The Iron Range and Its Economy
From a geological perspective, the Iron Range in Minnesota includes these four major iron deposits:
- Mesabi Range, the largest iron range, largely within Itasca and St. Louis counties;
- Vermilion Range, northeast of the Mesabi, in St. Louis and Lake counties;
- Gunflint Range is in the extreme northern portion of Cook County and extends into Canada; and
- Cuyuna Range, southwest of the Mesabi, largely within Crow Wing County.
The large size of the Mesabi Range leads many Minnesotans to equate it directly with the Iron Range, in exclusion of the other, smaller ranges.
The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), sometimes known simply as "the I-triple-R-B" or Iron Range Resources, is an economic development agency funded partly by taxes levied by the state on taconite-producing companies and charged with creating jobs. Detractors consider it an example of pork barrel politics.
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Famous quotes containing the words iron, range and/or economy:
“Industrial man—a sentient reciprocating engine having a fluctuating output, coupled to an iron wheel revolving with uniform velocity. And then we wonder why this should be the golden age of revolution and mental derangement.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“No doubt, the short distance to which you can see in the woods, and the general twilight, would at length react on the inhabitants, and make them savages. The lakes also reveal the mountains, and give ample scope and range to our thought.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Wise men read very sharply all your private history in your look and gait and behavior. The whole economy of nature is bent on expression. The tell-tale body is all tongues. Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces which expose the whole movement.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)