Crosby, Minnesota, is a city rich in history, abundant in resources and blessed with natural beauty. From 1910 to the early 1980s, the lifeblood of the Cuyuna Range flowed red with iron ore. And the heart of the Cuyuna Range was, and is, Crosby.

The town was named for George H. Crosby, a businessperson in the mining industry. In the 1932 local elections, the voters of Crosby elected Karl Emil Nygard as President of the Village Council and thus became the first city in the United States to have a Communist mayor.

Crosby was the location of the worst mining disaster in Minnesota, the Milford Mine disaster. On February 5, 1924, a new tunnel was blasted too close to nearby Foley Lake, and water rushed in, killing 41 miners.

In August 1957, Dr. David G. Simons, a 35-year-old Air Force major, climbed to nearly 102,000 feet above the Earth as part of Project Manhigh. The flight, which was launched from the 400-foot-deep Portsmouth Mine Pit Lake in Crosby, helped the country take its fledgling steps into space exploration. Simons returned to Crosby in 2007 to mark the anniversary of the Man High project.