DOCSLIB.ORG

1. Introduction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1. Introduction 1. INTRODUCTION For several reasons the Mesabi Iron Range region of St. Louis County, Minnesota, is a challenging area for dialect investiga­ tion. Avoided in the 1800’s by both westward-migrating Ameri­ cans and European immigrants seeking agricultural land in Minnesota, the Mesabi Iron Range has a unique population his­ tory resulting from the opening of mines after the discovery of rich iron ore in 1890. Since dialect differences are carried along routes of migration, the Mesabi Iron Range poses an intriguing question: When an anomalous community springs up well within the boundaries of a recognized dialect region and when this community is overwhelmingly populated by people whose native language is not English, what are the characteristics of the variety of English that comes to be spoken in this community? The notion of a unique Iron Range dialect persists in Minnesota folklore. Furthermore, preliminary scholarly findings suggest that there may well be an empirical basis for the layman’s intui­ tive impression of a unique Mesabi Iron Range dialect. For these reasons, and others, there is strong impetus for a detailed survey of the English spoken in the Iron Range communities. Investigation by linguistic geographers has revealed that the Midland and Northern dialect areas of the eastern United States (see Figure 1) have their reflexes in the Midwest.1 Preliminary analyses of evidence from the Linguistic Atlas of the North- Central States by Albert H. Marckwardt indicate that the North­ ern dialect area includes all of Michigan and Wisconsin and the northern thirds of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.2 Furthermore, Harold B. Allen, drawing upon the files of the Linguistic Atlas of the Upper Midwest, has shown that the Northern-Midland boundary extends across the Upper Midwest, the Northern area including all of Minnesota and North Dakota, approximately the northern third of Iowa, and the northeastern half of South Dakota, and the Midland area including the southern two-thirds of Iowa, Nebraska, and the southwestern half of South Dakota.3 (See Figure 2.) The validity of this Northern-Midland division has been supported by conclusions drawn in several studies,4 although a recent statistical study concludes that the Northern-Midland boundary is not maintained in Iowa.5 Allen’s investigation, however, led him to postulate a putative 1 Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-pdf/67/1/1/451421/0670001.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 2 From H. Kurath, A WORD GEOGRAPHY OF THE EASTERN STATES Midland enclave in the area of Duluth and the Mesabi com­ munities. Candidly tentative, this postulated enclave is based upon the study of six fieldrecords—four from Duluth and two from Virginia, one of the Range communities—and his evidence consists of 16 Midland vocabulary variants and five Midland phonological variants which are found in these records.6 Al­ though Allen’s possible enclave is based upon sketchy evidence and it includes Duluth as well as the Virginia area, it tends to suggest that there is a legitimacy to the layman’s recognition of an Iron Range dialect. A thorough investigation of the dialect of the Mesabi Iron Range is clearly warranted. Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-pdf/67/1/1/451421/0670001.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 on 30 September 2021 by guest Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-pdf/67/1/1/451421/0670001.pdf r-------------- - Northern - Midland boundary Area covered by Figure 3 Figure 2 : ···························· ········· LOCATION OF THE MESABI IRON RANGE IN RELATION TO THE NORTHERN-MIDLAND BOUNDARY 100 200 300 400 500 .... ···· .......... r····················· .................../ (.):) 4 AMERICAN DIALECT SOCIETY T h e P u r p o s e o f t h e S t u d y This study of the English of the Mesabi Iron Range seeks to provide reliable answers about the so-called Range dialect: to do so five questions about Iron Range English are considered: (1) What dialect area or areas of the eastern United States does the dialect of the Mesabi Iron Range most closely resemble? (2) How does the dialect of the Range differ from the dialect of the rest of Minnesota, which is characteristically Northern with an infusion of some Midland features? (3) How does the language of high school graduates differ from that of informants with less education? (4) Can linguistic features which have regional distri­ bution in the eastern United States and which occur on the Mesabi Iron Range be correlated with the ethnic background of the informants having these features in their idiolects? (5) Do any of the Iron Range communities investigated have distin­ guishing characteristics that set them apart from other Range communities? T h e M e s a b i I r o n R a n g e C o m m u n it ie s The Mesabi Iron Range is the name given to the network of communities situated along the vein of iron ore with the same name.7 The Mesabi range, the largest of the three Minnesota iron ore deposits, is a thick band of ore stretching in a shallow “S” in a northeast to southwest direction from west-central Lake County to Grand Rapids on the Mississippi River in Itasca County. Approximately 110 miles long, the ore vein varies from one to three miles in width. Communities and mines are located along the entire length of the ore deposit from Babbitt to the northeast to Grand Rapids in the southwest, but this study is concerned only with the communities in the eastern part of the range in St. Louis County. The area covered, which extends from Aurora to the east to Hibbing in the west, constitutes the region of first settlement on the Range. The communities in Itasca County are excluded from this study for two reasons. First, the towns between Hibbing and Grand Rapids—Keewatin, Nashwauk, Marble, Taconite, Bovey, and Coleraine—are newer than the St. Louis County settlements, all being laid out since 1900 when ore was discovered in these locations west of Hib­ bing, and being settled primarily from people moving from the Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-pdf/67/1/1/451421/0670001.