HURLEY — An imaginary line splits two counties in northern Wisconsin, each of which holds parts of a proposed 4.5-mile, $1.5-billion iron ore mine.
That imaginary divide, though, is palpable in the passions of local residents to bring iron ore mining back to the economically depleted, ecologically rich region — or to keep a mine out.
Now that Gogebic Taconite LLC has begun drilling and testing the soil in the regulatory process to secure a state mine permit, now that the big trucks and the engineers have arrived, that divide is all the more clear.
