Word: mesabi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...there is a redeeming element of human interest, it is the people of the Mesabi Iron Range, who play themselves as the descendants of the Finnish town settlement. There are some wonderful scenes of June's visits with an ancient Finnish woman, picking berries, relaxing in an outdoor sauna, and sharing a mutual unspoken wisdom in a language of their own. The incongruity of these visits, far from distracting, offers moments of genuine refreshing documentary that are welcome relief from the hammering proletarian-minded conscientiousness of the jarring town scenes. Despite its oppressive air, Wildrose hints at an unconscious beauty...
Wildrose is the story of a young woman's struggle to maintain her independence from society and men in a small mining town on Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range. The narrative conspicuously lacks pretension, prefering a plain-spoken unselfconscious style that cares little for cosmetic surfaces. Unlike last year's Country, Wildrose's authenticity relies less on cultural drama than on a coarse documentary-like artlessness that is assaulting at times with its "realistic" zeal. Instead of Jessica Lange courageously battling hurricanes and mortgage collectors in western-chic jeans, one has a homely June going off to the mines...
...locus of an epic environmental battle. At issue was the Reserve Mining Co.'s taconite plant, whose construction in 1952 had created the town. About 80% of the local labor force is employed at the $350 million facility, which turns trainloads of the flinty rock mined in the Mesabi Range into about 15% of the nation's iron ore supply. But Reserve also dumped 67,000 tons of tailings a day into the world's largest freshwater lake, thereby polluting it with tiny fibers similar to asbestos, a carcinogen. Recalls Jon Luoma, head of public relations...