Episode one
Episode one
THE CASTLE IN THE WOODS
Filmmaker Karl Jacob and author Aaron Brown take a road-trip-movie style journey through time to unlock the mystery of their hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. They find a dynamic mayor named Victor Power who left few traces after his mysterious death almost a century ago. His political ghost still haunts an opulent, castle-like high school in the middle of the wilderness and reveals a story of America that has never been told before.
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Episode two
EL PULPO PENDEJO
What will Victor Power do next? Beaming, yet cautious after an “impossible” victory defending an immigrant miner against a murder charge for winning a pistol duel, Now “Fightin’ Vic” confronts the massive corporation that rules the small village of Hibbing, Minnesota.
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Episode three
VOTERS, LOOK!
Fresh off a stunning legal victory over U.S. Steel, Victor Power the young lawyer becomes Victor Power the crafty political leader. Using deft strategy, brilliant oratory, and a keen sense of timing, Power barges into the municipal election and upsets the longest serving mayor of Hibbing to that point, Dr. H.R. Weirick, an acolyte of the Oliver Iron Mining Company. In just a few days Vic Power starts a revolution in Hibbing that reverberates all the way to US Steel's corporate headquarters in New York. A new philosophy rules Hibbing, one that leads to a catchy saying, “If Vic Power has a pig, everyone in town gets a ham sandwich.”
Episode five
THE STORM BEFORE THE STORM
Victor Power quickly implements the most ambitious slate of public improvements in the history of Hibbing, unprecedented for a village of this size anywhere in the United States. He does this by doing the one thing that the Oliver Iron Mining Company can’t stand: raising taxes. Streets get paved and bright, beautiful new lights are installed. But the mines form a new lobbying organization, the Lake Superior Taxpayers Association, which seeks to control men like Victor Power and villages like Hibbing through the state legislature. Power bests the mines during his first year in office, but his success invites the fight of his life as the world’s largest corporation plans its revenge.
Episode six
WE SHOULD KEEP THAT WHICH IS OURS
Hibbing’s population is exploding faster than the mine blasts on the edge of town. Vic’s policies prove hugely popular and the town prospers. However. The demand for steel skyrockets because of WWI which means the pressure from the mining companies is about to ramp up. But Vic continues to beat U.S. Steel in the courtroom and at the ballot box. The mines try to cap the village’s taxing power through a bill at the state legislature. Power gathers a force of Hibbing citizens to counteract the sophisticated lobbying operation of U.S. Steel at the state capitol. The people rejoice, throwing an enormous midnight parade for “the Little Giant.” Then the mining companies take their boldest action yet: they refuse to pay taxes to the Village of Hibbing.
Episode four
WHERE THE MINES END AND THE VILLAGE BEGINS
With Vic at the helm, Hibbing's new government aims to develop this wild town with the tax dollars of the mining companies, whether the companies like it or not. We meet the members of Vic’s inner circle, a hodge-podge of characters with relatively little experience running a small village with an enormous amount of money about to enter its coffers. Power’s task is complicated by the fact that U.S. Steel employs informants to trail local officials and embed themselves inside any organization that could pose trouble for the company. But Vic has his eyes on a big prize: an independent Hibbing that attracts people and businesses from all over the country.
Episode eight
FROM OVER HERE TO OVER THERE
Weary from the tax fight, the strike, and the graft trials, Victor Power hopes that 1917 is the year he returns to building his vision for Hibbing and a future campaign for governor. A new superintendent of the Oliver Iron Mining Company in Hibbing, Michael Godfrey, decides to Befriend Power instead of fighting him. As the United States enters World War I Vic Power becomes Captain America, a patriotic wartime leader who turns Hibbing into a powerhouse of military enlistment, war bond sales, and iron ore production. While the war changes the lives of the young men and women caught up in its horrors, the very ground beneath Hibbing starts to shift. U.S. Steel begins buying up property in the northern section of the village to access rich iron ore deposits beneath the primary business district, including Vic Power’s law office, his brother Walter’s famous theater, and his sister-in-law Dottie’s beloved department store. With much at stake, Vic Power makes a deal that changes Hibbing forever.
