Aaron Brown
Contributing Columnist
OpinionAaron Brown is a columnist from the Iron Range, an author of books and essays and a communication instructor at Minnesota North College in Hibbing. His commentary focuses on the people, news and culture of the Iron Range and northern Minnesota. He was raised in a trailer house on a local junkyard and is the first in five generations of his family to never work in an iron mine. He lives down a dirt road on the western Mesabi. His current and past writing can be found at MinnesotaBrown.com.
Contact
Latest from Aaron Brown
Contributing Columnists
Blocked Nippon deal leaves fate of U.S. Steel in question
The company still needs investment badly, and it isn’t clear what game of opportunity and survival is being played at the top.
January 3, 2025
Contributing Columnists
Brown: In Hibbing, Dylan biopic taps the unknowable
Creative genius can come from anywhere and everywhere. This version came from the Range.
December 24, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: Reforming broken rural economies in greater Minnesota
Here are three projects in northeastern Minnesota that could pave the way to a brighter future. And they don’t have anything to do with copper-nickel mining.
December 15, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: The music scene is alive and well in rural Minnesota
Underrated and undeterred: Traveling musicians keep rural Minnesota scene swinging. So go see the show.
November 27, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: Hunting licenses in Minnesota will soon go digital. I get it. And I hate it.
Getting my license from the small store by my house has become an enjoyable ritual. Now there will be one less reason for people to gather in public.
November 8, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: On the eve of the election, both campaign offices in this Minnesota town were dark
That’s because most of the action has moved online.
November 5, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: When a blue district turns red, the dirt stays the same
Republicans have a good chance of sweeping all state House seats on the Iron Range for the first time since World War I. The question is what’s changed.
October 27, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Aaron Brown: In the quick of time — a dispatch from the ‘sandwich generation’ years
Research shows that people who care for an aging parent while still raising children struggle with increased financial and emotional strains. But the time investment is worth it.
October 8, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: Hunting licenses in Minnesota will soon go digital. I get it. And I hate it.
Getting my license from the small store by my house has become an enjoyable ritual. Now there will be one less reason for people to gather in public.
November 8, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: On the eve of the election, both campaign offices in this Minnesota town were dark
That’s because most of the action has moved online.
November 5, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Brown: When a blue district turns red, the dirt stays the same
Republicans have a good chance of sweeping all state House seats on the Iron Range for the first time since World War I. The question is what’s changed.
October 27, 2024
Contributing Columnists
Aaron Brown: In the quick of time — a dispatch from the ‘sandwich generation’ years
Research shows that people who care for an aging parent while still raising children struggle with increased financial and emotional strains. But the time investment is worth it.
October 8, 2024