Discover the Range, Minnesota

This Minnesota Itinerary at a Glance

Sidebar: Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range and Grand Rapids offer rugged landscapes, rich mining history, outdoor adventures, cultural heritage, and year-round recreation. Learn about characters from Judy Garland and Bob Dylan to the rough-and-ready miners and loggers who changed a nation. Enjoy custom tours, outstanding performances and delightful treats.

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Check out these great attractions

Judy Garland Museum
Reif Performing Arts Center
Forest History Center
Minnesota Discovery Center

DAY 1 of Things To Do in Minnesota

Arrive Grand Rapids and the Judy Garland Museum for a specially-curated, group tour. The Judy Garland Museum celebrates the life of Judy Garland (aka Frances Ethel Gumm) who was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on June 10, 1922. The VIP “Stolen Ruby Red Slippers Tour” highlights all of the facts regarding the timeline when the ruby red slippers were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum, from when they were stolen in 2005 to when they were recovered in 2018, and December 7, 2024 when the recovered slippers were auctioned and sold for $ 28 million.

Check into your group-friendly hotel before departing to dinner at one of locals’ favorite restaurants.

Tonight, you will be entertained at the Reif Performing Arts Center. The Reif is a state-of-the-art performing arts center that has two theaters. The Wilcox Theater seats 700 and has featured many Broadway Musical Productions. The Ives Theater is the second, offering more intimate concert experiences that seats 200. Group rates for 10 or more. The Reif Center provides matinees and evening performance productions.

DAY 2 of More Minnesota Attractions

Breakfast and checkout at your hotel than depart for the Forest History Center. Step back in time with a customized draft horse wagon tour through the 1900s logging camp where costumed interpreters will highlight life as it was for hard-working loggers. The tour will take you around the 300+ acres of mixed hardwood and pine forests, and down by the Wanagan that is docked on the Mississippi River. Enjoy lunch in the 1900s logging camp dining hall. Your meal includes beef roast, roasted vegetables and potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and pie for desert, with costumed interpreters serving and presenting a historical reenactment of life at the 1900s logging camp.

With full stomachs and a special gift for each member of the tour, depart for Hibbing.

Discover historic Hibbing, childhood home of Bob Dylan and site of Hull Rust Mahoning Mine View, overlooking an active iron ore mine. Tour the Hibbing High School and note the crystal chandeliers, priceless art and incredible theater built by mining company money over 100 years ago. Step-on guides are available for your Historic Hibbing tour that makes stops at the Greyhound Bus Origin Museum, Hibbing Historical Society Museum and Dylan-specific sites in the community.

Check into your group-friendly hotel with a complimentary welcome reception, and dine at the iconic Sammy’s Pizza or BoomTown Brewery.

DAY 3 of Minnesota Activities

Breakfast and depart to nearby Chisholm, where you’ll visit Minnesota Discovery Center, a 660-acre indoor-outdoor history museum. Ride a vintage trolley like the one that once connected many mining towns along Minnesota’s Iron Range, and travel to a mining ghost town.

Lunch and shopping is next, at Kunnari’s Kitchen, a family-owned restaurant, farm market and boutique shopping experience in Virginia. Then on to an afternoon snack at Minnesota’s oldest candy story, Canelake’s Candies, where they love to treat you to a candy demonstration and some truly sweet shopping.

Explore the contributions of Finnish immigrants at the historic Kaleva Hall, a former temperance union, where you’ll get a wonderful tour. After, depart for “Minnesota’s Cold Spot,” Embarrass, and the Finnish Homestead Tour.

The US Hockey Hall of Fame Museum in Eveleth, the Heritage Museum in Virginia, and ice bumper cars at Iron Trail Motors Event Center are all low-cost, high-interest attractions that make great options for groups.

Depart Minnesota’s Northwoods with fond memories.