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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.…
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2,000 attend Iron Range ‘Save Our Steel’ Jobs rally
Going into Monday’s “Save Our Steel (SOS) Jobs” Rally outside the Miner’s Memorial Building in Virginia, Minnesota, I was unsure how well people would turn out given the nice weather and otherwise healthy taconite production the Range. Well, about 2,000 people showed, according to media estimates. That exceeded what I expected. This was a well-coordinated…
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Iron Range ‘Save our Steel Jobs’ rally Monday
United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel are joining forces to protest the dumping of foreign steel on the American market. Among many events around the country, a major “Save Our Steel Jobs” rally on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range will be held Monday, June 23 at 10 a.m. at the Miner’s Memorial Building in Virginia, Minnesota. Among…
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Summer shows at Range’s Jewish heritage center
The B’nai Abraham Cultural Center in Virginia, Minnesota, announces its summer concert series. Stressing strong musicianship with Iron Range roots, the schedule allows you to experience the arts in the Iron Range’s last Jewish cultural heritage center. There’s a lot of history in this building. The first show lets you see one of Minnesota’s best…
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Shared Iron Range high school plan falling apart
A major effort to build a shared high school for three Iron Range school districts is on the ropes after two of the three affected community school boards backed out of the plan in separate votes last night. Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert school boards voted to end their involvement in the co-location of a new school…
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Enjoy Easter weekend with the Great Northern podcast
At long last the Virginia show podcast from my Great Northern Radio Show is online, ready for download and distribution. Right click and download this link, loading the MP3 into your iTunes or whatever system you use to listen to such things. A side note, I am well aware of how annoying it is to…
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‘Green Envy’ for Iron Range botanical garden
This Saturday, April 12, from 4:30-8 p.m., the Friends of the Greenhouse in Virginia, Minnesota, will hold its second annual “Green Envy” fundraiser for the Olcott Park Botanical Gardens. The greenhouse and gardens at Olcott Park are holdovers to a time when many Range towns poured effort into beautifying their public spaces. Virginia has held…
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Hear the Virginia, MN, Great Northern Radio Show
You can hear our most recent episode of the Great Northern Radio Show this Saturday, April 5, from 10 a.m.-noon on Northern Community Radio. Later you’ll be able to download the podcast, allowing everyone to hear the broadcast we did in front of an audience at Mesabi Range College on March 22. We filled the…