Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Calumet, MN

Calumet is a small city in Itasca County on Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range — not to be confused with Calumet, Michigan, the famous copper-mining town in the Upper Peninsula.

The city was named after the French colonial-era word for a Native American reed-stemmed ceremonial pipe, and its post office has been in operation since 1908.

Calumet was laid out in anticipation of mining: businesses opened in 1907, city lots first sold on July 27, 1908, and the city incorporated in 1909 along what had originally been a logging road.

Calumet grew up around the Hill Annex Mine, where open-pit development began in 1912 and ore shipments started in 1914; at its height the mine was the largest producer of royalty ore for the State of Minnesota.

Iron mining at Hill Annex ended in 1978, and the mine's buildings and equipment were sold to the State of Minnesota for one dollar to become Hill Annex Mine State Park, now a mining museum and recreation area just outside town.

Calumet's population peaked at 946 in 1940 during the mining boom; the 2020 census counted 334 residents, and the 2010 census recorded 160 households.

U.S. Highway 169 is the main route through Calumet, and the city sits on the Mesabi Trail, the paved biking and hiking trail that links Iron Range communities.