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 INTRODUCTION 5 eastern Range towns. Second, Grand Rapids, on the western fringe of the Mesabi Iron Range, was a logging community populated largely by Swedes as early as the 1870’s. Its history is considerably different from the Mesabi communities in St. Louis County. Throughout this study the terms Mesabi Iron Range, the Range, and the Mesabi are used to refer to the network of communities in St. Louis County (see Figure 3). In 1890 when the Minnesota population had already reached 1,310,283,8 the Mesabi Iron Range was virtually uninhabited. The census of that year records no population in the region. The Americans who had migrated westward to Minnesota, and the immigrants from Europe had avoided the Mesabi. This was poor farming country. Although heavily forested, it was swampy, and it lacked a navigable river such as the St. Croix or the Mississippi. Consequently, neither farmers nor loggers were drawn to the region. In 1890 the area was inhabited only by a few transient timber cruisers and mineral prospectors. Iron ore had been discovered to the northeast on the Vermilion range in 1854, and mining had begun at Soudan in 1882. The discovery of rich ore at Mountain Iron in 1890 and, in quick succession, in the vicinities of present-day Biwabik, Hibbing, Virginia, Eveleth, and McKinley resulted in a rapid growth in population. Within five years of the discovery of ore and three years of the first shipment from the Mountain Iron mine the population of the area had jumped to 9,286.9 In another five years the population had increased to 16,834. Ten years later, by 1910, the popula­ tion increased by over 300% to 56,321. The rate of growth de­ clined dramatically in the next decade, but the population con­ tinued to climb, reaching its highest point, 71,203, in 1920. In the years that followed, as underground mines were shut down in favor of the more economical open pit mines, with the depres­ sion of the 30’s, and with the depletion of high-grade ores, the population dropped to 64,108 in 1930, to 62,754 in 1940, and to 59,335 in 1950. The development of taconite processing, the mining of low-grade taconite and semi-taconites, and the estab­ lishing of new plants along the range is reflected in the jump in population to 68,223 in 1960. Although it has been obvious from the earliest days that the Mesabi Iron Range is a true melting pot of ethnic groups, accu­ rate statistics on the composition are lacking. Since the United States census reports classify population by place of birth only Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-pdf/67/1/1/451421/0670001.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-pdf/67/1/1/451421/0670001.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 INTRODUCTION 7 for cities of 10,000 inhabitants or more, none of the U. S. census reports provide such information for the Iron Range. Figures on nationality composition are available for only one census, the fifth decennial state census of 1905. According to this census, 57% of the 31,737 Iron Range inhabitants were foreign born. They were born in the following countries (the numbers indicate the number of inhabitants in the Mesabi communities): 10 Finland 6,829 Austria 3,163 Sweden 2,150 Canada 1,498 Norway 995 England 512 Germany 345 Russia 321 Ireland 185 Poland 172 Denmark 42 All other countries 1,889 These figures, as well as those in Table 2, are inadequate for two important reasons.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Strike on the Mesabi, 1907
    STRIKE on the MESABI—1907 NEIL BETTEN WHEN NEWS CAME in July, 1907, that miners along the length of the Mesabi Range had walked off the job, the state of Minnesota braced itself for all-out labor war. It was the first widespread, organized strike to occur in the iron district, and it was en­ gineered by the Western Federation of Miners, an or­ ganization associated in the public mind with names like Coeur d'Alene, Leadville, and Cripple Creek — each the scene of fierce and bloody labor struggles. In the fifteen years since 1892 the Mesabi Range had been transformed from a wilderness of wooded hills into a mining complex that produced nearly half of the nation's iron ore. The soft red hematite lying in pockets near the surface could be scooped up from A typical iron range great open pits. Into these, and into underground mine worker of the mines as well, had poured whole armies of unskilled early twentieth century workers. Youth, health, and a strong back were all that was called for — not even the language was necessary — and before long the first wave of miners, made up of Mr. Betten wrote the present article while working for his doctorate in history at the University of Minnesota. He re­ cently joined the facidty of the University of Indiana at Gary. 340 MINNESOTA History Americans, Cornishmen, French Canadians, AFL. The preamble to the WFM constitu­ Irish, Scandinavians, and some Finns, was tion declared that "the class struggle will replaced by a throng of more recent immi­ continue until the producer is recognized as grants.