Episode seven
STREET FIGHT
Peace between Power and U.S. Steel doesn’t last long. As European war demand raises the price of steel, the value of iron ore in the land around Hibbing rises with it. As it does, miners decide they deserve better than poverty wages. When they went on strike in 1916 it became the biggest labor uprising in Iron Range history. Here, Mayor Power tries to maintain the rights of striking workers by banning the company police force from patrolling the streets of Hibbing, a move that likely saved lives. However, the strike becomes much bigger than just Power or Hibbing. As regional violence intensifies, Power receives an enormous blow from the mining companies. He and his entire administration, along with prominent supporters from Hibbing’s business community, are charged with graft by the administration of Governor J.A.A. Burnquist, a man who would become Power’s greatest rival in his quest for statewide office. Power would successfully defend himself and all his friends, but not before paying a great political price.
Episode nine
THE SQUARE DEAL vs
THE SQUARE MEAL
Victor Power’s deal with Michael Godfrey creates a new village in South Hibbing. A new city hall and school are on the way, along with an unparalleled downtown business district for a town of this size. But the political unity that marked Power’s rise to prominence is breaking apart. Some residents lose out when the village moves south, while young men with no memory of Power’s triumphs seek new leadership. Amid all of this, Power reels from the early death of his wife Percy. In this stew of discontent, a lawyer named John Gannon rises from obscurity. Gannon makes a name defending a township official accused of murdering two immigrant bootleggers. The case exposes a growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the village and the chaotic influence of prohibition on local culture. Since Power’s coalition was founded by immigrants and saloon keepers this puts him in a tough spot. As a “bigger, better Hibbing” takes shape, Power faces the greatest political challenge of his life and, for the first time, he loses. A new mayor tries a new kinder, gentler approach with U.S. Steel while Victor Power licks his wounds and heads to Alaska.
Episode Ten
VICTOR POWER, MAN OF THE HOUR
Karl and Aaron narrate the end of the series with a surprising discovery. Victor Power returns from a long Alaskan expedition in good spirits, only to find his village in political chaos. Mayor John Gannon tried to negotiate with U.S. Steel over the move of the remaining portion of North Hibbing, only for the company to undercut his ideas and leave the village broke. Power returns to power, but not for long. His coalition is shattered by changing political conditions. With fewer friends than before, he tries to run for Congress but a scandal derails his hopes of ever achieving higher office. Alone at his farmhouse on the edge of Hibbing, Victor Power dies one night, leaving a lasting legacy, an unsolved mystery, and … a secret wife?
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About
The Show
Just over a century ago, global corporations became a new force in civilization. The biggest was U.S. Steel, formed in 1901, a company so big that it was simply called “The Corporation.” Neither Congress nor the Supreme Court seemed willing or able to contest its unprecedented power.
But in the 1910s one man, a blacksmith-turned-lawyer from a wild iron mining town in northern Minnesota, did something that no one else had. He beat U.S. Steel. He beat them in the courtroom. He beat them at the ballot box.
His name was Victor Power. He was dashing, funny, brilliant and fat. As mayor, he built Hibbing, Minnesota, from a glorified mining camp into a modern marvel with the most expensive public high school in the country. The national press dubbed Hibbing the “Richest Village on Earth,” “The Razzle-Dazzle Village“ and “The Village of Thrills.”
But in 1926, Victor Power died at just 45 years of age. His death, cloaked in mystery, left a complicated legacy that still resonates today — both in the rusting town that still bears signs of his amazing accomplishments, and in a big world still fighting the battles he started.
Filmmaker Karl Jacob and author Aaron Brown met on the historical trail of Vic Power. They joined forces to dig deeper, and now they bring you “Power in the Wilderness,” a public radio podcast serial that asks: “Corporations or people? Who has the power?”
Creators
is an author, journalist, and instructor at Hibbing Community College. He’s working on a book about Victor Power.
KARL JACOB
(Wiiliainen)
is an independent filmmaker and actor living in New York. He’s developing a film project about Victor Power.