Fayal underground mine, Eveleth, 1915. Minnesota Historical Society
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The iron-rich land of northeastern Minnesota, called the Iron Range, is home to many iron ore and taconite mines. There are three separate ranges within the Iron Range: the Mesabi, the Cuyuna, and the Vermilion Ranges. Most of the turmoil was focused on the Mesabi Range, the location of the strikes of 1907 and 1916. The 1907 strike began in July after 200 union members were laid off at a Mesabi Range mine, and ended by mid-August after strikebreakers and economic changes caused little to no change. The 1916 strike was marked by violence-- strikebreakers weren’t as available as they were in 1907, so the mining companies turned to cruel intimidation tactics to try and get the miners to go off strike. The strike eventually ended in September 1917, and the mining company did agree to some of the miner’s demands, but overall not much had changed.
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