Providing the Public with Early Issues of the Range Facts

Project Details by Fiscal Year
2010 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$7,000
Fund Source
Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Recipient
Virginia Area Historical Society
Start Date
April 2010
End Date
October 2010
Activity Type
Grants/Contracts
Counties Affected
St. Louis
St. Louis
Project Overview

To preserve and make available the early issues of the Range Facts, a weekly newspaper that was published from 1934 to 1941 by W.A.Fisher and edited by George A. Perham,  It covered the Mesabi and Vermilion range towns as well as adjacent rural areas and gave extensive  coverage to state, county and local affairs, sports, social news, farming, obituaries and Depression programs. Copies were not sent to the Minnesota Historical Society until 1942 when the Virginia Daily Enterprise assumed ownership.

The Range Facts was a broadly distributed weekly newspaper that began in 1934 and was sold to the Virginia Daily Enterprise in 1942.  After that date, copies were sent to the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation, but the first eight years were "lost" until about 15 years ago when several city council persons, cleaning  out basement vaults in the Virginia City Hall, located eight bundles of Range Facts neatly wrapped in Kraft paper and inventoried by WPA workers during the late 1930s.  These were the issues from 1934 through 1941 and were donated to the Virginia Area Historical Society.

Project Details
To microfilm and make accessible the newspaper Range Facts, 1934-1941
Legal Citation / Subdivision
LAWS of MINNESOTA for 2009 Ch. 172, Art. 1, Subd. 4 (b), Statewide Historic and Cultural Grants
Appropriation Language

(b) Statewide Historic and Cultural Grants. (i) $2,250,000 in 2010 and $4,500,000 in 2011 are appropriated for history programs and projects operated or conducted by or through local, county, regional or other historical or cultural organizations; or for activities to preserve significant historic and cultural resources. Funds are to be distributed through a competitive grants process. The Minnesota Historical Society shall administer these funds using established grants mechanisms, and with assistance from the advisory committee created herein.

2010 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$7,000
Other Funds Leveraged
$3,723
Project Manager
Salutation
Mr.
First Name
Harry
Last Name
Lamppa
Street Address
217 8th Street South
City
Virginia
State
MN
Zip Code
55792
Administered By
Administered by
Location

345 W. Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Phone
651-259-3000