sentences:  However, the title and references to "iron ore", "red iron", and "red iron pits" strongly suggests the location is on the Mesabi Range, a portion of the Iron Range where open-pit mining has predominated, and where Dylan's childhood residence in Hibbing, Minnesota is situated.Virginia, Minnesota is a town near Hibbing, that, along with Hibbing, has shared boom and bust cycles due to changes in the mining industry, and may be the town that Dylan was talking about in the Washington concert.The song opens with a deliberately conventional opening ("Come gather round friends and I'll tell you a tale...").