    [Show full text]
  • Isotopic and Chemical Characterization of Water from Mine Pits and Wells on the Mesabi Iron Range, Northeastern Minnesota, As a Tool for Drinking Water Protection
    Isotopic and Chemical Characterization of Water From Mine Pits and Wells on the Mesabi Iron Range, Northeastern Minnesota, as a Tool for Drinking Water Protection James F. Walsh, Minnesota Department of Health Abstract The Biwabik Iron Formation is both a world-class source of iron ore and an important aquifer for the residents of the Mesabi Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota. Numerous public water supply wells draw from this aquifer, and several communities pump directly from abandoned mine pits for their water supply. It is important that the groundwater flow characteristics of this aquifer be determined so that drinking water supplies can be protected in a technically defensible manner. The iron formation is early Proterozoic in age and consists primarily of fine-grained silica and iron minerals that were deposited as chemical sediments in a marine environment. The unit has little primary porosity. Groundwater flow through the aquifer is controlled predominantly by secondary features such as folds, high- angle faults, joints, and man-made mining structures. Efforts at delineating source water protection areas on the Mesabi Range have been complicated by the extremely heterogeneous and anisotropic nature of porosity in the Biwabik Iron Formation aquifer. In the absence of reliable groundwater flow models for this type of setting, isotopic and chemical studies have been emphasized, in addition to hydrogeologic mapping. Conservative environmental tracers such as chloride and the stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen have proved useful for 1) identifying wells that are receiving recharge from mine pits, 2) characterizing the tracer signature of those mine pits that may represent recharge areas for nearby public supply wells, and 3) quantifying the significance of these recharge areas for the purpose of targeting source water protection efforts.
    [Show full text]
  • Mining on the Mesabi Iron Range?
    What’s Happening in Mining on the Mesabi Iron Range? Dan Jordan Mining & Minerals Program Supervisor Iron Range Resources Projects that must go through Environmental Review lvpmn.org 23 Project locations 13 Developers $6 billion dollars = Approximate total value of all projects Large Scale Developments 2005 - 2011 The Iron Range has a history of large scale projects that can transform the landscape. But, not since the 1960’s and early 1970’s has the region seen so many large scale projects under consideration all at the same time • Excelsior Energy Project $2,000,000,000 • Minnesota Steel Industries project in Nashwauk $1,650,000,000 • Machine #7 at the UPM paper mill in Grand Rapids $650,000,000 • Franconia Minerals – Birch Lake & Maturi Extension $616,000,000 • PolyMet’s NorthMet Project $380,000,000 • Keetac Plant Expansion $300,000,000 • Mesabi Nugget Production Scale Plant in Hoyt Lakes $235,000,000 • Taconite Plant Capacity Expansion $275,000,000 & Alternate Energy Improvements • MP Allete Clay Boswell Unit 3 Retrofit $200,000,000 • Laurentian Energy Project for Hibbing and Virginia $80,000,000 Total $6,386,000,000 Currently 6 Taconite Mines are in operation in Minnesota 2004 Foreign ownership: Stelco 14.7% of HibTac Today: Global ownership & competition United States Steel 2007 Name Production Employees Ownership Million Tons Minntac 12.751 1210 US Steel Corp. Keewatin Taconite 5.220 385 US Steel Corp. Managed by Cleveland Cliffs Mining Co. 2007 Name Production Emp. Ownership Million Tons ArcelorMittal 62.3% Hibbing 7.266 689 U S Steel Corp. 14.7% Taconite Cleveland-Cliffs 25% Northshore 4.975 511 Cleveland-Cliffs 100% Mining United Cleveland-Cliffs 70% 5.279 431 Taconite Laiwu Steel Group 30% 2007 Name Production Emp Ownership Million Tons ArcelorMittal 2.708 533 ArcelorMittal 100% Minorca Mine Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • Minnesota Statewide Historic Railroads Study Final MPDF
    St. Michael Big Marine ! ! Anoka Lake ! Berning Mill !Rogers Champlin ! Anoka HennepinMis siss Fletcher ip Maple Island ! pi ! R Lino Lakes ! i Centerville v ! er ! on Hanover ! Hugo ti Wright ! Coon Creek Maple Grove ! Hennepin arnelian Junc rcola Anoka Withrow C ! A Burschville ! ! ! !Osseo Ramsey te Bear Beach Whi ! Bald Eagle ! !Dupont !Corcoran !Brooklyn Park on ! ! Dellwood Rockford ! Fridley White di ! White me ! C Bear luth Juncti Lake Sarah ardigan Bear ahto ! Du ! Lake !M Lake !Leighton New Junction Vadnais Heights ! Stillwater ! Columbia Brighton ! ! Lor ! ! ood Heights etto rchw ! ! Bi Hamel ! ! ! Little Canada Medi Robbinsdale North c Bayport ine La ! ! Ditter ! St. Paul S Lon ! t Roseville . ! C gL r Maple Plain k Golden Gloster o e ! a i k ! Valley ! x e ! ! Lake Elmo R i Lyndale ! ! v ! Oakdale e ! r ! Midvale Ramsey ! Wayzata Washington Minneapolis Spring P Minnet ! onka Saint Paul St. D ! ! M . Oakbury Lakeland ! ark Lake ills ! Mound ! ! Louis D ! Minnetonka ! D . ! Park ! . ! . ! ! D . Deephaven ! ! ! West Highwood . ! Hopkins ! D St. Paul ! Glen Lake . ! ! ! Afton D ! St. Bonifacius M ! Excelsior . .! is Oak Terrace! South s ! i s s D ! St. Paul .! ! Fort . i ! Mendota . p Carver p Snelling . ! i D . ! Waconia R iver Newport ! D Chanhassen .! D ! ! Atwood D !Victoria Inver Grove ! ! D Eden Prairie .! St. Paul Cottage Grove ! !D Park .! Oxboro ! Bl oo D Hennep Bloomington .! mington Ferry ! ! Nicols Wescott ! D . ! in ! er . ! iv ! Augusta ta R ! Langdon ! so D nne . ! i ! ! M D Map adapted from the MN DNR divison of Fish and Wildlife 100k Lakes and Rivers and 100k Hydrography, Railroad Commissioners Map of Minnesota, 1930, and MN DOT Abandonded Railroads GIS data.
    [Show full text]
  • The People of the Mesabi Range John Sirjamal{I
    The People of the Mesabi Range John Sirjamal{i THE MESABI RANGE was a great expanse of forests and swamps in northeastern Minnesota when, in 1890, iron ore was discovered near what is now the thriving village of Mountain Iron. This first find of ore led, with later surveying, to the uncovering of vast ore beds along the southern slope of a range of low-lying hills which stretch in a flattened S-curve some eighty miles in length and two to ten miles in width in a general northeast-southwest direction. In 1890 the area of the Mesabi, some seventy miles northwest of Duluth, was enveloped in wilderness. The Duluth and Iron Range Railway, which ran between Two Harbors and the Vermilion Range, skirted the range at the village of Mesaba, far to the east of the newly dis­ covered deposits. At the west end of the range, lumbermen steadily pushed their operations up the Mississippi and Swan rivers after 1870, but by 1890 they had not yet reached the section in which the ores were first discovered. Unsettled and isolated until the discovery of ore, the Mesabi Range came to quick life after 1890. The digging of iron ore began in a high pitch of mining fever; companies were organized to mine the ore deposits, men moved into the area to seek new jobs and possibly acquire wealth, and mining camps and villages were laid out to care for the influx of population. In 1892 the first shipment of ore was made from the Mountain Iron mine; in the next year nine mines made shipments; and there were eleven in 1894, with a total tonnage of one and three-quarter millions.^ By 1895 the Mesabi had attained its present reputation as the most productive of all the Lake Superior ranges.
    [Show full text]
  • Michigan to Minnesota: the Early Development of the Mesabi Range," Upper Country: a Journal of the Lake Superior Region: Vol
    Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region Volume 6 Article 6 2018 Michigan to Minnesota: The aE rly Development of the Mesabi Range Paul Lubotina Walters State Community College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.nmu.edu/upper_country Recommended Citation Lubotina, Paul (2018) "Michigan to Minnesota: The Early Development of the Mesabi Range," Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region: Vol. 6 , Article 6. Available at: https://commons.nmu.edu/upper_country/vol6/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Peer-Reviewed Series at NMU Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region by an authorized editor of NMU Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Lubotina: Michigan to Minnesota: The Early Development of the Mesabi Range Michigan to Minnesota: The Early Development of the Mesabi Range By Paul Lubotina During the nineteenth century, the opening of large copper and iron ore fields would have a major impact on regional economic development in not only Michigan, but Minnesota as well. The Keweenaw and Marquette mining regions attracted large numbers of engineering specialists who played a role in the development of the larger ore deposits located on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range. Additionally, the large numbers of Cornish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, and Slovenian immigrants, who had found lucrative positions in the copper and iron mines of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, provided the manual labor and mining experience needed in Minnesota.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lake Superior Iron Ranges: Geology and Mining
    THE LAKE SUPERIOR IRON RANGES: GEOLOGY AND MINING William F. Cannon, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA 20192 ECONOMIC AND STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE OF LAKE SUPERIOR IRON Currently the only source of domestic iron ore. In recent years, Lake Superior ores provided roughly 85% of U.S. demand. Annual production varies but is generally about 50 million tons of concentrate valued at about $2 billion. An iron range is an elongate belt of layered sedimentary rocks in which one or more layers consist of banded iron-formation, a rock composed of alternating iron-rich and iron-poor layers on a scale of a few centimeters. Banded iron-formation from the Gogebic Range MINING HISTORY First ore discoveries and mines: Marquette Range, Michigan: Ore discovered 1844, first ore shipment 1852 Menominee Range, Michigan: Discovered 1846, first mine 1870 Gogebic Range, Michigan and Wisconsin: discovered 1848, first mine 1884 Iron River, Michigan: discovered 1851, first mine 1881 Vermillion Range, Minnesota: discovered 1882, first mine 1884 Mesabi Range, Minnesota: discovered 1866, first mine 1890 Cuyuna Range, Minnesota: discovered 1904, first mine 1910 A BRIEF HISTORY OF MINING PHASE 1. The initial phase of mining, from discovery until the 1950’s, was for direct shipping ore (also called natural ore). These ores were pockets of high grade iron concentrations that formed within banded iron formations by leaching of silica by surface water or deeply circulating ground water. PHASE 2. Beginning in the late 1950’s a transition from direct shipping ore to taconite production began. Within a decade it supplanted direct shipping ore. Taconite is produced from metallurgically favorable parts of banded iron-formation and requires concentration and pelletizing at the mine site.
