This is a book about the first men who started the Mountain Iron Mine. (Which was a big deal! It was the beginning of mining the Mesabi Range, which turned out to be the largest iron ore deposit in the world. It is now an historic landmark & as it says in the National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Mountain Iron Mine, “Minnesota steel was a significant factor in the decisive role this country played in the two World Wars.”)
I wanted to read this book because I knew the main character was Finnish like my great-grandfather & the story was set near where he settled in northern Minnesota. Arthur, the main character, was an early pioneer to the area & my great-grandfather came a bit later, but there are similar Finnish characteristics such as being a man of few words, being a good moral man & sisu of course! I am not sure if all Finns have an aptitude for building, but my family shares this with Arthur as well. Comparing the main facts on the two:
| Arthur Maki aka Arvid Mäkelä | William Laitala aka Vitho Laitala |
|---|---|
| Main character of Mesabi Pioneers | My great-grandfather |
| Born 1864 | Born 1878 |
| Came to the iron range 1891 | Came to Chisholm in 1903 (about 16 miles west of Mountain Iron) |
| Escaping the Russian military | Escaping something too perhaps? |
One part of the book that I especially enjoyed was how well the Finn & the Indian got along. They had a lot in common:
- Appreciation of nature
- Listening more than talking
- Being outcasts
- Being very moral & hard-working, but being treated badly
- Sweat lodge & sauna
- Living with names given to them because their original names were too difficult for people
I was also struck with how hard that had to be for people who loved the wilderness to see the pine forests clear cut & huge pits dug into the earth. Mesabi Pioneers is a must read for you if:
- You have a Finnish immigrant ancestor
- You have family in or from the Iron Range
- You are curious about life in frontier Minnesota
- You are interested in early open pit iron mining
The author did a great job bringing to life what it was like back then, being a pioneer in northern Minnesota. It was a diverse community of immigrants and these people had a lot of strength & determination. You may think historical fiction has to be boring & dry, but it doesn’t! This book is really quite an enjoyable read. Get the book here.
The author is currently working on the next book & you can get updates with how it is going here.
While this book is fiction, it is based on true events, so I couldn’t resist seeing what pictures I could find. They made this great video about the book that has many magnificent old pictures!:
And of course there are some great old photographs from the MHS:
- The Merritt family!
- Mountain Iron in 1891 (town or camp I wonder?)
- The Depot in 1893
And I couldn’t ignore this one of what it would have looked like when my great-grandfather arrived:
