How much gold is hiding underground in northern Minnesota?
The precious metal has not been mined in Minnesota since the turn of the 20th century. May 7, 2021 8:37am Related coverage
But is there, as the saying goes, gold in them thar hills?
An anonymous reader wondered how much gold might be hiding underground in northern Minnesota and whether its value is high enough to offset the costs of extracting it.
This prompted Curious Minnesota a Star Tribune project that seeks to answer great reader questions like this one to do a little digging.
Prospectors first started making serious efforts to find gold in Minnesota following the Civil War, and in 1893 a strike on an island in Rainy Lake drew hundreds of prospectors to the state s northern border. Two short-lived mines in the area joined the productive Little American Island mine, which closed in 1901.