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铁世界探索中心(Ironworld
Discovery Center)
地方性遗产
为什么一个州需要数以百万的树呢？就明尼苏达州来看，为开采鐡砂，境内多数土地皆经挖掘，故地表上光秃一片，没有树木及其他植被的踪迹。
所以，在1930年代的大萧条时期，一个名叫公共资源保护队(Civilian
Conservation Corps)的联邦政府计画，在明尼苏达州种下了超过2500万株树木，总共雇用了4,000多位，年龄介于18至25岁的工作人员。除了树木之外，保护队的工作人员也建造了数百哩的健行步道、马路及独木舟口岸，深受市民喜爱。
虽然他们种殖树木，藉以恢复大地景致，但明尼苏达州仍希望保存其矿脉历史，所以它在奇斯和姆(Chisholm)创建了铁世界探索中心。直到1970年代中期为止，露天开采的矿业一直是明尼苏达州的主要企业。1900年时，米沙比矿场(Mesabi
Iron Range)是世上最大的铁矿地带，而二次世界大战时，战事中所使用的铁，有75%是产自明尼苏达州。由于铁的矿床已被耗尽，另一种类型的矿业起而代之，其使用复杂的机械过程来提取铁质。露天矿场的退出也意味着，许多明尼苏达人的生活方式也告一段落，而探索中心则有助于人们了解那个时期的一切。
Why would a state need millions of trees? In Minnesota it was because much of the land had been mined for iron ore and was stripped bare of trees and other forms of nature.
So, in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, a federal government program called the Civilian Conservation Corps planted more than 25 million trees in Minnesota. More than 4,000 men between the ages of 18 and 25 were hired for the project. In addition to the trees, the Corps workers built hundreds of miles of hiking trails, roads, and canoe ports that citizens have come to love.
Even though they planted trees to restore the land, Minnesota wanted to preserve the history of its iron ranges, so it established the Ironwood Discovery Center in Chisholm. Open-pit mining was a big business in Minnesota until the mid-1970s. In 1900, the Mesabi Iron Range was the largest iron-mining area in the world, and during World War II, Minnesota produced more than 75 percent of the iron used in the war effort. As the iron deposits ran out, another form of mining replaced it, which extracts iron in a complicated mechanized process. The end of the open pits also spelled the end of a way of life for many Minnesotans. The Discovery Center helps people learn about that period.
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