Virginia is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mesabi Iron Range. With an economy heavily reliant on large-scale iron ore mining, Virginia is considered the Mesabi Range's commercial center. The population was 8,423 at the 2020 census. Virginia is a part of the Duluth metropolitan area and U.S. Highway 53 runs through town.
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.
The Iron Range is collectively or individually a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by the Giants Range batholith. These cherty iron ore deposits are Precambrian in the Vermilion Range and middle Precambrian in the Mesabi and Cuyuna ranges, all in Minnesota. The Gogebic Range in Wisconsin and the Marquette Iron Range and Menominee Range in Michigan have similar characteristics and are of similar age. Natural ores and concentrates were produced from 1848 until the mid-1950s, when taconites and jaspers were concentrated and pelletized, and started to become the major source of iron production.
The Cuyuna Range is an inactive iron range to the southwest of the Mesabi Range, largely within Crow Wing County, Minnesota. It lies along a 68-mile-long (109 km) line between Brainerd, Minnesota, and Aitkin, Minnesota. The width ranges from 1 to 10 miles.
The Two Harbors Light is the oldest operating lighthouse in the US state of Minnesota. Overlooking Lake Superior's Agate Bay, the lighthouse is located in Two Harbors, Minnesota. The construction of the lighthouse began in 1891 and was completed the following year, with the light being lit for the first time on April 14, 1892. The first Two Harbors keeper was Charles Lederle and there were normally three keepers assigned to make sure the light was lit every day. The Lighthouse was built to provide safe passage into the Agate Bay Harbor during the early 20th century, as Two Harbors was a major shipping point for the iron ore of the Mesabi Range.
Hill-Annex Mine State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, interpreting the open-pit mining heritage of the Mesabi Range. The park is located north of the city of Calumet, in Itasca County, Minnesota. The park provides access to fossil material exposed by mining from the Cretaceous era Coleraine Formation.
The Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum is a former iron mine, now a heritage museum, located on Euclid Street between Lakeshore Drive and Spruce Street in Ishpeming, Michigan. The museum, operated by "Marquette Range Iron Mining Heritage Theme Park Inc.", celebrates the history of the Marquette Iron Range. The site was designated a state of Michigan historic site in 1973 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States, is the largest operating open-pit iron mine in Minnesota. The pit stretches more than three miles (5 km) long, two miles (3 km) wide, and 535 feet (163 m) deep. It was established in 1895 and was one of the world's first mechanized open-pit mines.
The Seven Iron Men, also known as Merritt Brothers, were iron-ore pioneers in the Mesabi Range in northeastern Minnesota and the creation of the city that is now known as Mountain Iron. In the late 1800s, the Merritt family founded the largest iron mine in the world and initiated the consolidation of the American railway system into what would ultimately become the United States Steel Corporation. Their story was told, in part, by the book Seven Iron Men by Paul de Kruif. The book was first published in 1929.
B'nai Abraham Synagogue is a former synagogue in Virginia, Minnesota, United States. It was constructed in 1909 as the first purpose-built synagogue on the Iron Range. It served as the heart of the local Jewish community in the early 20th century. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for its local significance in the themes of religion and social history. It was nominated for attesting both to the ethnic diversity of the Iron Range and to the commonality of its immigrant groups maintaining cohesion around religious centers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Duluth Vessel Yard is a federal port facility in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It houses the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) resources used to maintain the harbors of the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin. It was established on Minnesota Point in 1903, though most of its present configuration dates to a flurry of construction in 1941.
Edna G is a tugboat which worked the Great Lakes and is now preserved as a museum ship. Edna G was built by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company in 1896 for the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad at a cost $35,397.50. She was named for the daughter of J. L. Greatsinger, president of the railroad.
Mountain Iron Mine is a former mine in Mountain Iron, Minnesota, United States. Opened in 1892, it was the first mine on the Mesabi Range, which has proved to be the largest iron ore deposit ever discovered in the United States. Mining operations at the site ceased in 1956. The bottom of the open-pit mine has filled with water but its dimensions are readily visible. The city maintains an overlook in Mountain Iron Locomotive Park.
Manganese is a ghost town and former mining community in the U.S. state of Minnesota that was inhabited between 1912 and 1960. It was built in Crow Wing County on the Cuyuna Iron Range in sections 23 and 28 of Wolford Township, about 2 miles (3 km) north of Trommald, Minnesota. After its formal dissolution, Manganese was absorbed by Wolford Township; the former town site is located between Coles Lake and Flynn Lake. First appearing in the U.S. Census of 1920 with an already dwindling population of 183, the village was abandoned by 1960.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Saint Louis County, Minnesota. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lake County, Minnesota. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Lake County, Minnesota, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
Boart Longyear is an international mineral exploration company founded in 1890 in the United States. It is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with regional offices and operations in the Asia-Pacific region, North and South America, Europe, and Africa. The company provides mineral exploration services and drilling products for the mining industry and also has a presence in drilling water exploration, environmental sampling, energy, and oil sands exploration. As of 2018, it employed more than 5,000 people.
Elcor is a ghost town, or more properly, an extinct town, in the U.S. state of Minnesota that was inhabited between 1897 and 1956. It was built on the Mesabi Iron Range near the city of Gilbert in St. Louis County. Elcor was its own unincorporated community before it was abandoned and was never a neighborhood proper of the city of Gilbert. Not rating a figure in the national census, the people of Elcor were only generally considered to be citizens of Gilbert. The area where Elcor was located was annexed by Gilbert when its existing city boundaries were expanded after 1969.
The Eveleth Recreation Building, later the Arrow Shirt Factory, is a historic building in Eveleth, Minnesota, United States. It was constructed in 1918 as a municipal gymnasium, with a curling rink on the ground floor and an ice hockey rink on the second floor. At that time the city of Eveleth was flush with tax revenue from the Mesabi Range mining boom, and the population was heavily male from the influx of mine workers. As the gender balance evened out in the 1930s, the building was converted into a garment factory, answering a need for employment opportunities for women and diversifying the local economy.
The Emmett Butler House is a historic house in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States. It was built in a simplified Colonial Revival mode in 1916 for Emmett Butler, a local leader and an executive in Minnesota's influential Butler Brothers Construction Company. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for its local significance in the themes of architecture and industry. It was nominated as an example of the Colonial Revival houses built in Minnesota in the early 20th century and for its associations with Butler.
