grant j. merritt endorsement and other reviews

From Mining Engineering

December 2020

This is a book that encompasses a sweeping panorama of stories — stories of missionaries, surveyors, geologists, entrepreneurs, industrialists, engineers and miners. And it is the story of a land in geologic time and a company that spanned a century. James Stolpestad, author, lawyer and real estate developer, was given exclusive access to Great Northern’s archives and to its former senior managers to reveal a story hidden from public view for a century. Great Northern Iron Ore Properties was a trust formed in 1906 by James J. Hill and his son Louis W. Hill to acquire, manage, and lease 67,000 acres on the 100-mile long Mesabi Range. To get around legal restrictions, the trust leased the land to the iron and steel companies that did the mining. Investors, all members or friends of the Hill family, received their interests free, because they owned stock in the Great Northern Railway.

The encyclopedic, yet readable, book offers a visual feast of original documents, photos, maps and detailed tables, as well as dramatic 36-in. foldout maps that show the entire northern Minnesota mining region from both a bird’s-eye view and its cross section.

This important work is exhaustively researched and has insights and detailed references to Minnesota and U.S. history, railroads, mining, James J. Hill, Louis W. Hill, and other leading individuals and families from this period of history. The author mined many archives to document the multiple legal and economic issues involved to give the reader a concise view of the complicated business, financial and legal processes that made mining on the Mesabi Range possible.

As noted in “BACK SPACE” of the Minnesota History Magazine

Summer 2020

St. Paul author, lawyer, and real estate developer Stolpestad was given exclusive access to Great Northern’s archives and to its former senior managers to reveal for the first time a story hidden from public view for a century: that of Great Northern Iron Ore Properties, a trust formed in 1906 by James J. Hill and his son Louis W. Hill to acquire, manage, and lease 67,000 acres on the 100-mile long Mesabi Range. To get around legal restrictions, the trust leased the land to the iron and steel companies that did the mining. Investors — all members or friends of the Hill family — received their interests free because they owned stock in the Great Northern Railway (known today as BNSF). The encyclopedic and readable tome features original documents, photos, maps, and detailed tables, as well as dramatic 36-inch foldout maps that show the entire northern Minnesota mining region from both a bird’s-eye view and its cross section.

The late Grant J. Merritt, a descendant of the famous Merritt family of Duluth that first discovered iron ore at Mountain Iron on the Mesabi Range, described Great Northern Iron as an “extraordinary book that will be read and referenced for a good long time. A gem, it is deserving of many awards.” An environmental lawyer for more than 50 years, Merritt is the author of Iron and Water: My Life Protecting Minnesota’s Environment published by the University of Minnesota Press (2018).

Robert A. Stein wrote that “Your beautiful book is a very impressive publication. Your research and writing present a masterful collection of information. It is a story important to the history of Minnesota.” Stein is the Everett Fraser Professor of Law and Distinguished Global Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. He formerly was Dean of the Law School, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the American Bar Association in Chicago, and a long-time Trustee of Great Northern Iron Ore Properties.

Terry L. Gibson found the book to be “a visual feast” with its array of images and over-sized full-color foldout maps of the entire 100-mile Mesabi Range that “really helped to tell the story” of Great Northern Iron. Gibson is Professor of Human Ecology-Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

David A. Lanegran wrote that “This book is a must read for anyone interested in the history and economy of Minnesota. The author’s background in law, real estate development, and history made him the ideal person to research and write this book. He has an engaging writing style and a sense of what details are necessary to understand the larger story. He mined many archives to document the multiple legal and economic issues involved to give the reader a concise view of the complicated business, financial, and legal processes that made mining on the Mesabi Range possible. He also introduces us to some of the legal intrigue behind efforts to maintain control of the trust lands. The cartography in the book is excellent, especially two stupendous and innovative fold out maps of the entire Range.” Lanegran is the John S. Holl Professor of Geography-Emeritus at Macalester College. His publications include Minnesota on the Map: a Historical Atlas of Minnesota published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press (2008), eleven other books, and 60 articles and chapters in professional publications in cultural and environmental geography. He was chief scholar for the Emmy-winning TPT documentary production “Iron Range: Minnesota Building America” (2009).

Great Northern Iron is featured in the book review section of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society website. Reviewer Mac McCulloch highlights the passage in the book that explains why James J. Hill and Louis W. Hill placed the 67,000 acres on the Mesabi Range — initially acquired for the railroad — in a completely separate grantor trust. He also cites the two major lawsuits described in the book that the trustees battled to overcome in order to preserve the trust estate. See gnrhs.org.

“Dave Beal: New book tells the story of James J. Hill’s ‘Great Northern Iron’”

April 12, 2020, Pioneer Press

The curtain has been lifted on the operations of one of Minnesota’s most intensely private businesses: The Mesabi Range mining trust set up more than a century ago by legendary St. Paul railroad baron James J. Hill and his son Louis W. Hill.

Scores of previously undisclosed details about the trust, including blow-by-blow accounts of the epic legal attacks it fought off, are unpacked in a 302-page book, “Great Northern Iron: James J. Hills’s 109-Year Mining Trust.” The book, written by Twin Cities developer James Stolpestad, was published last week by the Ramsey County Historical Society.

Stolpestad said Great Northern Iron’s saga had never been told, “in part because it was an intensely private business enterprise…almost no publicity” — this, even though its securities were the first from a Minnesota enterprise to be traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange. The trust flourished in the culture of privacy often favored by families of great wealth.

The book stresses the role of Louis Hill, Great Northern Iron’s president and chief executive from its founding in 1906 until he retired in 1945.

John Lindley, a consultant who was the editor of the Ramsey County Historical Society’s magazine for 14 years, helped with the book. He called it a major addition to the dozens of books about the Hill empire and the Iron Range. “It provides a highly readable account of how one business operated over 109 years on the Mesabi and brought order, highly professional management and consistent performance to an important region of Minnesota through all the ups and downs of the national economy,” Lindley said.