The Vermilion Range, with its distinctive hard and high-grade iron ore deposits, looms large in the history of the mining industry in Minnesota. It was the first range to open (1884) and also the first to cease commercial mining operations (1967) due to changes in the steel-making process and the rise of cheaper-to-produce taconite on the nearby Mesabi Range. After mining ended, the area’s protected wilderness spaces—including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness—took center stage in a new regional economy based on tourism and conservation.
Woman working on the wiring of a B-24 "Liberator" bomber. Photograph by the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, May 24, 1944. Forms part of the Minneapolis and St. Paul Newspaper Negative Collection, Minnesota Historical Society.