Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-05-05
MOVING MINING TOWN
 TO GET AT IRON ORE

IU ul HI HUN UM
 Hibbing, Minnesota, prosperous town in the iron range sometimes call ed "the richest village in the world," is going through novel experience. Hibbing is one of the new towns which have sprung up since iron ore was discovered, and it is in the way of further mining operations, we are told by a writer in The Scientific Ameri- can (New York;. It is not literally a fact, he says, that the whole of Hibbing is being moved, but people talk that way. Sixteen blocks of the original part overlay a valuable tract of land which it is desired to exploit; and this one-third of the village is being cleared of buildings to give ac- cess to the valuable deposits. In place of this cleared-away section, a new part of the village will be reared on the outskirts. We read:
 Because of the number and the size of some of the buildings to be moved, this activity has called for the highest skill on the part of the home movers. Steam locomotive tractors, equipped with traction belts, have been largely used, together with the usual jacks and heavy trucks, logs, etc.
 "It is almost impossible to estimate the many millions which will be need ed to tear down and rebuild large area, but Hibbing feels it is making history; and so all classes of labor, the mining companies and citizens, are working side by side to accomplish re- suits. It seems an almost superhuman achievement, but in the end another city will rise as the result of new kind of town building and the exercise of a community spirit which is work ing for the good of all. In a short time there will be one continuous Hibbing entirely different from the original village, but witness of the heroic work done in the iron ranges.
 "As a matter of fact, the ranges, on one of which Hibbing is located, furnish three-fifths of the millions of tons of ore which the United States contributes to the world. All this is a part of the development of the past fifty years, and the army of em- ployees necessary to work this ore IS a vast one. It is estimated there are 125, GOO men working on these ranges in Minnesota alone ,and the industry creates a certain atmosphere, and makes town, railroad and immense lake traffic.
 "The number and nationalities of foreigners employed is a revelation to one who visits the ranges for the first time. Perhaps no activity in this country can furnish such diversity of nationalities. Canadians, English, Scotch, Hollanders, Bulgarians, Mon tenegrins, French, Norwegians, Bel gians, Germans, Swiss, Films, Rus sians, Swedes, Danes, and others, are found in various occupations. Many have gone directly to the mines on landing in this country. Others have lived in the United States for num- Der of years. Skilled and unskilled, they are important factors in the de- velopment of the range. First came the Scandinavians, Films and Aus trians to help dig Lake Superior ore, and following some time later were the races of Southern Europe-from Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Croatia.
 "These workers are young or mid dle-aged; and their children attend schools which are up-to-date and of standing far ahead of those of the countries from whence these people came. Hibbing recently erected a grade building at an expense of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. They have free, generous spirit-a sort of spirit of the range. which comes from a familiarity with colossal movements that are taking place daily. Great ore pits, heavy cars loaded with rapidity and speed, the latest improvements in machinery these are features of this stupen- dous business. Nowhere else in the world is it possible to uncover bed of ore which stretches for mile after mile, and to mine it in places as if it were sand by means of steam shovels, locomotives and trains of cars.
 "An interesting feature in connec- tion with the ore mines of Minnesota is that many of them are owned by the State; in fact, every year the per manent school, university and trust funds receive from this source by way of royalties about seven million dol lars"
 
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