The Hibbing High School auditorium is Broadway in northern Minnesota. I lived on the Iron Range for several years, and there have been many times I've looked back and wished my boys had gone on to Hibbing High School. I still make a point to drive past it during every business trip. Besides being a throwback to the days of industrialist philanthropy, Hibbing boasts one of the consistently best academic public schools in the nation. The edifice itself is a tribute to the gilded age, if built a few years later in 1923. The same construction today (2014) would cost at least $55 million to build, and some of the artisinal skills are probably lost forever. But it's no surprise in this proud town of superlatives -- one of the largest open pit mines in the world and the home town of Bob Dylan -- where Paul Bunyan still echoes. We attended a few of the school's productions in the auditorium, and the setting could have been Broadway. No trip to northern Minnesota is complete without a walk through these halls.
Thanks to my friend David Oberstar for sharing this link on Facebook.