    [Show full text]
  • Standardized Incidence Ratios for Mesothelioma in Taconite Workers
    Standardized Incidence Ratios for Mesothelioma in Taconite Workers Christine Lambert♦*, Bruce H. Alexander*, Jeffrey Mandel*, David Perlman‡, Gurumurthy Ramachandran* ♦Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health *Division of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Minnesota School of Public Health ‡Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine Division, University of Minnesota Medical School Abstract The Taconite Industry Sources of Asbestos Exposure to naturally occurring amphibole asbestiform •Taconite is a lean iron ore used in steel •The preliminary finding of elevated SIRs fibers, cleavage fragments, and commercial asbestos are production suggests that this population of taconite miners potential occupational hazards for miners working in has had significant asbestos exposure Minnesota’s taconite industry. In a cohort of 47,579 •Taconite mining on the Mesabi Range started in miners we identified 63 cases of malignant mesothelioma the 1950s •Potential sources of asbestiform material diagnosed from 1988-2009. We estimated standardized include amphibole asbestiform fibers present at incidence ratios (SIR) of mesothelioma for the entire •Taconite must be crushed and processed with the eastern end of the Iron Range, commercial cohort and accounting for out-migration based on the magnetic separators to increase its iron ore asbestos used in the taconite industry, and proportion of out-of-state decedents. The SIR for concentration mesothelioma for the entire cohort was 1.43, and 1.63 exposure to asbestos during military service or when estimating impact of out-of-state migration. These in other occupations preliminary findings of an excess of mesothelioma suggest a significant exposure to asbestos fibers in this •Ore bodies in eastern Mesabi Range include population.
    [Show full text]
  • The Taconite Breakthrough
    The Taconite Breakthrough The taconite industry that sprang full-blown from the rust red hills of the Mesabi Range between 1955 and 1975 had its roots in scientific experiments conducted more than three-quarters of a century before. After selling his stake in the Edison General Electric Company in 1892, Thomas Edison retired to the Musconetcong Mountains of New Jersey where he spent nearly a decade experimenting with the electro-magnetic separation of iron ore. 1 Edison’s plans to separate low-grade iron ore were dashed by the competitive edge that rich, natural ore had in the marketplace, but the Wizard of Menlo Park proved that magnetic separation of low-grade iron ore “Pebble mills” are used in was certainly feasible. taconite processing operations to perform the final grinding of fine particles prior to magnetic separation of high-grade iron ore from waste rock. (Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., Photo) After low-grade iron ore (taconite) is blasted from the ground and broken apart, a gyratory crusher reduces the ore to pieces of about nine inches in diameter and shovels it into 240- ton capacity trucks. (Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., Photo) Taconite is named for the Taconic Mountains of upstate New York, and it is essentially a chert-like rock that has 30-32 percent iron content. Taconite reserves of the Mesabi Range are estimated in the billions of tons, and the existence of those reserves has been known since early in the 20th century. At the time of the First World War, Dwight E. Woodbridge, a prominent Duluth mining engineer, convinced Hayden, Stone & Company of New York and Daniel C.
    [Show full text]
  • "Locations" : Company Communities on Minnesota's Iron Range
    The "Locations »» Company Communities on Arnold R. Alanen Minnesota's Iron Ranges te-.;:r-5'N>I,-.^r RESIDENTS of the Leonidas Location near Eveleth collecting water from the community well ho use 94 Minnesota History "Ashes to ashes Dust to dust If Glenn didn't get me Kitsville must."^ IN MOST .MINING regions of the United States the the company town has not had a great impact, however, company town has played an important and indeed often is the Lake Superior mining region that embraces the ominous role in defining settlement patterns and in de­ copper country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the termining the development and evolution of social and Marquette, Menominee, Gogebic, Vermilion, Mesabi, economic institutions. One section of the countrv where and Cuyuna iron ranges of northern Vlichigan, Wiscon­ sin, and Minnesota. Only a few versions of the company town — such as Coleraine, Marble, and Taconite on the western VIesabi Range, and the steel production center ' Margaret Dahlen, Diary, July 20, 1928, in Daily Vacation of VIorgan Park situated near Duluth — have been evi­ Bible School (DVBS) reports, William J. BeU Papers, Vlinneso­ dent in the region; but several hundred examples of the ta Historical Society (MHS), St. Paul. Glen was a location between Hibbing and Chisholm; Kitzville was a small townsite "location," another form of company-controlled com­ two miles southeast of Hibbing. Dahlen misspelled the two munity, did emerge." names. Locations were groupings of residences built proxi­ The author is indebted for research support from the mate to mine sites; they were found throughout the Lake Graduate School and the College of Agricultural & Life Sci­ ences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and from the Superior region, but the largest number existed in W.K.
