In the heart of Minnesota's Mesabi Range mining country, a gargantuan likeness of an 1880's miner balances on a spherical framework of rusted corten steel.
Titled "
The Emergence of Man Through Steel," the sculpture was designed by artist Jack Anderson and dedicated in 1987. The whole structure is 85 feet high, claimed to be the third largest free-standing memorial in the United States.
The 36-foot-tall brass and copper iron miner is a tribute to the "Iron Men" of yore, when metal mining boomed in the region.