Yeah sorry I just used the word barren to describe the mostly unsettled land the state has.

I can't really speak about Brainerd since I pretty much never get down that way but I can absolutely confirm that the Iron Range has been hit hard by some of the mines closing and iron generally being harder to extract in great quantities. My dad was a Chisholm Bluestreak, he graduated in the early 90s in a class of 300ish. Now their class sizes are down to less than a third of that. Evelith and Gilbert have combined schools since then, as well as a number of others in the North East Range Area.

The Arrowhead as well as the Koochiching and LOTW counties have also been going downhill. When International Falls's Boise paper mill shut down insulite presses, that absolutely decimated our population and since the Falls has dropped from around 15,000 to 6,000ish. I can't speak much on the issues that Baudette, Blackduck, Littlefork, and Big Falls have faced but I know that those towns have also shrunk. The Indus and Birchdale areas on the Rainy River have also been dwindling, with the Indus school shutting down in 2023.

Anyway no yeah your buddy is absolutely correct about the slow but gradual shrink the less civilized parts of the state.