The Duluth News Tribune reports that BoomTown Brewery & Woodfire has partnered with Androy Hotel owner Trellis Co. to retrofit the 1920s ballroom of the historic Androy Hotel in Hibbing into an event space, expanding catering abilities with a new commissary kitchen.
The Burt-Poole and Sellers mines were the first to ship iron ore out of Minnesota’s Iron Range in the summer of 1895. In its first five years the Sellers Ore Company shipped 188,000 tons. By 1919 the figure had shot up to 8.9 million tons, according to the 1921 book Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota; Their Story and People by Walter Van Brunt.
The Associated Press reports 42 handwritten love letters from Robert Zimmerman to his high school sweetheart, Barbara Ann Hewitt, were sold at auction to a Portuguese bookshop for nearly $670,000.
Actress and Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik was a guest on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on April 4. At about the 4:50 mark in the clip above she tells the story of traveling with her father to the Iron Range to visit their “personal Mecca, which is Hibbing, Minn., the birthplace of Robert Zimmerman — also known as Bob Dylan.”
Of course, the Jeopardy! question that would lead one to the place where Robert Zimmerman was born is “What is Duluth?” The Zimmerman family moved to Hibbing when Robert was 6 years old.
This postcard was mailed 100 years ago today — Aug. 6, 1921. The image shows Third Avenue in Hibbing looking north, including the Oliver Hotel at 422 Third Avenue. The card was published by T. C. Congdon.
WDIO-TV has pulled this relic from its archive to share during Duluth Dylan Fest week. The news clip is from Oct. 10, 1988. Dylan’s boyhood home was on the market at the time. Reporter Leonard Lee went inside the house and into the former bedroom of the music icon where a shrine of sorts had been displayed. Items of note: an autograph from a pre-fame Bobby Zimmerman and a mezuzah shaped like a guitar.
The moments where the video briefly drops out are glitches in the 3/4-inch tape.
The newly redesigned mine view in Hibbing offers expansive perspectives of the old Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine and the active Hull Rust and Hibbing Taconite Open Pit Mine.
The craft beer craze is finally permeating Minnesota’s Iron Range. Before the year’s end, the area will support two new breweries: Klockow Brewing Company in Grand Rapids and BoomTown Brewery & Woodfire Grill in Hibbing. Another, Rapids Brewing Company, is in the works.
This film footage from 1928 shows U.S. President Calvin Coolidge arriving in Hibbing on the Duluth, Missabe, and Northern Railroad to view mining operations and see the highly acclaimed Hibbing High School. Modern-day aerial footage of the school concludes the video.
The Onion A.V. Club’s Sean O’Neal traveled to Hibbing for a video that soaks up the Bob Dylan experience for the series Pop Pilgrims. There’s a nice look inside the Hibbing High School Auditorium — Minnesota’s second-nicest high-school auditorium.
[This post originally linked to the video, which no longer exists on the Onion’s site.]
The effects of the state budget deficit will be felt by many, but one example I’ve been talking about is the potential loss of Hibbing Community College Theater. (Disclosure: I work for HCC as a communication instructor).
HCC has developed a top notch two-year theater program and community theater series. For years it has demonstrated to the blue collar Iron Range the importance and possibility represented by the fine arts. Unfortunately, the program is now on the chopping block. But the community isn’t taking this lying down. A deal was struck that if some money could be raised externally the program could continue in some form.
For one night only, a big show will be held that could save a precious community treasure from budget cuts. Yes, that is exactly like the plot of the 1980 musical “The Blues Brothers.” Which is why the cast of HCC’s 2004 production of the Blues Brothers is reuniting for the show. The HCC Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers band is top notch, as good or better than any of the other revivals you might see touring the country and is predominantly stocked with Minnesotans.
We need to fill this massive, historic hall to save theater at HCC. Consider a road trip to Hibbing to send a message in support of the arts.
HCC Theater Support Gala
7:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 2
Hibbing High School Auditorium
(easily the most impressive high school auditorium in the country, and Dylan played there before he was Dylan)
First, enjoy the hilarious promotional video featuring Elwood Blues (Hibbing’s Jaime Tintor, an actor in L.A.). This is well worth the click.
HCC Theater Support Gala featuring the Blues Brothers: July 2 in Hibbing
Send this out. Tell your friends. Tweet and Retweet. Blog and Share. Every town has something to fight for in this unfortunately political battle, but this one is awfully important to the towns of the Iron Range, knocked down by the economy and in need of the healing power of the arts. Tell the people: “We’re getting the band back together.”
Follow some hilarious updates all next week at my blog MinnesotaBrown.com
