New buildings in the works for Hull Rust Mine View

Visitors can view actual mining activity from nearby Hibbing Taconite Company.

The Mine View is owned and maintained by the City of Hibbing with the help of volunteers from the Hibbing Tourist/Senior Center. A temporary building was set up at the site in 2019.

“The Hull Rust Mine View project consists of the design and construction of two structures that will serve as the new visitor’s center overlooking the taconite mine,” Hibbing Parks and Recreation Director Nick Arola explained in an email.

Building No. 1 is approximately 900 square feet and will be used for displaying historical artifacts, maps, and artwork, according to Arola.

“This structure also includes a cantilevered outdoor balcony overlooking the mine,” he said.

“Building No. 2 is approximately 2,300 square feet and includes and exhibit hall, main reception area, a gift shop and space for future restrooms as well as an outdoor balcony overlooking the mine,” Arola noted.

On Jan. 4, the Hibbing City Council approved moving ahead with the proposed two new buildings for the site. If all goes according to plan the buildings should be at substantial completion of construction by mid-October, according to a timeline provided by the Hibbing Parks and Recreation Department.

Leonard Hirsch volunteers at the Hull Rust Mine View and formerly worked at the Pickens Mather Research Laboratory.

Hirsch says the reaction of visitors when they first lay eyes on the mine view is what keeps him coming back.

“I just go by what I hear people say,” Hirsch said. “The first time they look over there, they just say, ‘wow!’”

“On a sunny day the colors are impressive and the vastness of this,” Hirsch added. “They get more impressed when you explain that they are looking out at where a city or town used to be.”

In the 1920s the town of Hibbing was moved two miles south to its present location after iron ore was discovered under the city’s old location, according to information found on the City of Hibbing website. The move started in 1919, and took many years to complete.

This past summer attendance was down at the Hull Rust Mine View, according to Melissa Versich, Director of the Hibbing Senior Tourist Center.

There were approximately 16,760 visitors at the mine view between May 20 and Sept. 30, 2022, which is the second lowest number to 2020 at 7,788, Versich said.

Prior to 2020, the highest attendance was between 21,000 and 24,000 visitors for the season.

Hirsch said he noticed more locals visiting the Hull Rust Mine View this past summer.

“The only thing I noticed last year local people came here because they weren’t going further because of the increase in fuel,” Hirsch said, adding that he suspects was the same scenario in other parts of the country.

The mine view offers a 360-degree view overlooking a 40-mile radius of the Iron Range as reported in a 2019 Hibbing Daily Tribune article. Since its opening on Memorial Day that year, the site has been visited by 22,000 visitors from all 50 states and the District and Columbia, in addition to 38 countries, it states.

Andrew Lucia, a Hibbing native, was the lead architect of the current mine view location as reported earlier in the Daily Tribune. The design includes concrete box culverts along its perimeter to serve as window frames through which tourists can view the surrounding landscape.

As was the case with the Mine View at its previous location, Hirsch said most people he’s spoke to found out about it by word of mouth.

“I ask people ‘what brought you here,’ and they usually say they heard it from a cousin, or a friend told me,” he said.

There is a guest book at the Hull Rust Mine View, but not everyone signs.

“I found a lot of times 16 to 20 percent sign and the rest don’t,” Hirsch said. “People come up after hours and aren’t counted.”

“Most summers, the Hull Rust Mine view generates enough funds to sustain the Tourist Senior Center through the winter,” Versich said. “This last spring/summer that wasn’t the case. Due to gas prices, economy etc- We were down around $15K from last year.”

To help make up for the shortfall the tourist center held a raffle and is kicking off a Friends of Hibbing campaign as a way to secure donations this year.

“The money raised will be going to literally keep the tourist senior center open,” Versich wrote in an email. “We will use the funds for taxes, utilities, insurance and payroll expenses.”

Donations of any amount are being accepted and for each donation of $250 or more an anchor with the family name of the donor etched in is to be displayed at the Tourist Center and eventually at one of the new buildings at the Hull Rust Mine View. To make a donation online go to www.hibbingmineview.org and click on the Support Us tab at the top, and scroll down to Donate Online. Checks can be mailed to Hibbing Tourist Senior Center 1202 East Howard St., Hibbing, MN 55746.