The Iron Man of Minnesota

The truth is... I am Iron Man.

And so are several thousand others today, and many more men in the past who worked the iron mines of northern Minnesota. And now there are also many iron women. We've moved from pick and shovel to a high-technology industry of 3D models, high-precision GPS and immense earth-movers, but the spirit is the same. Descendants of the 19th century-immigrant Finns, Italians, and eastern Europeans who fed the forges of American industry still wrest iron from the massive orebodies of the Mesabi Range. And, like the distant blast furnaces that blend the best parts of a combination of raw materials into steel, this unlikely mix of immigrants comprises the distinct culture of the "Rangers."

In the very small town of Chisholm, there is a very large tribute to this bedrock foundation of American steel.

Pasties on the Range

In 2003 my family made its first foray into the upper Great Lakes region of Northeast Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP), beginning our long, continuing affair with the shorelines of the greatest lakes. Possibly the first sign welcoming us to the area hinted at "pasties ahead, 1 mile." Soon the byways were peppered with an assortment of sometimes shambolic roadhouses, neon "open" signs beckoning us to "Get your pasties here." My first thought was of tassels and cheap burlesque. But reality was in truth as tawdry as a senior's night checkers game at a nudist colony. We had stumbled upon a heritage dish, mining's contribution to the world's palate, the pasty (PASS-tee).

The pasty is perhaps the main raison d'être for an otherwise disrespected vegetable, the rutabaga. Other principal components of the standard pasty are beef, potato, onion and spices wrapped in a crimped pastry to form a semicircular pocket sandwich that is then baked to a golden brown. In the Upper Midwest, "spices" refers exclusively to salt and pepper. The pasty is right at home there. Its most scandalous aspect regionally is mild disagreement over the spelling of the singular item, some vendors preferring "pastie."

Variations on the standard pasty for the adventurous crowd might skip the beef altogether or include extra potato, and ketchup is an almost shameful side transaction not discussed between merchant and customer. Hoping no one will see, I've furtively grabbed a few courtesy packs of the condiment like a nervous youth in the prophylactic section of a drugstore. Gravy is a damnable abomination reserved for tourists.

Pictures of the Moment - Soudan Underground Mine State Park

Soudan Underground Mine State Park is the only place I know where you can tour an historic iron ore mine and a state-of-the-art physics lab at the same time. I was here in June of 2006. It's a great day for a geologist like me, or anyone who likes mining history.

Shaft #8 headframe. It takes a few minutes to get all the way down the cramped "cage" elevator.

Silhouettes of fellow miners on the tour, illuminated by headlamps 2341 feet below the surface. A 3/4 mile underground rail takes you to the Montana orebody, the deepest workings in the Soudan. Surface mining commenced in 1882, making it Minnesota's oldest operating district, and operations were fully underground in the 20th century.

The underground workings are preserved as they were left in 1962. Later United States Steel (Oliver Mining) donated the property to the state for educational purposes. Soudan was Minnesota's deepest and highest-grade iron ore mine, with hematite ores grading >65% Fe by weight. Ores mined in Minnesota today have less than half the recoverable iron. It was all I could do not to collect a sample.

The picture is a little fuzzy, but I took it.

You pass through a nondescript door from the darkened mine and into a brilliantly-lit physics lab, a segue that has all the hallmarks of a James Bond novel. Here is the MINOS (or Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search) neutrino detector. More than 2000 feet underground, the lab also conducts dark matter experiments, the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II).

More than 2600 million years old, banded iron formation of the Soudan Iron-Formation--on Minnesota's Vermilion Range--hosts ores exploited in one of Minnesota's original mining districts. More than 15 million tons of ore were mined here, a small amount compared to much younger near-surface deposits of the nearby Mesabi Range. This stuff makes great clock faces and counter tops when cut and polished. It also looks very nice just where it is, especially after a rain.

Clear and Cold on the Iron Range

Cold is relative in the North Country. When the thermometer plunged a couple weeks ago, the record low temperatures were a major news story along the eastern seaboard of North America. The phenomenon was described as a "polar vortex." In Minnesota this kind of weather is called a "normal January." A friend once told me this is the price of five months of paradise. And black flies.

Temperature in farenheit (same as -31C) on Tuesday morning, January 21st.

Iron Rangers aren't especially tougher, just a different kind of acclimated. When I lived here more than one person told me they couldn't wait for the unbearable 80 degree days to relent...and for ice fishing. But there is justifiable pride in their own brand of hardiness, casual indifference to the Minneapolis climate--the "banana belt"--and respect for anywhere currently colder than home. In time, my new blood began to thicken too, and before long the winter jacket would open up like maple sap in March. The kids didn't know any different. Shortly after we moved to Ohio, a teacher chastised my son for not wearing his coat on a below-freezing winter day. "Why?" he replied. "It's not cold."