Jews on the Iron Range Tour
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| City/locality- State/province |
Virginia, Minnesota |
| County- State/province: |
Saint Louis County, Minnesota |
| State/province: | Minnesota |
| Country: | United States |
| Tour Created by: | Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest |
(47.5232596° N, 92.5365713° W)
Jews on the Iron Range
Jews began to arrive in the area of the Iron Range as early as 1840, as the drive to open the frontier and exploit natural resources expanded. Jews help provision logging and mining efforts, and were involved as middlemen in the distribution of hides for the manufacturing of fur clothing. As the timber interests yielded ground to mining companies in the 1880's new Jewish immigrants found opportunities in the company towns as peddlers and merchants, teamsters, butchers, black and tinsmiths and tailors, to name a few occupations. Between 1900 and 1910, the population of Hibbing had increased from 2,481 to 8,832, 219 of whom were Jewish. In Viriginia, the population increased by 254% during the same period: 121 of 10,000 residents counted as Jewish. In all, approximately 11 00 Jews lived in 4 main Iron range cities and 11 smaller cities in 1910.
