Little Grand Canyon of the North

To the north of us lie the vast forests of Minnesota.  We have begun to explore that region of the state.   

The forest lands are shown in orange.  

Within that forest lies the Mesabi Iron Range.  The iron mines in this region of the state feed the giant steel industry once controlled by the Rockefeller and Carnegie families. 

The town of Hibbing is known as the birthplace of Robert Zimmerman, better know as singer, composer, Bob Dylan

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Hibbing is also home to the Little Grand Canyon of the North.  The largest of the large iron mines is the Hull Rust mine and we paid a visit to this vast hole in the ground.

This slide shows how the ore is distributed to the steel mills of America.

The mining at Hull Rusk starts with a weekly dynamite blast on Thursdays.  Then huge trucks move the ore out of the mine.  This is a 240 ton truck.

It takes some big shovels to load those trucks.

Here is an interesting video from the Hull Rust Visitor Center.