30 JUNE 2025 WorldWide Drilling Resource® From Mining Iron to Driving Iron Compiled by Bonnie Love, Editor, WorldWide Drilling Resource® The Embarrass Mine near Biwabik, in Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, is now a different kind of range - a golf range. Longyear Co. discovered the Pickands Mather property, with extremely high-quality hematite containing nearly 70% iron, in the 1920s. At the time, the federal government would not allow mining at the site due to the project’s location near the Wynne and Embarrass lakes. The government feared the natural flowing river between the two lakes would be disrupted if mining was permitted. Once World War II started, the government changed its mind and allowed mining for national defense purposes. The company would go on to become the second largest iron ore producer in the country. Pickands Mather was among the first to research taconite, a low-grade iron ore, in the late 1930s, and in the 1940s, they developed taconite pellets which were used to make steel. The mine operated for 20 years, extracting 18 million tons of ore, before it ultimately closed in 1964. The area was then used as a sand pit for local construction projects. Eventually, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, the state economic development agency which owned the property, decided to remediate the area into a year-round attraction. In 2000, they hired Jeffrey Brauer and his firm Golf Scapes to create a one-of-a-kind golf course. The process wasn’t easy, as one side of the road was an iron ore pit and the other side was a sand and gravel quarry. The location actually straddled two different geologic areas with a lot of scarring from its mining past. Once the work was done, the $4.5 million project produced one of the top golf courses in the country - The Quarry at Giants Ridge, which opened in July 2003. Since its opening, this golf course has been ranked in the top 20 public courses in the country, every year it’s been eligible. The course honors the industrial past of the site in many ways. Each hole is named for an area mine. For example, the fourth hole honors the Mahoning Mine in Hibbing, the largest operating open-pit iron mine in the state, while the 18th hole is named for the Embarrass Mine which is the deepest open-pit mine lake on the Mesabi Iron Range. Some of the industrial remains from the past have been subtly woven into the design, including a water hazard which is actually an old mine pit. John Kendall, the PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association of America) Director of Golf at Giants Ridge, described the project as, “A great example of how an unusable piece of land can be turned into a recreational area.” Once considered waste rock, taconite is credited with saving Minnesota's iron ore mining industry. Photos courtesy of Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation. The 2025 Minnesota Boys Junior PGA Championship is scheduled to take place at The Quarry at Giants Ridge in June. MIN
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