The Mesaba Railway was the first and only interurban electric transportation system on the Mesabi Range, with its inaugural run on December 25, 1912. The track covered 30.5 miles between Gilbert, Minnesota and Hibbing, Minnesota with 6 cars offering hourly service between 6 a.m. and midnight, seven days a week. The cars could travel at speeds up to 40 miles per hour and offered passengers such modern conveniences as heat, smoking cars, and toilets.
The introduction of the Mesaba Railway changed life on the Iron Range. The emergence of the interurban marked the beginning of the end for other forms of transportation including "livery stables, horses and buggies." People now had more choices of where to live, shop, and find entertainment. Prior to its introduction, public transportation was practically non-existent and limited to horse and buggy, railroad transportation, and a few cars for the more affluent. A majority of the population lived in mining locations, which were small communities built near the mining operations, where one could easily walk from place to place.
The last interurban passenger car operated on April 16, 1927. The Mesaba Railway Company was sold to Northland Transportation Company (later incorporated as Greyhound Lines in 1930). The railway company went into receivership on March 7, 1924, and was sold in December 1927. All of the offices and equipment were sold to the Minnesota State Highway Department.
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The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. First described in 1866, it is the chief iron ore mining district in the United States. The district is located largely in Itasca and Saint Louis counties. It has been extensively worked since 1892, and has seen a transition from high-grade direct shipping ores through gravity concentrates to the current industry exclusively producing iron ore (taconite) pellets. Production has been dominantly controlled by vertically integrated steelmakers since 1901, and therefore is dictated largely by US ironmaking capacity and demand.
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{{Infobox locomotive | name=William Crooks | powertype=Steam | image=William Crooks 1939.JPG | caption=William Crooks in Chicago, en route to the 1939 New York World's Fair | builder=New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Works | builddate=1861 | rebuilddate=1869, after damaged in 1868 fire | whytetype=4-4-0 | gauge=4 ft 8+1⁄2 in | leadingdiameter=28 in (710 mm) | driverdiameter=63 in (1,600 mm) | length=50 ft 8+1⁄4 in (15.45 m) | weightondrivers=35,950 lb (16,310 kg) | locoweight=55,400 lb (25,100 kg) | tenderweight={{ |17975|lb|kg t|abbr=in|sp=us}} | boilerpressure=110 psi (760 kPa) | cylindercount=Two | cylindersize=12 in × 22 in 305 mm × 559 mm | tractiveeffort=4,700 lbf (20.91 kN) | factorofadhesion = 7.65 | operator=St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, Great Northern Railway | operatorclass=1 | fleetnumbers=1 | firstrundate=June 1862 | retiredate=September 1897 | currentowner=Minnesota Historical Society, loaned to Lake Superior Railroad Museum | disposition=static display at Lake Superior Railroad Museum }}
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