The late Jackpine Bob Cary was not only a fabled storyteller, author and artist, but a wiseold newspaper man and journalist.
Late in his career at the Ely Echo, there was more than a time or two when he could spot something in the news that didn’t seem quite right or failed to mesh with the facts.
After taking a long sip of coffee, ‘ol Bob would look up and say, chuckle at what might be in the news and say “don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.”
One couldn’t help but think of Jackpine Bob Tuesday afternoon at the Ely Folk School, where some longtime and notable opponents of copper- nickel mining gathered for an event that had all the makings of a pep rally and celebration.
The man of the hour was Gov. Tim Walz, who snuck in through the back door rather than face some protestors out front.
Hours before, just outside of the Twin Cities, Walz made it official that he was issuing an executive order aimed at stopping the Twin Metals Minnesota project in its tracks yet again.
For those of us who have followed along in a battle that has gone back-and-forth for nearly two decades, it was just the latest tilt on a political teeter-totter.
But Walz, the old coach who played the part Tuesday of a high school coach firing up a crowd at a school pep rally, maintained it was different.
“This debate ended today,” Walz said, generating applause and cheers from those who attended the closed-door, apparently invitation- only gathering.
Walz made it clear, maintaining that in his eyes the teeter-totter had stopped, the debate had ended, there would be no back and forth and that copper-nickel mining in Ely was dead and buried.
“We’ve wound this thing up so tight you can’t unwind it,” Walz maintained before the TV cameras and his Ely fan club.
For those inside, it seemed like a victory celebration decades in the making and the end of a battle that had stretched generations and has resulted in deep political divides.
But alas, as ol’ Bob Cary would have astutely observed, the facts told a different story, especially once one escaped from the old Fisherman’s Headquarters building and ventured back outside the closely-guarded doors.
Indeed, the Walz edict is only good for 90 days after he’s out of office and seemed to be only the latest blow in the toe-to-toe fight.
Pro-mining advocates won a clear victory during the spring, when federal legislation ended a federal mining ban and cleared the way for Twin Metals to proceed.
But it would have been sheer folly to suggest then that the federal action would ensure Twin Metals would go forward, just as it’s sheer folly now to suggest that the governor’s lame-duck action closes the door.
Reaction outside the pep rally was swift and largely predictable.
Those who have backed Twin Metals, including U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and State Rep. Roger Skraba, were among those issuing statements in opposition to Walz.
So too did State Sen. Grant Hauschild (D), who was put in the precarious position of bucking his party while in the midst of his own re-election battle.
The timing of Walz’s decision was strange to say the least, and it undoubtedly makes the mining ban a key issue in statewide races, area legislative races, and probably even in our local election contests this fall.
Walz drew a line in the sand, and those seeking office - at least this year - now face questions about where they fall.
The merits of the decision will be discussed on another day, but it’s pretty clear that Walz has bowed to special interests and put aside recommendations of his own administration.
He also made it clear, at least Tuesday, that he wasn’t interested in opposing viewpoints.
It was peculiar that the gathering in Ely was closely guarded, so much so that Paul Peltier, who represents every unit of government on the Iron Range as the executive director of the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools, was kept out of the Folk School celebration.
Perhaps because inside, where one might some of the same folks who held “No Kings” signs on Ely street, those same folks were cheering the circumvention of process and, oddly enough, a King-like move.
The celebrations will certainly fade. So too will the Walz edict.
More chapters are yet to be written over the fate of Twin Metals and copper-nickel mining projects and the battle is certain to carry on.
That indeed is the story. No matter what yarn the governor tried to spin during his latest stop in town.
