Minnesota's Lost Mining Towns - Full Documentary

When I was a kid in the 1950s, we lived in a completely modern affluent Minneapolis suburb. My parents and grandparents all were academics and university professors. They were always taking our family to one visit historic site or another. One summer when I was 9 or 10, we took a month-long trip to the Mesabi and Vermillion ranges during the taconite boom to learn about the history and current practices of the iron mining industry. I remember being fascinated by the geology and impressed by the huge size of the trucks and other equipment used in the mining industry.

My ancestors came from England, Ireland, and Norway and settled up at the range. My great grandfather was the mining superintendent at the Buhl Mind in the late 1800s and ran it until 1930. His name was Thomas Murphy. He and my great grandmother had nine children and lived in the nicest house in Buhl.

In 1953 I spent a happy summer in a trailer on a hill between Lake Superior and Silver Bay. In 1958-1959, I attended school in Silver Bay, happily traveling by bus 45 minutes each way from Finland, with all the descendants of miners. My heart still belongs to this forest, where my Ojibwe ancestors lived for awhile, too.😢

RIP Marvin Lamppa the Iron Range lost a great historian. I’m so glad he’s part of PBS documentaries.

My great grandfather, Paul Eagle Nelson, and my great grandmother, Carrie Nelson, lived in Orr. Their families came here from Norway. We visited them from the cities often in summer time. I really loved them. Eventually, I brought my 6 kids up to the range to live. My oldest son is now a millwright in the mines and doing so well for himself. I’ve often doubted myself for leaving the cities but this documentary has me feeling grateful and low key pretty proud that my kids and now grandchildren are being raised on the iron range. 😊 Thank you

I grew up in Eveleth and I have family still in Eveleth, Gilbert and Virginia. The last house I lived in with my mother in Eveleth was across the street from part of the Thunderbird mine and when I was a toddler my parents took us to the leonidas overlook in west Eveleth and I thought we were on the top of the world and everyone in my family has called it the top of the world ever since, it was always really fun bringing friends or serious boyfriends on the 3 hour trip up north to meet my family and to show them the mines and bring them swimming in Orebegon ❤

You know I live in Delaware and yet I’m subscribed to the Duluth, MN’s local PBS station here on YouTube and have been watching all these documentaries and I’m really digging it! It’s super interesting to learn about the local history of different places. I know that my local PBS stations (WHYY Philadelphia/Wilmington, DE & NJTV out of New Jersey) are my absolute favorite channels to watch on television but now, through the internet it’s possible to watch programs from not just all over the country, but all over the world and its freakin AWESOME! I’m loving this channel! Thank you for broadcasting on YouTube.

So glad to be from the iron range I grew up playing and swimming , cliff jumping in the old mines now I work in them

A wonderful documentary. Bringing a tear to eyes watching. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Shared on a media site to show how hard Minnesota immigrants worked years ago.

Love it, as a Baby Boomer from the fifties this brings me some loving memories. I did not grow up within a Mining town, but this does bring me home, thanks for sharing and for the respect you show for these challenging but loving times. God Bless. God, Family and Country. 1776

I lived as a kid in a WV steel mill town that used that ore, and I’ll just say it....it stunk like acid metal and polluted everything in my hometown as they used the ore to make steel. The cancer rates were sky high and if you caught fish in the Ohio river they had tumors and were full of toxic metal like chromium and arsenic and lead. In the winter the top of the snow had a black sheen on it from the graphite particles falling from the sky. The roof and hoods of cars had their paint eaten away in two years from it. Clouds of toxic junk would sear your lungs. I’m not sure why people think the old days were so great. They were a polluted and toxic wasteland.

My mom used to pick crab apples from the trees left behind by those ghost towns and made the most delicious spiced apples, seeds and all! That was in the early 70's.

A touching documentary and I could relate to the Finnish family at the end as I grew up in a Finnish family in nearby Wisconsin in the 50's. It was in the countryside near Superior. My grandparents sure had their sauna and we would use it often. Also back then, they were the first ones to have a television, and before my parents got one, we would go there to watch a bit. It would have been interesting to hear more how people lived in the winter. Did the mines still operate. Winters there can be quite severe.

Wow, my grandfather worked these mines and lived with his family including my father in Hibbing, Minnesota. He died when I was a baby and I am thankful for this window into his world. Bob Dylan is pretty cool too.

PBS north did a great job throughout the whole documentary series! Well done and thank you! 🍻

Several years ago I was on a little road trip, camping by myself. On the trip up the north shore I would take each road to the right and I happened onto the taconite harbor & abandoned town, I had never heard of it and was fascinated. There was an old street light, a grown up road but could still see a curb and lines on the road, very few remnants but it prompted be to find out about it ! I dated a guy that lived in hibbing, I would drive over to see him but didn’t see much of the area, I want to go back over there and look around more !!! He lived in a beautiful old house and the town still has steam heat !!!! Gosh, I can’t wait for spring, going to take my camper and go look around over there !!!!

It's sad the way these very hard working people were exploited by these mining companies. They didn't even own the land they lived on and had little control over their own fates. The towns they built such fond memories in were erased. I understand the nostalgia for simpler times, but wish there was a little more critical thought expressed about the economic system that did this to them and how unsustainable it is.

Love this movie! I grew up in a mining town in northern ontario. It's still there by the skin of its teeth. But it was a great place to live in the 60's and 70's!! Timmins, Ontario!

Although it was the largest, Mesabi was only one of three iron ranges in Minnesota. There is much more history to be uncovered.

This show was great! So much history. I live in omaha, ne. and model the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Ry. and I love the Iron Range.