Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 5

Friday, May 30, 2008 By Aaron Brown

Here is the final installment (this week) of "life as an Iron Range blogger," the diversionary exercise that allows me to keep content on the blog while I work on my book.

Here is the Hull Rust Mine on Hibbing's north side. This isn't natural. Every crook and cranny of this pit was dug by people over a hundred years of mining. The "mountains" are really piles of overburden, red iron mining waste cast aside as part of the process. I named my upcoming book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" after them. This is the central image of any visit to the Iron Range.

Labels: blog, iron range, writing

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BLOG NOTES

MinnesotaBrown combines news, commentary and creative writing. Opinions and editorial decisions belong to me, Aaron J. Brown, a denizen of the Mesabi Range and independent man of letters. I am active in the Iron Range community and disclose the following conflicts of interest: Hibbing Community College (employer), Hibbing Daily Tribune and KAXE (contract work); local political involvement (Itasca County DFL); campaign manager for State Rep. Tom Anzelc; co-chair of Dylan Days in Hibbing. This blog does not represent any of these organizations. I welcome civil discussion. Some commercial links are part of an affiliate marketing program that generates revenue for me without any additional cost to you. This site collects tracking cookies. For more on this, read my privacy policy.

IRON RANGE: DEFINED

By Aaron J. Brown

Iron Range: General term for a region in northeastern Minnesota including the Mesabi, Vermilion and Cuyuna iron ranges. Often the term implies only the Mesabi and Vermilion ranges since the Cuyuna hasn’t seen mining activity since 1984. Positioned over once rich formations of natural iron ore and taconite the Iron Range has provided the largest domestic iron ore supply for the American steel industry since the late 1800s. Because of decades of geographic isolation, large influxes of European immigrants and a strong tradition of labor and political activism, the Iron Range also represents a distinct subculture within Minnesota and the Midwest in general. This subculture values a strong work ethic, votes a socially-conservative labor-friendly brand of Democratic, and remains deeply distrustful of outsiders, especially ones who dress well and drive foreign cars. The wild fluctuations in the steel industry and dependence on mining and logging as the dominant source of reliable jobs have created a boom or bust tradition on the Iron Range that continues today. Efforts to modernize and diversify have led to mixed results, though recent developments have been positive.

The Iron Range today owns a reputation as a rough place with a volatile economy, deeply-held ethnic and social traditions, easy access to bars, churches and the Great Outdoors, a unified but ill-disciplined political network, stock car racing, and an innate cultural fascination with guns, fire and alcohol. Public schools are the largest, most ornate and prized buildings on the Iron Range. About half those who graduate from these schools leave for Duluth, the Twin Cities or elsewhere. The other half stay to raise families and work jobs that, despite modern titles, remain indirectly tied to the fortunes of natural resource industries like mining and logging. I write for both groups, those who stay and those who left, and all who join us in body or spirit.

~ Promotional release for "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" from Red Step Press. Copyright 2008 by Aaron J. Brown.

Life of an Iron Range blogger, Part 5

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IRON RANGE: DEFINED