Iron Times: A Free Range Publication

VOL. 1 NO. 1 THURSDAY MARCH 22, 2012 THE IRON RANGE, MINNESOTA

IRON TIMESA Free Range Publication

IRON TIMES – A FREE RANGE PUBLICATION SPECIAL INSERT

Living in a mining area my whole life, it is normal for me to watch the big trucks hauling loads or feel the blasts in the walls of my house. I always saw mining as how the Seven Dwarfs did it in Snow White, except they were mining precious gems, while up here, we just dug up “special dirt.” In the early years of the Iron Range, some similar techniques were used in mining iron ore just as the Dwarfs used in the movie, but there’s more to it than a few “Hi-Hos.” Today, mines have made changes and are focused on more eco-friendly, safer, and more effi-cient ways to mine iron ore.

I never expected how complex the process of mining pellets was until I toured two area mines. For starters, I was surprised that they didn’t just throw a stick of dyna-mite and run for the blasts. I also expected what they dug up to be the basic end product. But once again, I was wrong. To produce the blasts I am now so used to feel-ing, they first drill a series of holes 12-16 inches wide by 20-50 feet deep. From there, they wire the explosives together, each contain-ing a mini circuit board to deto-nate them individually with the accuracy of 1/1000th of a second, producing an even, low bang and frequency to assure minimal dis-ruption for neighboring civilians. Each different type of rock they encounter will have a different for-mula of Anflow (fuel and fertilizer mix) to ensure the most effective bang based on the characteristics and velocity of detonation. Once blasted, the shovel and trucks come in and cart millions of tons of rock to the start of crushing. At this stage, the total amount of iron in each load is only about 30%.

Once crushed to about a man-ageable size, the material goes through a series of finer crushing and magnetic sorting and wash-ing to extract the tailings, or waste rock, and leave behind a usable mixture for producing pellets. These steps use thousands of gal-lons of water a minute. By using a closed water system, the mines can be sure to minimize waste and pollution by recycling 97% of the water they use, some evaporating or absorbed in the process. Con-trary to popular belief, iron ore mines do not produce much pol-lution. The environment is pro-

tected with the uses of processes such as dust collectors and recy-cling water.

Once the materials are ground to a fine powder, they fill drums and from there, go through a spin with a binder mix to shape the pel-lets. They are screened for sizing so that only the right sized pellets can go on to the next step. The balls that are too small or too large go through the spin again to produce the right size. From here, the balls go through an oven at tempera-tures over 2000 degrees Fahren-heit, bouncing around to even out the heat. Once cooled, the pellets are loaded into storage to wait for a train ride to the steel plant to produce everyday products

such as automobiles, appliances, lighting fixtures, and many more. Without these mines, our country would not be able to produce the weapons for fighting our wars, the buildings we live and work in, or products that we can’t imagine liv-ing without. If it weren’t for these mines, we also wouldn’t have the communities we live in as Iron Rangers.

I’d like to take this opportu-nity to thank the excellent people working for Cliffs Natural Re-sources and ArcelorMittal mines for giving me college course style educational tours. They are true Iron Rangers with a passion for the work they do and the impact it has on the world’s steel market.

It’s 1865 and the very idea of gold sets explorers out to dig the world up. Their sights are set on the Vermilion area of northern Minnesota when the word of gold is spread like wildfire. Unfortu-nately for the gold hunters, the gold is hard to extract from its hard rock and not worth the effort. Luckily for the future of America, a different type of gold was found, at least in value - Iron Ore.

The Iron Range’s history is em-bedded in the rock it grew from. The Range is practically synony-mous with mining. The Range was built on the dreams of miners and is still being shaped by what we bring out of the ground. Mining has gone through many genera-tions of change here on the Iron Range, from underground with a pickaxe to open pit with huge drills.

Originally the ore was dis-covered in the Vermilion Range, but wasn’t that rich. The Merritt Brothers moved west and found rich ore on what is the west-ern Mesabi Range. The railroads hadn’t been created yet to ship out the valuable ore, so the Mer-ritt Brothers had no way to make money on the ore they discovered. They ended up making a deal with Rockefeller so they could pay off the people they owed money to. Rockefeller profited by this as he had bought the Merritt Brothers’ stake in the Range and had the railroads built for shipping right after the Brothers had nothing.

The mines that first opened on the Range went deep un-derground. The tunnels tracked through hundreds of feet under rock and soil. They were com-pletely devoid of light. Imagine closing your eyes and going 500 feet underwater. Not only was it that dark, but also they had to deal with the threat of collapse under the pressure of tons of rock that could end their lives. Miners typi-cally had to buy their own sup-plies including a candle they had to mine with, a pickaxe, helmet,

and dynamite.Miners didn’t make a lot of

money and having to spend it in order to make money was an unhappy paradox. They pinched their pennies as best as they could and often walked to their section of the mine without any light. Of-ten two to three men shared the light of one candle to mine by. They were only paid by what they produced, as in what was brought to the surface. The time they spent making the tunnels safer with logs to brace the passages was unpaid. The miners worked early in the day, all day. They blasted into the rock with dynamite, not knowing if that blast would be the one to trap them. Being in a cave-in was a serious fear for miners. Being trapped and unable to see, with-out any food, and without any idea when, if at all they would be saved.

A major problem miners had to deal with was the tunnels flood-ing, especially since Minnesota has such a high water table. In 1924, for example, on the Cuyuna Range, 41 miners drowned when a nearby lake broke through and flooded the tunnels. Another fear was of dangerous gasses filling the tunnels and breathing it in and dying.

In today’s modern times, life is a lot safer for the miners. On the Range we practice open pit min-ing. Dynamite is used to blast into the earth and huge trucks come and hall the unwanted rock away and to take away the ore too. The pits have layered steps to prevent rockslides.

Another thing that’s differ-ent about today’s mines on the Iron Range is what we mine. The Range supplied so much ore in the form of steel in WWII that the fine ore we once used was basically exhausted. The Range would’ve died out for that fact, except that a study at the University of Min-nesota revealed how the rock for-mally considered useless could be turned into steel too. That’s how we entered the age of Taconite mining. The Range has come a long way from using pickaxes and candles.

OUR MINES, OUR COMMUNITYBy HAILEY ERCHUL

Mt. Iron-Buhl High School

Large group of miners at Tower-Soudan Mine. Source: Minnesota Historical Society.

EARLY YEARS – RUGGED MINERS IN UNSAFE MINES

By JULIA MENARTVirginia High School

ArcelorMittal open pit mine blast area. Photo by Cayenne Kjerland.

United Taconite in Forbes, Minnesota. Photo by Cayenne Kjerland.

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IRON TIMES – A FREE RANGE PUBLICATIONSPECIAL INSERT

A small group of students from around the Range gath-ered together to further their knowledge of the Iron Range’s history and also talk about their lives on the Range at a Teen Summit held recently in Virginia. Much of the focus was put on comparing different issues and trends among the people then and now, seeing if they still exist, and if they will in the future. As we spent the day watching a historical video, listening to different speakers, and forming small groups to discuss their own thoughts and ideas about the Range and its future, we walked away from the experience with a better un-derstanding of the interesting area they happen to call home.

The video we watched ex-plained many issues that min-ing brought to the Iron Range and its workers. One major effect that comes with provid-ing a key component to the world’s steel production and still exists today is suffering the major boom-and-bust cycles. Although the cycles are less ex-treme today, it shows the great importance in our mining in-dustry. When mines were first getting started, one of the big-

gest concerns was keeping the workforce from unionizing and striking. Corporate spying and blacklisting are methods of the past to try and prevent strikes and unions, but the acts themselves have not totally been abandoned. Another issue that was discussed is the trends in Range politics. One of the speakers, Steve Potts, explained that before the secret ballot when miners voted at work, mining owners would make sure their workers’ votes were Republican, or they would be

The Iron Range is made up of a very diverse group of people. Many different ethnic-ities immigrated here to find jobs, mostly in the mines. Iron Rangers are strong willed, hard working people who are not afraid to fight for what they be-lieve in. The Iron Range has al-most always voted Democratic since the 1930s because we tend to favor the working class. I feel that Iron Rangers have a great respect for anyone who works hard. Most people tend to value morals and hard work, but I think those are the things Iron Rangers put first. There is definitely a bond between the workers of today because they have an understanding and re-spect for each other.

