Films

Welcome to the museum theater where a variety of films are scheduled to show throughout the year. Featured films highlight various aspects of Iron Range history and culture as well as themes from changing Overlook Gallery exhibits. Check back for information on upcoming films and showtimes.

"Toy Story 3," the new Disney-Pixar animated film opens June 18, 2010. Get ready for the fun by watching the original "Toy Story" Thursday, June 10, 7 p.m. at Minnesota Discovery Center!

Free admission Thursdays after 5 p.m.

June 4: It's Geologic Past, Geography, and Prehistory

This is the story of Minnesota's Iron Country, the Mesabi, Vermilion and Cuyuna Ranges, and the people who have made this place their home. Our story begins with the introduction of the ranges, their geological formation, and the prehistoric people who were the first Iron Rangers. From the fires of Iron Country's origin, to the ice bound world that the first nomadic hunters found here, historian Marvin Lamppa leads us through an epic story, the story of Iron Country.

June 11: Historic Indian People and the Fur Trade

Descriptions of Iron Country's mineral laden hills were entered into the journals of French and British explorers long before our nation was born. By this time the region had already been home to Indian people for a least 70 centuries. The Cheyenne, Assiniboin, Souix, Cree, and Ojibwe; all are thought to have lived in Iron Country at one time or another. This chapter of the epic story of Iron Country focuses on the native people of this region, their wars, and the introduction of the French fur trade.

June 18: The Years 1804-1870: The End of the Fur Trade, Treaties, and a Gold Rush

1804 was a pivotal year. It marked the beginning of momentous changes, which lead us to the Iron Country of today. This chapter of the epic story of Iron Country takes us through the end of the fur trade, the agreements and treaties which gave political boundaries to this part of the nation, and a wild rush for gold that brought hundreds of people, prospectors, merchants, and swindlers, to the Lake Vermillion wilderness.

June 25: From Gold to Iron (1867-1880)

There was a lasting effect of the Vermilion gold rush…the thousands of prospectors who came to the region made public one fact…there was iron here. It was the amount and richness of this ore that would attract a new breed of investor. This chapter of the epic story of Iron Country focuses on the discovery of Vermilion's iron ore deposits, businessman Charlemagne Tower, and his plans to develop the Vermilion Range.

July 2: The Opening of the Vermilion Iron Range (1881-1892)

Charlemagne Tower risked it all in the development of the first mine and railroad on the Vermilion Range. The gamble paid off, as great underground mines…and wild mining towns and lumber camps sprung up on Minnesota's new frontier. In this chapter of the epic story of Iron Country we meet the men and women who would hew a new life out of the rocks and pines of the Vermilion range.

July 9: The Mesabi Replaces the Vermilion as the Great Mining Frontier (1883-1900)

Noted evangelist Billy Sunday once said, "The only difference between Ely and Hell is that Ely has a railroad to it." While Tower and Soudan moved toward a settled and law abiding way of life…the old frontier moved 21 miles up the track to the new boom town of Ely. On this chapter of the epic story of Iron Country we see a larger and even wilder mining frontier opening on the Mesabi Range…which would eventually become the greatest mining region the world has ever known.

July 16: The Mesabi: How Iron Mining Began (1889-1901)

Many kicked the red dust of the Mesabi, and left the region in disgust, never realizing that the dust was the very iron ore they were looking for. It would be the seven sons of Duluth pioneer Lewis J. Merritt who would finally unlock the secret of Mesabi's ores. On this edition of Iron Country we tell the story of the Seven Iron Men, who for a few brief years, held in their hands an empire in iron. We'll look too at the ten-year period of unscrupulous manipulation and heavy litigation that preceded the birth of America's industrial giant, the United States Steel Corporation.

July 23: The Mesabi's Earliest Mining Towns and Incorporated Villages

On June 15,1891 Edmund J. Longyear began a 90 mile walk across the Mesabi Range. The Mesabi iron boom was just beginning, and Longyear and his associates were hunting for diamond drilling contracts. The trip would take them from Mesaba station on the Duluth & Iron Range Railway to Grand Rapids on the Mississippi River. In this chapter of the epic story of Iron Country we'll join the Longyear crew for a walk back in time…to the early days of the first six towns on the Mesabi Range.

July 30: Mines and Mining Centers on the Mesabi (1892-1925)

Mesabi is an Ojibwe word for giant. It was well named. By 1905 it was out-shipping all of the other ranges combined. None of this could have happened without the mergers that took place in the steel industry from 1885 to 1903. But because the consolidations involved people like Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan, fears were aroused that the nation would soon be dominated by big business. It's the days of "the Oliver," big steam shovels, and locomotives in this chapter of Iron Country.

