Hibbing & the Mine

Back in 1893 Frank Hibbing found indications of iron deposits here and made plans to mine the iron and to build a town here for the mine workers. The mining operations proved lucrative and Hibbing underwrote much of the state of the art infrastructure and encouraged community building in this multiethnic largely immigrant  place. Residents of the town we engaged in the extremely successful iron mining operations. Then in the 1910’s it became evident that the iron deposits underneath the town were of significant value. The company paid the residents to move their homes and businesses just a couple of miles south to the current location of the town. Today we visited the overlook and watched operations of the Hull-Rust-Mahoning, the world’s largest open pit iron mine and wandered around the abandoned sidewalks of what is left of the former town of Hibbing.