Unions are very prominent here, but it wasn’t always that way. As shown in the 1907 and 1916 strikes, rights have to be fought for. Nowadays, the people who work in the mines are some of the most successful. They make good money, and work really hard for it. However, it took a lot of fighting for it to become this way. Miners were treated very badly. They had horrible pay, poor working conditions and were seen as property or equip-

ment by the mine owners, not skilled workers. There were anti union views in the mines until around 1940, even after the countless attempts to end them for decades. The miners did not give up, and now they are some of the most well off and respected people on the Range, all because they did not give up on themselves.

Women were also not afraid to fight for what they deserved. If you haven’t seen or at least heard of the movie North Country, you might be missing something. North Country is based on the court case Jenson vs. Eveleth, which was the first-ever sexual harassment case to become class action. The case becoming class action meant that not only would Lois Jen-

IRON RANGE TEENS DISCUSS PAST & FUTUREBy JULIANN PERALA

Virginia High School

By KIRSTEN MCCONNELLMt. Iron-Buhl High School

HARD WORKING IRON RANGERS FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS

fired. The secret ballot led to the Iron Range being known as predominantly Democratic because of the worker support. All of these facts were given to us to help us define the Iron Range for ourselves and com-pare our lives today to the life of people back when mining first started.

As we were taught about the history of the Iron Range and its people, we also had to come together and discuss how we felt the area has affected our lives personally by answering

questions like, “What do you think defines the Iron Range?” “Do you consider yourself an Iron Ranger?” “Do you want to stay here? Come back? Leave forever?” Of course the first words that came to mind in defining an Iron Ranger are camouflage, hunting, mining, and small town, but digging deeper past the stereotypes, the students found many more defining qualities in this area. Maybe you don’t fish or hunt, your parents or grandparents don’t work in the mine, you

want to get out of here after high school, and you absolute-ly despise the cold weather, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t an Iron Ranger. Whether it’s coming home to a small town after traveling, going to Giant’s Ridge every weekend with your friends, being outdoors at your cabin, pit swimming and cliff jumping, or being able to say you knew each and every per-son in your small graduating class, there is probably some-thing that you love about grow-ing up on the Range that may affect your decision of coming back and living here in the fu-ture.

Whether we decide to come back to the Iron Range or not, there will always be a demand for iron and other metals in the future, especially with the con-stant advances in technology. Although it’s hard to believe the importance of this small area, the Teen Summit taught us about the Iron Range’s great influence on the world. We are living in, as the video quoted, the “national powerhouse that built America,” and should be proud to call ourselves Iron Rangers.

son, the woman who filed the case be included in the lawsuit, but so would all other women employed at Eveleth Mine since 1983 if she met the cri-teria.

Now imagine if Lois Jen-son was too scared to stand up for herself that she just kept quiet. I’m sure a lot of people were inspired to stand up for their own rights. She not only changed views on the Iron Range, but the entire country as she set a precedent as the first ever sexual harassment class action case.

A woman who was definite-ly not afraid to do what she needed to get things done was Mary Anderson, the mayor of Kinney in 1977 when they succeeded from the union.

Anderson was finding it virtu-ally impossible to get assistance with the $186,000 cost of Kin-ney’s much needed water sys-tem replacement. Mary Ander-son realized it would be easier to get government assistance as a foreign country. So on July 13, 1977, Kinney succeeded from the Union. Kinney did get a grant and was able to repair the water system. Who knows when or if they would have been able to get that help if Mary Anderson had not tak-en such a daring approach to help her town.

So maybe you don’t think we can do anything to change things, but we can. The Min-ing companies didn’t expect the workers they viewed as equipment and tried so hard to

separate to come together and fight for their rights, but they did. The men who harassed Lois Jenson and the count-less other women in the mines didn’t expect them to speak up for themselves, but they did.