August 6: Giant Corporations Industrialize the Range (1904-1924)

The great ironmaster Abram Stevens Hewitt once wrote, "Consumption of iron is the social barometer by which to estimate the relative height of civilization." If this is true, then the progress of American civilization during the years following the discovery of Iron Country's ores was nothing less than extraordinary. On this edition of Iron Country, we chart the rise of the giant corporation U.S. Steel, the opening of the Cuyuna, and tell the tale of a legendary mine disaster.

August 13: Immigrant Labor, Unions and Range Politics

They came by the thousands…young men and younger women from all parts of Europe…in search of a new way of life. What they found were the stark towns of Iron Country, and work in the region's mines, camps and boarding houses. They built vibrant communities, rallied to the cause of labor, stood fast during violent strikes, and gave birth to a particular variety of politics that they could call their very own. Their story is the one we tell on this edition of Iron Country.

August 20: Depression, War, and Taconite

Depression hit Iron Country hard. Within two years Minnesota's iron range ore production fell from thirty-five million tons to two million tons. Jobs in St. Louis County mines dropped from twelve thousand to less than twenty five hundred. By 1935 the New Deal came to the range—NRA, WPA, and CCC. The war in Europe finally brought a measure of economic relief. Production in Minnesota mines reached 49 million tons by 1940. American involvement in the war brought new challenges. Industry and labor worked hand in hand in the greatest wartime steel production effort in United States' history. When WWII was over, Iron Country's mines were depleted. Instead of the end, there was a new beginning. The age of taconite had arrived.

Winter 2009 Film Series: Destination America

All Films start in the Museum Theater @ 7:00 p.m.

January 8th: The Golden Door

America is a country founded and built by immigrants. From the beginning, most have come looking for a better life for themselves and their families.

Manuel, a Mexican migrant worker, cannot tell us his last name. He is one of millions of Mexicans who illegally cross America's borders every year. It is a dangerous journey, but for most, America is their best, possibly their only opportunity for economic survival.

Manuel's story is put into historical perspective by looking at the sweep of immigration across more than 350 years of American history, focusing on the early history of Mexican immigration, the Norwegian immigrants to the Midwest and the Irish famine.

January 15th: The Art of Departure

Creative spirits have come to America from all over the world, drawn to the possibilities of a free society, but it has never been easy to leave home.

Fang"Yi Sheu always loved to dance, but the island of Taiwan was too small for her ambition. She wanted to dance on the world stage—which meant she had to leave her uncomprehending parents behind and come to New York City, the capital of dance. It has been a long and difficult journey, but today she is the star of the Martha Graham Dance Company.

After Russia's most famous artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov fled the oppression of the Soviet Union, they never thought they would return—until they were offered the chance to exhibit their work at the Hermitage, Russia's greatest museum. The exhibition was an extraordinary success, but it brought back memories of why they fled.

The Art Of Departure also tells the story of the unprecedented array of scientists, artists, and intellectuals who fled fascism in the 1930's, focusing on Arturo Toscanini, the world's most renowned conductor, the maestro who defied both Mussolini and Hitler.

January 22nd: The Earth is the Lord's

Ever since the Mayflower pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, immigrants have come to America to escape religious persecution: Amish and Mennonites, Jews and evangelical Christians, Huguenots from France, Baha'is from Iran, Chinese practicing their esoteric Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists. The idea of America as a haven for those seeking freedom to worship looms large in the American imagination.

Tsering fled Tibet in the year 2000, a victim of religious persecution by the Chinese communists like everyone in her family. Her escape is a harrowing tale and resonates with the flight of Gehlek Rimpoche, the Tibetan leader who escaped in the 1950's with the Dalai Lama.

Jews have found a haven in America since 1654, but D'vorah and Hirsch Spira never wanted to come here. Even as Hitler rose to power in Germany, they wanted to stay in Europe. They are Hasidic Jews, who feared their religious traditions would be destroyed in America.

John Ruth is a Mennonite minister and historian. He tells the story of his ancestor, Hans Landis, the last of the Anabapist martyrs, and how his death is connected to the immigration of the Amish and Mennonite people to America more than 300 years ago.

January 29th: Breaking Free: A Woman's Journey

In the world they left behind, women were second"class citizens, dominated by law and custom by men. Some feared for their lives. Others were searching for new opportunities.

Guatemala native Rodi Alvarado fled after a decade of beatings by her husband. Her petition for political asylum may become a landmark case. If she is granted asylum, she will be the first woman in America to win a case of precedential value.

Rosa Cavalleri left Italy in 1887, a simple woman married to a brutal husband. Today, she is celebrated in her home town as a woman who challenged tradition, who broke away and made a new life for herself in America.

Ferdows Naficy and her two daughters, Mahnaz and Farah became independent women in America. Their story of why and how they left Iran is a chilling, instructive tale of what it takes to break free.

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