Biwabik ( ) is a city in Saint Louis County,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States. The population was 961 at the 2020 census. State Highway 135 (MN 135) and Vermilion Trail (County 4) are two of the main routes in Biwabik. Its name is derived from the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

word for 'iron', . Biwabik is the gateway to the East Range on the

Mesabi Iron Range The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district and mountain range in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Ir ...

. Biwabik is a Bavarian-themed town that greets visitors to Giants Ridge Resort with two golf courses and a ski area, as well as trails, lakes, lodging and dining. The Mesabi Trail connects the community to Giants Ridge and Vermilion Trail Campground on Embarrass Lake, making the city a year-round destination. Events include the Calithumpian Fourth of July parade; Honktoberfest in September, an Oktoberfest which honors Honk the Moose; and Weihnachtsfest held on the first Saturday in December, with fireworks, music and food, and lights.

Recreation

Biwabik is the home of Giants Ridge Golf and Ski Resort. ''Golf Digest'' ranked Giants Ridge as an "Editors Choice" in 2019 as one of "The Best Golf Resorts in the Midwest." ''Golf Digest'' has also ranked the Quarry the #1 public course in the state and #4 overall. The Legend has ranked as the #4 public course in the state and #14 overall. The Giants Ridge Bike Park features 10 lift-served gravity (downhill) mountain bike trails featuring berms, jumps, rollers and rock gardens. The downhill trail system is designed for riders of all ability levels and embraces the scenic but rugged terrain of Giants Ridge. There are of purpose-built cross country mountain bike trail winding through the

Superior National Forest The Superior National Forest, part of the United States National Forest system, is located in the Arrowhead Region of the U.S. state, state of Minnesota between the Canada–United States border and the North Shore (Lake Superior), north shore o ...

. Biwabik also hosts road cycling, mountain biking, golf, skiing, tubing, snowshoeing, boating, fishing, hunting, ATVing and snowmobiling. The

Mesabi Trail The Mesabi Trail is a 132 mile paved bicycle trail running from Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Ely, Minnesota. As of 2022, two sections remain to be completed: McKinley to Biwabik, and the seven miles south of Tower. Trail construction is expected t ...

and the East Range Multi Use Trail are in Biwabik, with several connection opportunities.

Events

The Biwabik Area Civic Association hosts several events each year: * Music in the park – Thursday nights in the summer * City-wide rummage sale – spring and fall * Honktoberfest – last weekend of September * Weihnachtsfest – first weekend of December Other events include: *Pepsi Challenge ski race, which takes place at Giants Ridge in March. *The

Minnesota State High School League The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) is a voluntary, non-profit association for the support and governance of interscholastic activities at high schools in Minnesota, United States. The association supports interscholastic athletics a ...

state alpine and nordic ski meets at Giants Ridge in February.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of ; is land and is water. Unique to Biwabik is the Mary Ellen Jasper. The

jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

variety was first discovered in Minnesota in the early 1900s. Mary Ellen Jasper contains 1.88-billion-year-old

stromatolite Stromatolites ( ) or stromatoliths () are layered Sedimentary rock, sedimentary formation of rocks, formations (microbialite) that are created mainly by Photosynthesis, photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing micr ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s. It is fossilized algae, so the stromatolite is what makes the Mary Ellen unique.

History

Daniel R. Curtin, Wisconsin State Assemblyman and businessman, at one time owned the town site of Biwabik, Minnesota. For 10 years, Curtin was in the lumber and mining business. Biwabik is a town full of firsts. Biwabik was the first to incorporate as a village on the Iron Range in September 1892. It was also the first Iron Range town to be served by two railroads, the Duluth and Iron Range and the

Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway The Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway (DM&N, DMN) was a rail transport, railroad company in the United States, U.S. state of Minnesota. It was one of the earliest iron ore hauling railroads of the area, said to have built the largest iron ore d ...

. Biwabik had the first large mine on the Mesabi and it was the first on the Iron Range with a steam shovel to mine. An F3

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

destroyed homes in the northern and northwestern parts of Biwabik on October 6, 1900, killing ten people in and near the city and injuring 70; six deaths were in one family. In 1915, a moose visited the town regularly and in the book, ''Honk, the Moose'', the residents named him "Honk" after the noise he made. This children's book ''

Honk, the Moose ''Honk, the Moose'' is a children's literature, children's book by Phil Stong. It tells the story of a moose who takes over a small town which causes an uproar when three young boys try to save the moose and make it through the cold Minnesota win ...

'', was written by famed author,

Phil Stong Philip Duffield Stong (January 27, 1899 – April 26, 1957) was an American author, journalist and Hollywood scenarist. He is best known for the 1932 novel ''State Fair'', which was adapted as a film in 1933, 1945, 1962 and 1976, and as a Broa ...

and illustrated by Kurt Weise. Stong was a teacher and coach at the Biwabik school in the 1919–1920 school year. He featured people from Biwabik as characters. The book is a

Newbery Honor The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

and on Cattermole's 100 Best Children's Books of the 20th Century. A statue of Honk resides in the city park on Main Street. Peter X. Fugina (1908–1994), educator and Minnesota state legislator was born in Biwabik.'Former state representative Peter X. Fugina, 84, dies,' David Chasen, Minneapolis Star Tribune (Minnesota), March 31, 1994, pg. 6B

Demographics

2020 census

At the 2020

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, there were 961 people and 323 households in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 887

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 13 Native American, 1 Asian, 0

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, and 55 from two or more races. 19.4%

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, 10.2% Irish, 9.4% Norwegian, 7% English, 6.5% Polish, 6.4% French, 5.5% Italian and .5% Scottish, according to the 2020 Census. There were 323 households, of which 14.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 26.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 22.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 31% we male household, no spouse present. 21.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average family size was 2.5. 14.4% of the population were under the age of 18, 85.6% from 18 and over, with 21.4 who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45.5 years. The

median household income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...

was $41,719 and the median family income was $74,593. About 15.9% of people were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 10.5% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links

City of Biwabik official website

Biwabik Area Civic Association official website

Biwabik history and information
{{Coord, 47, 31, 59, N, 92, 20, 25, W, type:city_region:US-MN, display=title Cities in Minnesota Cities in St. Louis County, Minnesota Mining communities in Minnesota