VIRGINIA, a city of St. Louis county, Minnesota, U.S.A., 6o m. N.W. of Duluth, at an altitude of 1,5oo ft., in the heart of the Mesaba iron range and the vast playground of "the Arrow head country." It is served by the Duluth and Iron Range, the Duluth, Missabe and Northern, the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific, and the Great Northern railways. Pop. (1920) was 14,022 (34% foreign-born white) ; 193o Federal census 11,963. Mining and lumbering are the principal industries. Within the city limits are three sawmills, one of which (the largest in the world handling white pine) employs 3,500 to 4,00o men, and ships annually 200, 000,000 ft. of lumber. The six iron mines of the immediate
vicinity (worked by the stripping or open-pit method) employ 5,500 men and ship annually 5,000,000 tons of ore. The city owns and operates the water, gas, electric light and power plants, and also a steam plant which heats 94 blocks, serving 1,40o cus tomers. Virginia was founded in 1892 and incorporated in 1905.