Prospecting

Title: Compares Investing to a Card Game
Type: Art
Date: 1892
Source: Minnesota Historical Society

Description: This was the first page to a book discussing the opportunities that the Mesabi Iron Range represented.

Activities:

1. Why do you think this picture used a drawing of a card game to discuss a business idea?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: New business ideas are usually risky and a bit of a gamble. Since card games also involve chance, it makes sense to compare them to each other.
2. The game being played is poker, and the hand is called a "straight flush," which is the best hand you can have. Why would someone show the best possible hand if the idea is risky?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: They are probably trying to convince the reader that there's no way they can lose and that the risk is minimal.
3. All of the cards are about Duluth except the last card, the ten of diamonds, which stands for the Mesabi Range. How could iron that is 100 miles away be good for Duluth?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The other cards point out that Duluth is on the Great Lakes and does a great deal of shipping. Once the ore was mined, it would have to ship from somewhere, and that would very likely be Duluth.
4. Knowing what we know today about the mining industry, did the Mesabi turn out to be good for Duluth? Was this hand worth playing?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Definitely. Most of the ore went through Duluth for shipping, and that was very good for the city. The mining industry in northern Minnesota was so strong, in fact, that there was talk at times about dividing Minnesota into two states.