The government did not expect the small town of Kin-ney Minnesota with their 325 people and failing water sys-tem to do anything when they were denied the assistance they deserved, but they did.

As Iron Rangers, we are hardworking people who will fight for our rights. So appreci-ate those who fought for what we have today, and don’t be afraid to stand up for some-thing you know is right. You may just make a big change for future generations.

Women taking a break from work in an open pit iron mine.Source: Iron Range Resource Center.

TOP, left to right: Finnish immigrants, 1925. Cook butchering pigs in lumber camp kitchen, Biwabik, 1913. Finish immigrant, 1925. BOTTOM, left to right: A school near Mountain Iron, 1900. Finish immigrant,

1925. Family and home near Mountain Iron, 1910. All photos from Minnesota Historical Society.

Underground miners, Mesabi Range, 1906.Source: Minnesota Historical Society.

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IRON TIMES – A FREE RANGE PUBLICATION SPECIAL INSERT

Walking outside a Northern Minnesota February morning is like walking into a snow globe. The trees are covered with pure white snow and the sun is shin-ing bright. Wow, what a great area we live in. Up here on the Iron Range we have four very distinct seasons. In the summer we enjoy swimming and fishing in one of our thousands of lakes. In the fall we love to four wheel in our plentiful woods, oh yeah and the big thing that most of us wait yearlong for, hunting. In fact over 42% of Northeastern Minnesota is public land and open to different types of hunt-ing at different times under the guidelines of the Department of Natural Resources and the Unit-

With the promise of eco-nomic remedy that copper nickel mining will bring to the Iron Range, concerns also come about our thriving tour-ism industry and the environ-ment it feeds from.

PolyMet is still working with the EPA and the DNR, stating this February that the two years in the making envi-ronmental review will not be available publicly until Octo-ber 2012.

Copper nickel mining was first proposed in 2006, and already PolyMet has spent 35 million dollars on the envi-ronmental review, but with the delay of the approval from state agencies, the project would not begin construction until 2014, at the earliest. The standards that our federal and state agen-cies are holding PolyMet to for this new mine are much higher than those that are presently operating on the Iron Range.

The new project has lots of political support because of the expected 360 jobs it would create, not to mention 600 ad-ditional jobs resulting from the economic activity of the region. The 600 surplus jobs are very important, and would bring many diverse and lasting jobs to the area.

Being that Northern Min-nesota is one of the nation’s most beautiful outdoor recre-ational areas, there are many environmentalists that believe this is the wrong place for these mines. To some people, the risk of acid runoff, polluting sulfates, and straining of heavy metals is too large a gamble. The new mining project raises concerns for people work-

ing in tourism and recreation, they claim that mining is not a permanent industry and its in-come is temporary while tour-ism and recreation is a lasting high valued industry.

The current and future employees at PolyMet are our family, friends, and neighbors. They love the environment as much as we do and are not out to pollute our areas or destroy any wild life. PolyMet is put-ting every effort into making these mines the most environ-mentally friendly they can be. Currently, they have about a 1% sulfide deposit, as op-posed to other copper nickel mines with a 30-50% sulfide deposit. The lower the sulfide deposit means less pollution. PolyMet plans on having an open pit mine near Babbitt, and the ore would be processed in an old steel mining plant in Hoyt Lakes, leaving the old plant cleaner and brought up to higher standards than it was before.

If copper nickel mining never happens in northern Minnesota, where will we get

ON THE ENVIRONMENT,BALANCING JOBS & LEISUREBy KATLIN KOSKELAEveleth-Gilbert High School

By MAGGIE DITZLERVirginia High School

NEW MINES, NEW JOBS, NEW CONCERNS

these precious metals for things like cell phones, rechargeable batteries, wind turbines and catalytic converters from? We would turn to China where working conditions and the harm done to the environment is unimaginable, being that China has limited environmen-tal protection or labor laws.

