
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Massive bridge likely as Highway 53 re-route solution
Iron Range residents will soon learn the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s final decision on the new route for Highway 53 between Eveleth and Virginia. The Highway 53 route is likely to be announced in November, but a MNDOT official is quoted by WDIO saying that the most likely outcome will be one of the state’s highest bridges across the…
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Northern Minnesota restaurants lead per capita
It’s no secret that tourism is big business in Northern Minnesota. The hospitality and recreation industries employ thousands, while the ebb and flow of tourists are a big part of life here in the North Woods. I often write about Northern Minnesota’s economy, and how its actual composition compares with the idealized one usually discussed in the media. Mining, for…
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Air Force Brass to play the Range on Sunday
The Lyric Center for the Arts in the Iron Range city of Virginia, Minnesota, is sponsoring a free concert by the United States Airlifter Brass this Sunday, Aug. 17, at 3 p.m. at the Olcott Park bandstand. I’ve seen this group play before and I can’t imagine a more fitting sound to hear in a…
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Beware Iron Range hyperbole in Election 2014
Last week I was called into town to do another “Iron Range political pundit” interview with Northland’s NewsCenter’s Nick Minock. The story was about something presumptive Minnesota GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike McFadden had said about nonferrous mining projects in Northern Minnesota. McFadden had suggested that projects like PolyMet and Twin Metals, which have been mired in environmental…
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Highway 53 plan may create ‘highest bridge in Minnesota’
Iron Rangers might have seen some barges floating out on the Rouchleau pit near Virginia, Minnesota this past week. Crews are drilling the rock formations beneath the deep, cold water pits to see if the craggy mine waste and rock below can sustain the weight of what would become “the highest bridge in Minnesota.” In a…
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Northern Lights Music Festival in full swing
“You can’t love the opera if you never see it.” That’s what Aurora native, concert pianist, and founder of the Northern Lights Music Festival Veda Zupancic told me when I interviewed her this week for my Sunday column. Indeed, the Northern Lights Music Festival combines an educational component for beginning and advanced music students and…
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Highway 53: So much to keep what we have
Planning continues for the Highway 53 reroute project between Eveleth and Virginia, Minnesota. For those just catching up, an iron mine is invoking a 50-year-old agreement that the state would move the highway when mining activity reached the ore reserves underneath. Highway 53, however, is one of the most important roads on the Iron Range.…