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The unexpected poetry of northern Minnesota
April is National Poetry Month, and while I don’t normally remark on the passing of these chronological marketing designations, I do feel inclined to mention poetry here in Northern Minnesota. Most of my instruction regarding poetry came in college from my professor Barton Sutter, a working poet and author in Duluth. If you’re going to…
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East Range shared school plan having bumpy roll-out
One of the biggest stories on the Mesabi Iron Range this year has been the proposal to build a new co-located high school in Mountain Iron that would serve students in the Virginia, Eveleth-Gilbert and Mountain Iron-Buhl school districts. Jana Hollingsworth of the Duluth News Tribune penned a Sunday feature on the shared high school…
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Range newspaper joins call for rural broadband
I often find myself out of step with the editorial page of the Iron Range’s largest newspaper, the Mesabi Daily News, particularly as it relates to economic priorities. So today I’m glad to report that the Mesabi Daily News has made a strong, compelling case for something we agree about entirely: expansion of Minnesota’s rural…
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Great Northern Radio Show is Saturday night
It’s an exciting day: the live broadcast of my Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio is Saturday night, beaming out from the Mesabi Range College theater in Virginia, Minnesota. The Great Northern Radio Show broadcasts from small towns and offbeat theaters around northern Minnesota, telling the story of the place and its people,…
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Iron Range officials fear dangers of Hwy 53 reroute
New problems arising from the much anticipated reroute of the Iron Range’s primary north-south highway might require more funding, officials now say. Highway 53 has to be rerouted between Virginia and Eveleth next year to accommodate mining by Cliffs Natural Resources at United Taconite. One version of the Hwy 53 reroute would dramatically reshape the…
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Great Northern Radio Show in Virginia, MN on 3/22
My next Great Northern Radio Show will broadcast live from Mesabi Range College in Virginia, Minnesota, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, 2014. Our traveling radio variety show doesn’t have a home theater; so being on the Iron Range is as close to home as we get. For this and several other reasons, I’m…
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Eveleth-Gilbert joins shared Iron Range school talks
After a meeting last Thursday, Eveleth-Gilbert schools have agreed to join districts in Virginia and Mountain Iron-Buhl in talking about a shared Iron Range school on the east central Mesabi Iron Range. We discussed the Virginia/MI-B cooperation concept last week. The first public hearing on this shared high school issue will take place tomorrow night…
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Virginia and Mt. Iron-Buhl mull combined high school
Two school districts on the east central Mesabi Iron Range are considering a landmark deal to build a shared high school. School officials in Virginia and Mt. Iron-Buhl are planning two public hearings on the idea next week. The first is Tuesday, Jan. 28, at Parkview in Virginia at 6 p.m.; the second is Wednesday, Jan.…
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Mesabi Daily News headline makes Letterman show
As it was foretold in prophecy, the Mesabi Daily News‘ not-so-accidental boner joke from late last year was included in a David Letterman segment on funny small town news last night. Here’s video: It bears mentioning that Team Letterman put the Mesabi Daily News story last in the segment. Humor writers save that spot for…
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Highway 53 reroute might avoid need for new bridge
One of the big stories of 2014 will be the Highway 53 reroute on the Iron Range, altering the existing path of the north/south regional artery to accommodate new mining near Eveleth and Virginia, Minnesota. For most of last year, talk centered around a bridge that would possibly span the Roucheleau Pit outside Virginia. Now…
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Aging veterans clubs struggle to stay open
In a phenomenon seen across Minnesota, veterans clubs such as the VFW and Legion are struggling to stay open as members age and new veterans opt not to join. The Star Tribune took a look at the problem in their Sunday edition, while the Mesabi Daily News reported on the possible closure of the Virginia…
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MnDOT names costs of Highway 53 reroute options
WDIO reports on the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s cost estimates for rerouting State Highway 53 on the eastern Mesabi Iron Range. From the WDIO story: For the M1 route, which would take the highway through the current United Taconite mine pit, the costs are estimated to be between $248 and $319 million dollars. For the E1…
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Virginia Public Library celebrates centennial
As a teenager in the 1990s I spent untold hours in the Virginia Public Library in this Minnesota Iron Range city named for the ‘virgin queen’ of England. Always at dusk. Night came early in the winter. My sister had dance classes downtown and I’d drive her in from Cherry after school. The big chairs…
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Farewell, Highway 53 western route plan
Land speculators in Iron Junction were saddened to learn yesterday that the Minnesota Department of Transportation has now, finally and forever, cancelled the remote possibility that Highway 53 could be routed west of Eveleth and Virginia. Highway 53 is the aorta of Minnesota’s Iron Range and it has to be re-routed between Eveleth and Virginia…
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Vaudeville throwback show slated for two-week Range run
The Lyric Opera House in Virginia, Minnesota. The Lyric Center for the Arts in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, will be doing a Vaudeville throwback called “The Last Train to Winnipeg.” Set in Virginia of the 1920s, the show depicts a Vaudeville troop trying to catch the last train north. “The Last Train to Winnipeg” runs…