There will always be chal-lenges facing our mines as they work to be good stewards of the environment. There is also a place for the environmentalists as they want our corporations to be held to the highest stan-dard. We live in a remarkable area here on this Iron Range with fishing, hunting, canoe-ing, skiing, camping, snowmo-biling and many other outdoor recreational activities. We want this paradise we live in to stay pristine. We also want jobs and growth in our communi-ties. We want the best of both worlds and since we have been mining and recreating for over 150 years on the Iron Range, I am confident we can continue to do both for a long time to come.

ed States Forest Service.The winter brings a different

type of adventure with downhill and cross-country skiing, snow-mobiling, ice fishing, and snow-shoeing. We are lucky to live in such a diverse area. I mean it is a big reason why so many of us live up here. It is also a big rea-son why so many people from

the south come up here to do the things we do every single day.

With all its great beauty, the Iron Range is also known for something way different, min-ing. There is a problem though; when we mine we create pollu-tion harming the environment around us. So all these great things we do are at risk. For ex-ample, the new copper-nickel mine that is going to be built poses the threat to ruin our envi-ronment by the metallic-sulfide being produced. As we can see, mining and our leisure activities can clash. It is hard to see why you wouldn’t want the copper-nickel. It does do a lot of great things, for example create jobs. So now we have the power to figure out how we are going to mine but not harm the environ-ment so we can do the thing that we do and like the best.

Every person, as they grow up, is equipped with an iden-tity developed by their family, school, and community. These elements of our environment make us who we are. They form in us invisible bonds, which serve as ties between ourselves and other persons whose beliefs, values, and even recreational activities mirror ours. On the Iron Range, we are often labeled as truck-driv-ing, camouflage-wearing, small town citizens. Though these stereotypes may not always be accurate, it is true that we carry a common cord as “Iron Rang-ers.”

But what does it mean to live on the Range? And has it always been this way? To at-tempt to understand our iden-tity, we must first understand our heritage. For this reason, we interviewed 93-year-old Gladys Pekkarian, who has resided on the Iron Range since her birth at the end of World War I. At first glance, she seemed a milk-and-cook-ies type of grandmother like any other. Her sweet exterior, however, belied a greater inner strength, which shone through in the stories she told of her world in the 1920s.

“I think all kids really should live on a farm,” Gladys com-mented while talking about her experience growing up in an agricultural family. She grew up in a time without electricity and running water, with no TV, computer, or digital camera. Yet she saw no flaw in this type of living. Hard work, family, and community instead dominated her time, and she continues to think herself better off for it. The oldest of three, she spent time milking cows and feeding animals before her half-mile walk to school each morning.

When the family had a job to do, she was always expected to help out, whether it was pre-paring dinner for her father and younger siblings or helping a neighbor deliver her baby girl at the age of eleven. On holi-days, she enjoyed lutefisk, sled-ding, and sleigh rides. When an event was taking place, the community gathered in a one-room schoolhouse to celebrate, mourn, or worship.

To the members of a twen-ty-first century generation, this lifestyle seems as intangible as the characters of a storybook, but the identities of a soci-ety are inevitably formed by its history. The Iron Rangers of today certainly do not live like Gladys did, but perhaps in each of us lies a bit of her. Her indomitable will, positive outlook, and sense of commu-nity seem to have been passed on as trademark characteristics of area citizens. We continue to be a populace low in crime and high in voter turnout, moral values, and educational promo-tion. The Iron Range continues to be a place where hard work and integrity are given more value than money or influence. It may only be a small wedge on the American map, but its citizens should carry a certain pride. We have an identity. We are Iron Rangers.

GLADYS PEKKARIAN – GROWING UP IN SIMPLER DAYS

By SARAH STUBBSVirginia High School

Underground miners waiting to go into the mine, 1936.Source: Minnesota Historical Society.

Gladys Pekkarian. Photo by Cayenne Kjerland.

Little Vermilion Lake. Source: Minnesota Historical Society.

An original Finish residence at the Wirtanen Farm in Makinen,Minnesota, homesteaded in 1904. Photo by Cayenne Kjerland.

