Hibbing, Minnesota: A Return To The Past

ASK anyone in Hibbing and they'll tell you that the city has plenty of history.

Hibbing was incorporated in 1893, it was then known as the "richest village in the world" as it was the largest of the many mining towns on the iron-ore-rich Mesabi Range. It was named in honor of Frank Hibbing, its founder. Born in Germany in 1857, he came to the United States with his parents when he was still a little boy.

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My sister Elena came to the United States in 1988 and lived in Hibbing, where her husband worked in a mining company. When she visited us in 1989, she brought some T-shirts as pasalubong. What stuck to my mind where the words: "Hibbing, the world's largest open pit mine."

I didn't ask my sister then. It was not until I visited her in December of 2000 that my curiosity was finally answered. During that visit, I found out that Hibbing has the world’s largest opencast iron-ore workings. The Hull-Rust-Mahoning Mine ushered to the development of strip mining technology. In its peak production years during World Wars I and II, the mine supplied as much as one-fourth of all the iron ore mined in the United States.

History records stated that the area of the Mesabi Iron Range was explored in 1893-94, shortly after the first Mesabi ore was shipped from the nearby Mountain Iron Mine in 1892. Early underground mining at Hull-Rust-Mahoning soon gave way to strip mining, a process better suited to the soft, shallow ore deposits of the Mesabi. As the mines grew, the many open pits gradually merged into one and the area came to be known as the "Man-made Grand Canyon of the North." Mine consolidation led in 1901 to the formation of US Steel, then the world’s largest corporation.

Since it was winter time, I wasn’t able to visit the mining pit. When I returned recently, my sister brought me to the place (her family has moved to nearby Grand Rapids, the city where Judy Garland was born). Although most of the mines (about 30 of them, which were opened between 1895 and 1957) are no longer in operation, a substantial amount of ore continues to be extracted from the pit by Hibbing Taconite Company. The vast pit yawns more than three miles long, up to two miles wide and 600 feet deep.

If history is your thing, don't miss visiting the Hibbing Historical Museum. The many types of exhibits tell the story of Hibbing. Ancient tools -- accompanied by pictorial displays which showed how these tools were used in logging and mining.

There is also a 5 foot by 8 foot model of Hibbing as it looked at the time of its incorporation in 1893. An 8 foot by16 foot 1913 model of North Hibbing depicts the growth of the city and illustrates why Hibbing was forced to move to accommodate the mining companies discovery of rich iron ore deposits that lay beneath the city.

Yes, you read it right. The present location of the city was not its former site. The move started in 1919, and the first phase was completed in 1921. North Hibbing remained as a business and residential center through the 1930s when the mining companies bought the remaining structures. The last house was moved in 1968.

More historical fact: Hibbing is also recognized as the birthplace of the bus industry in the United States. It sprang from the business acumen of Carl Wickman and Andrew Anderson, who opened the first bus line (with one bus) between the towns of Hibbing and Alice in 1914. They figured the region's iron miners would make good mass transit customers. It was, and the bus line grew to become Greyhound (the fastest breed of dog used in dog racing).

Although Greyhound Bus is now headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the Greyhound Bus Museum is located in Hibbing. Inside the museum, you get to know the history of the bus industry from its humble beginnings using pictorial displays, hundreds of artifacts and memorabilia, audio-visual presentation and a VCR show of The Greyhound Story - from Hibbing to Everywhere.

My sister and her family used to live near the Hibbing High School, another must-see. Construction of this historic school was started in 1920. The cost of the building was roughly $3,900,000. Today, it would cost over $50 million to replace. The building is made up of red brick trimmed with bedford stone and is arranged in the shape of the letter E. It was built to replace the old high school, which had to be torn down because of the encroaching mining operations.
The school is noted for its auditorium, which was modeled after The Capitol Theater in New York City. Between the main floor and the balcony, it seats up to 1,805.

A twenty-foot by forty-foot proscenium arch, whose borders are marked by massive pillars, frames the stage. Artist Carl Hardolf A. Parson painted four female figures, representing music, art, drama, and literature. The muses of the arts preside over the auditorium from high upon its walls.

Greek urns with flowering acanthus leaves and swags, all surrounding multi-colored Sheraton medallions decorate an “Adam” style ceiling. The ceiling makes a perfect backdrop for the four giant solid glass chandeliers. The chandeliers were installed in 1924 to the tune of $4,000 a piece. Each main chandelier stretches seven feet across and weighs nearly six hundred pounds.