    [Show full text]
  • Mesabi Metallics Company LLC V. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc
    IN THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF DELAWARE In re: Chapter 11 ESSAR STEEL MINNESOTA LLC and Case No. 16-11626 (BLS) ESML HOLDINGS INC. (Jointly Administered) Debtors. MESABI METALLICS COMPANY LLC, Plaintiff, v. CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC. (F/K/A CLIFFS Adv. Proc. No. 17-51210 (BLS) NATURAL RESOURCES INC.); CLEVELAND-CLIFFS MINNESOTA Re: Docket Nos. 18, 30, 31, 33-35, 46-47, 49, LAND DEVELOPMENT LLC; GLACIER 51, 67, 72-74, 81-82 PARK IRON ORE PROPERTIES LLC, AND DOES 1-10 Defendants. CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC. (F/K/A CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC.); CLEVELAND-CLIFFS MINNESOTA LAND DEVELOPMENT LLC; GLACIER PARK IRON ORE PROPERTIES LLC Counterclaim-Plaintiffs, v. MESABI METALLICS COMPANY LLC Counterclaim-Defendant. Justin R. Alberto, Esq. M. Blake Cleary, Esq. BAYARD, P.A. YOUNG CONAWAY STARGATT & 600 North King Street TAYLOR, LLP Suite 400 1000 North King Street Wilmington, DE 19801 Wilmington, DE 19801 Craig Averch, Esq. Robert S. Faxon, Esq. WHITE & CASE LLP JONES DAY 555 South Flower Street, Suite 2700 North Point Los Angeles, CA 90071-2433 901 Lakeside Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114-1190 Attorneys for Mesabi Metallics Company LLC, Chippewa Capital Partners, LLC, and Thomas M. Attorneys for Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc. and Clarke Cleveland-Cliffs Minnesota Land Development LLC William P. Bowden, Esq. ASHBY & GEDDES, P.A. 500 Delaware Avenue, 8th Floor Wilmington, DE 19801 Christopher J. Harayda, Esq. Dennis M. Ryan, Esq. FAEGRE BAKER DANIELS LLP 2200 Wells Fargo Center 90 South 7th Street Minneapolis, MN 55402-3901 Attorneys for Glacier Park Iron Ore Properties LLC OPINION1 Before the Court are cross-motions for partial summary judgment in this adversary proceeding.
    [Show full text]
  • Mineralogy and Metamorphism of the Stromatolite-Bearing Layers of the Biwabik Iron Formation
    MINERALOGY AND METAMORPHISM OF THE STROMATOLITE-BEARING LAYERS OF THE BIWABIK IRON FORMATION By Dan Foley A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Geology) at GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE 2009 Mineralogy and Metamorphism of The Stromatolite-bearing Layers of The Biwabik Iron Formation By Dan Foley Under the supervision of Professor James Welsh ABSTRACT The 1.85 billion year old Biwabik Iron-formation of northeastern Minnesota contains some of the earliest forms of life on the planet, present in structures called stromatolites. Samples of the iron-formation were collected directly above and below stromatolite bearing horizons, to determine silicate mineralogy, so as to ultimately understand the effects of metamorphism on the stromatolites. Degree of metamorphism adjacent to the stromatolite horizons was found to range from late diagentic to moderate metamorphic grade. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks should be given to the advisor of this thesis Professor James Welsh for his continued help and support. Thanks should also be given to the other professors of the Gustavus Adolphus Geology department. The author would also like to thank Professor Russell Shapiro whose research on stromatolites helped launch this work, and provided many of the samples. Thanks should also be extended to the mining companies who allowed us to gather samples and the workers of the Hibbing core library whose help in wading through the cores was greatly appreciated. Thanks should also be given to Macalester College for allowing us the use of their equipment and time, and specifically to Jeff Thole who’s help with the X-ray analyis is greatly appreciated.
    [Show full text]