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IRON TIMES – A FREE RANGE PUBLICATIONSPECIAL INSERT

“They didn’t want a center for mentally handicapped children. They didn’t need a center for the mentally handicapped children. And I had no right to come in and say that we were going to have it, but we went ahead.” Veda Ponikvar said this during an in-terview with Generation W. She was one of the major advocates for the Range Center when it was first starting. The plans were made before JFK took office, when the Iron Range and Wash-ington D.C. were fueled for help-ing the developmentally disabled at the same time. Veda overcame physical obstacles as well as much opposition from the community. The community thought she was crazy for even thinking about such a thing, but without her and the help of a small handful of other individuals, the Range Center would not have blos-somed to where it is today. That is, an internationally known or-ganization that helps the disabled become active community mem-bers by volunteering and holding jobs.

Veda grew up with four sib-lings in Chisholm. Three of the five would grow up and join the service. Veda included. She was one of the first women ever to join the military. However, at the time, women were not allowed to go overseas, with the exception of nurses. That included, Veda’s Navy experience was still enough to change her life. She learned to do whatever job is at hand to the full extent of her capabilities; she learned to have everything right, honest, and level with society; and most importantly, she really learned what freedom is. As she said: “When people don’t really understand, and many of them don’t, what freedom is… God help us.” She encourages every-one to have some military expe-rience, because that is where you can learn why the U.S. is such a great place to live. The U.S. has something priceless and rare, something that has to be learned, but can’t be taught: freedom.

With her skills she got from the Navy, Veda was able to do what really set her apart from the rest. That is her work with the Chisholm Free Press. Her first major achievement was getting the first double keyboard lino-type in the U.S. With financial help from the bank, persever-ance, and a little luck, Veda was able to snatch the $6,500 ma-chine off the German boat at the end of WWII. She ran the paper for almost 50 years, and she definitely put in her fair share of work. The weekly newspaper was sold on the street, subscribed

to, and funded through ads. The articles were flawless before the paper was printed, and they were important to the community. However, that changed after she stepped down from her position.

She now reads the paper and finds words that are misspelled. Also, articles aren’t all focused on the community, and it isn’t lo-cally printed. Papers are focused on money, and not the commu-nity, which is what Veda had. When she stepped down, many businesses wanted the linotype, but she didn’t want it to leave the community. Therefore, she do-nated it to the Museum of Min-ing.

Veda is still active in the com-munity. She volunteers happily at the Armory whenever they ask her to. She also realizes the im-portance of kids in the commu-nity through all her work. She offered her help to the interview-ers saying, “If you ever go in the ditch or lose a shoe or something, call me and I’ll help.” She thinks that kids are the future, and they can help us fix our economy.

She was then offered a copy of a Generation W issue, and after looking at it for a short while, she said “Your young people want to do wonderful things like [Gen-eration W], and yes they have to live… and they have to buy this and that and the other thing; but it isn’t more important than doing something right to begin with. And they’re doing it.”

Veda is an amazing person to have in our community, and she is a great example for anyone to look up to. She went against what people thought was right and made a noticeable difference in the community. She is a car-ing compassionate person who realizes what really matters in life, and she is not afraid to do what she thinks is right. At the end of the interview, she told our interviewers, “I apologize, and I should have had coffee for you.”

JOURNALIST, ENTREPRENEUR & VISIONARY – VEDA PONIKVAR

By ANDREW MAHONENVirginia High School

Veda Ponikvar, circa 1960.

Many people don’t under-stand how printing came about in America. It was much more labor intensive and strenuous to send out newspaper issues. There were no computers and automated printing machines in the 1930’s. People like Veda Ponikvar had to do them by a different means of typing. They would use either a standard i.e. manual (which would have to be set up letter by letter) or a machine known as the linotype (that could produce an entire line of type at once). These machines were used for many de-cades until offset printing replaced them.

However, the linotype was a great improvement over the stan-dard i.e. It revolutionized typeset-ting and only needed a relatively small amount of operators to help it function daily. Even though the linotype was more expensive than the standard manual, it vastly improved the duration of print-ing which was worth it in the long run. When there was a new customer for a newspaper, the li-notype would make a lead mold piece of that person’s name and then the machine would use that mold over and over when they publish a new issue.

