Discovering ourselves
By Elanne Palcich
HTF Contributor
When IronWorld became the Minnesota Discovery Center, I was dismayed. MDC sounds so generic, while IronWorld signifies some sense of history. But over the past several years, I’ve come to embrace the idea of a Minnesota Discovery Center.
Minnesota’s roots go back much further than this past century, starting some 4 billion years ago. Geological history indicates two ancient periods of mountain building, separated by eras of inland seas. The most recent geological changes upon the landscape can be attributed to the Ice Age that ended approximately 10,000 years ago. Archeological findings have shown that people lived here at the end of that time period. Settlement continued along the many lakes and rivers left behind as the glaciers receded. It makes sense to live close to a food supply and a natural transportation system.
The continuity of settlement was interrupted by fur traders, and then by loggers. Within approximately 30 years’ time, the great pine forests of the late 1800’s were gone. The culture of the indigenous peoples was gone. European immigrants came to work in the mines opened when iron ore was discovered beneath the tree roots. Immigrants left beautiful lands to come to a place of stumps, swamps, and temperatures that varied from 90 above to 40 below. They left harsh living conditions to come to a place that was equally harsh.
By the end of World War II, the natural ores were gone. After two wars to end all wars, wartime planes, ships, and tanks were left to rust back into iron ore on foreign lands, or in military graveyards. And still the wars have not ended.
Then taconite plants opened on the Iron Range, promising a new era for the children of the immigrants, leaving a new footprint on the lay of the land. The open pits, tailings basins, and waste rock piles are changing the landscape right before our eyes. Yet we fear to look too closely at what has defined us.
Now technology is pulling out the remaining iron from the natural ore stockpiles that have given the Iron Range its signature red hills. What was left from the heritage of our grandparents is being extracted and sent to Mexico and Japan, rather than being held as a security deposit for our own grandchildren, for the dreams of our ancestors to somehow provide for the yet unborn.
It’s impossible to create a new future by repeating history over and over again. During this season of both tradition and hope, we need to truly discover ourselves apart from a story that holds us in bondage. We need to discover how we can make a land that is full of holes and lost dreams whole again. This season, we need to rediscover Minnesota, to find our true roots and a new vision to carry forth, in the name of our ancestors.
Elanne Palcich is a retired school teacher who lives and writes in Chisholm, MN.
