Greetings from the Iron Range

This is coming to you from snow-covered Embarrass, MN, on the Iron Range. We've already had lunch in Ely, shopped at Wintergreen and Steger Mukluks, and then headed for the B&B we're staying at for the weekend. The Better Half intends to enjoy a sauna this evening and many of the local road names have a Finnish tone to them.

Speaking candidly, we've noticed that snowed-on pines, spruce, tamarack, aspen and birch look a pretty much the same no matter where in Minnesota they're growing. There's just lots more acres of them growing up here than down near The Cities. The snow cover isn't likely to start melting until tomorrow. Weather for the next week or so up here is going to be cloudy, slightly snowy with temperatures in the mid-30's.

Iron Range in October or Chisago County in December?

Photo by J. Harrington

Looking at the empty storefronts as we drove through Biwabik and Gilbert, it's clear that those local economies are hurting. "Downtown" Ely looks healthier and some building renovation was evident. We're wondering how Paul Wellstone's concept, that "We all do better when we all do better" can be made to work effectively throughout Minnesota. As farms have gotten fewer and bigger, rural agricultural centers have faded, some completely away. Mining has been boom and bust for a long, long time. Cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul are prospering in part because they've created their own critical mass. Better high speed internet could help substitute for the physical proximity cities offer, but that's only part of the answer.

South St. Paul used to have an economy dependent on stock yards. They're gone. Wales, in England, once had an economy based on coal, as had Appalachia in the U.S. The world and its economies keep changing. Is Amazon the new Dayton's? What will replace Amazon in a generation? Can a multitude of smaller businesses like Steger Mukluks and Wintergreen clothing begin to replace mining jobs? Our county has solar farms sprouting like weeds. Wind farms and solar farms need to be built, maintained and operated. How much metal recycling is being done in northern Minnesota? How much could be done? How many conferences have been organized at Giants Ridge to explore these and related questions?

North Star

by Sheila Packa

In Hanko, Finland
a young woman boards
the vessel in the Baltic
for a ship across the Atlantic.
The North Star shines in the sky.
She’s carrying in her valise
a change of clothes
a packet of seeds
and the sauna dipper.
Distance pours between constellations
between English words on her tongue
through storms and sun.
In New York City, she buys
a one way ticket
boards the train going
across the continent
arrives on an inland sea.
The winter ground underfoot
is familiar with frost
as she transfers to a northbound
along the Vermilion Trail
in Minnesota.
Ahead of her waits a man
a house to be built
and a fire that burns it down.
Ahead, eleven children
to bear, a few she must bury,
the cows in the barn
needing to be milked.
Unbroken ground only hers to till.
Above her, the North Star
inside the aurora borealis, northern
banners waving welcome —

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.