Nowadays, most newspapers and book publishers use the tech-nique of offset lithography. This is where the inked image transfers from a plate to a rubber blanket, and then onto the printing sur-face. Mass printing is best used by this type of machine. Some other modern techniques of printing are laser printing and digital printing. Printing in Minnesota has greatly

evolved over the years due to the new techniques and machinery.

People can’t talk about Minne-sota printing in the 1940’s with-out mentioning Veda Ponikvar. She was the first female newspaper publisher in the U.S. and the only one in Minnesota to speak out against the big mining companies. Veda attended Drake University and graduated with a degree in journalism. After briefly return-ing to Chisholm, Veda joined the U.S. Navy. She was discharged from the service about four years later earning the rank of Lieuten-ant Commander.

When Veda returned to Ch-isholm, she started a weekly news-paper named the Free Press where she worked as a writer, publisher, and editor for almost fifty years. Here, she worked with Lou No-vak and Frank Ruper on stories concerning the Iron Range. Sev-eral years later, Veda purchased the Tribune Press and continued

CHISHOLM MUSEUM OF MINING EDUCATES ONHISTORY OF CHISHOLM FREE PRESS & VEDA PONIKVARBy STEVEN SIMENSEN


to publish both newspapers un-til 1996. She traveled all around the area collecting stories big or small with a notebook and cam-era. Many people say that she is the most influential person on the Iron Range.

When some of my colleagues and I visited the Chisholm Mu-seum of Mining, we found it was full of interesting history about the Iron Range. It had informa-tion about how kids got to school in the olden days to the machines that Veda used when she was publishing her newspaper. Lou Novak stopped by as well and it was intriguing to watch him show us how the linotype functioned. Many other machines were on display there as well. I had an enjoyable experience at the Ch-isholm Museum of Mining and I would encourage anyone who is interested in printing to stop by and take a tour of it.

PROJECTPARTNERS PUBLIC ART & DESIGN STUDIO

WORKSPROGRESS.ORG

Journalism, or what we have defined as the activity or pro-fession of writing newspapers, magazines, or broadcasting the news on radios or televisions, had began somewhere in the 14th century when the technology of printing was invented. Creating great opportunities to put forth the production of printing, mod-ern journalism wasn’t said to have taken flight until years later in the late 18th century. Back then and in most cases now, modern jour-nalism served as a proponent and voice of a community’s numerous social groups. But, even then, ad-vancements in technology weren’t as nearly as great as they are today, considering that the first airmail hadn’t even landed until 1936.

In current time, when looking back to the beginning of modern journalism, the journalistic needs and methods were completely

different. Since the 14th century invention’s contribution, inven-tions themselves began to get more efficient and advanced with time. This lead to the tremendous expansion of news and journalism that we have gained today. Now they seem to appear everywhere. Starting with old-fashioned news-letters and radio talks, advancing to Internet access, camcorders, and other more advanced jour-nalistic tools, the power of the journalist has increased immense-ly. Technology has created a com-pletely new concept of journal-ism.

Moreover, with opposing opinions about whether or not technology has placed a burden on the printing revolution of journalism, it has actually man-aged to increase production of printed products such as articles, advertisements, and other forms of entertainment or information, by combining different types of technologies. Though it has its benefits, it also has a few nega-

TECHNOLOGY BRINGS PROFOUND CHANGES TO JOURNALISMBy DEZIRAE DRUMM


tive impacts amongst journalism and news itself. The way report-ers gather and disseminate news is constantly changing, which means there are always new things to be taught and learned by the journalists and reporters of our societies. In the same sense, photography has been put on a threshold due to cameras, making it all the easier to do, while on an-other hand, internet has emerged as a means of mass communica-tion. This has brought new chal-lenges to the world of journalism, forcing there to be changes in the content of most of today’s papers.

In conclusion, with technolo-gy becoming more efficient every day, changes in journalism would, and will continue to quicken, each time altering the profession with every new creation. Jour-nalism has brought and added a sense of dimension and character. Whether it’s changing for the bet-ter or worse, Journalism is said to be the first rough draft of history.

Lou Novak demonstrating an original linotype printer at the Chisholm Museum of Mining. Photo by Shanai Matteson.

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Documents

Iron Times: A Free Range Publication