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Aaron Brown

Contributing Columnist
Opinion
Aaron 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.

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Latest from Aaron Brown

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: 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

Aaron Brown: With merger on the ropes, the fate of U.S. Steel will shape the future of the Iron Range

We need more investment in iron ore plants across the region, and we must reject single-company rule of the Mesabi.
September 24, 2024
Contributing Columnists

Without more drivers, wheels on rural Minnesota school buses can’t go ’round

The stakes are especially high in rural areas where some bus rides may be almost 90 minutes one way due to school consolidations.
September 3, 2024
Contributing Columnists

Old family photo reveals how much has changed on Iron Range

Today, health care workers outnumber miners and there are more open jobs than people.
August 18, 2024