Now the news on mining is starting to coming out.
130 years of Mining
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Posted: Friday, August 1, 2014 6:00 am
by Bill Hanna Mesabi Daily News
SOUDAN — July 31, 1884, was a great day on the Iron Range.
It was so important that the hard-working multi-international immigrants of the Soudan Mine got the day off. They celebrated the arrival of Engine No. 8 to be loaded with the first shipment of rich red ore to leave the Iron Range bound for Agate Bay of Lake Superior and then east on the Great Lakes to the steel mills.
Wednesday in Soudan was a celebration of that day on the 130th anniversary of mining in Minnesota.
“It Began in Soudan” was the theme for a gathering at the Breitung Township Community Center where the importance of 13 decades of mining to the Iron Range, state and country was lauded by several public officials who spoke. The event was held just a jaunt away from where mining in the state was launched — the Soudan Underground Mine — which is now a state park.
Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board Commissioner Tony Sertich presented a proclamation from his boss, Gov. Mark Dayton, which declared July 31,
2014, “Minnesota Iron Day” to commemorate 130 years of mining in the state.
Sertich said mining is a $3 billion industry for Minnesota. “Not too bad for a temporary industry with temporary jobs,” he said.
State Rep. David Dill, DFLCrane Lake, said the Iron Mining Association’s “We Support Mining” campaign that has spread across the Range and other areas of the state could be renamed “We Live Mining.”
“It’s what this country does. Every person depends on steel in some way,” Dill said, pointing to how vital the mining of ore has been to the steel industry that industrialized the country and produced the armaments that helped win two world wars.
State Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, talked of just how the area was formed and has developed around mining.
“We wouldn’t have the Iron Range or Iron Rangers without mining,” he said.
Jerry Fallos of Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s staff on the Range read a statement from the senator and Jordan Metsa of 8th District U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan’s staff offered comments from the congressman.
Other speakers included St. Louis County Commissioners Keith Nelson and Mike Forsman, Department of Natural Resources Soudan State Park Manager Jim Essig, head of U.S. Steel Minnesota Ore Operations, Larry Sutherland, U.S. Steelworkers official John Rebrovich and Breitung Township Administrator Tim Tomisch.
