Remembering Minneapolis architect David Madson
Madson designed an AIDS memorial in the mid-1990s, when few memorials for the disease existed and the epidemic was at its height.
MNopedia
Each week, MinnPost brings you a highlight of our state’s past from MNopedia, an encyclopedia of Minnesota history written by experts and produced by the Minnesota Historical Society.
This content is shared with MinnPost by MNopedia, the digital encyclopedia created by the Minnesota Historical Society and supported by the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Marine Mill, the first commercial sawmill in Minnesota
Over a period of about six decades, the mill produced millions of board feet of lumber and provided construction material used in towns and cities throughout the state.
How Minnesota became the top turkey producer in the U.S.
The Minnesota turkey industry began with small backyard flocks raised on family farms.
The art of Minnesota ‘regionalist’ Bob Brown
Robert Aaron Brown was a prolific St. Paul painter, mostly of watercolors, whose productive years were roughly 1930 to 1950.
The Minnesota gubernatorial election recount of 1962
An unusually close election in 1962 led to a recount in the race between Gov. Elmer L. Andersen and his challenger, Lt. Gov. Karl F. Rolvaag.
The Halloween Blizzard of 1991
On Oct. 30, 1991, no one in Minnesota foresaw a blizzard. Local meteorologists predicted a few inches of snow. The snow began to fall in the early to mid-afternoon of Oct. 31 and fell steadily for almost three days.
How Anoka became the Halloween Capital of the World in 1937
The title recognizes its status as one of the first cities to discourage Halloween tricks by hosting a city-wide party.
Recalling the time St. Anthony Falls almost collapsed into rapids
On October 5, 1869, water seeped and then gushed into a tunnel underneath St. Anthony Falls creating an enormous whirlpool. The falls were nearly destroyed.
The Chicano muralismo movement in St. Paul
Public art created during the late 1960s and early 1970s responded to the destruction of America’s inner cities. While many of the first Chicano murals painted on St. Paul’s West Side are now lost, murals continue to reflect the community’s growth and progress.
Irene Gomez-Bethke bent the arc of history toward social justice
Gomez-Bethke served as Minnesota Commissioner of Human Rights, guided boards and commissions as a volunteer, and co-founded both Centro Cultural Chicano and Instituto de Arte y Cultura.
Pat Bellanger: A half century of fighting for Indigenous rights
Though she often escaped the public eye, her work survives through her children and community, the attendees of survival schools, and the children protected by the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Rainy Lake island cabin an artifact of the opening of northeastern Minnesota to tourism and recreation
The rustic cabin was built by Jun Fujita, one of the first prominent Japanese Americans in the Midwest.
The origins of the Minnesota State Fair
Agricultural societies held fairs in Minnesota Territory as far back as the early 1850s.
The 1917 Minnesota State Fair became a ‘Food Training Camp’ for the Allied war effort
Since its founding in 1859, the Minnesota State Fair had been an essential yearly tradition in the agricultural state. However, after the United States entered World War I in 1917, the fair took on an entirely new significance.
Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio is the largest Latino-led nonprofit in Minnesota
It formed in 1981 in St. Paul in response to the need for language-appropriate, culturally competent mental health services for the Latino Spanish-speaking community.
The time a high school guidance counselor built a Viking ship to sail to Norway
While recovering from a fall in 1971, Robert Asp read a book on Viking shipbuilding. This sparked a thought.
St. Paul’s Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion on Roe
In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon failed twice to fill an opening on the Supreme Court when the Senate rejected first Clement Haynsworth, then Harrold Carswell. On his third try Nixon chose Blackmun.
The Minneapolis Aquatennial has been drawing crowds every July since 1940
The name “Aquatennial” was chosen by contest to highlight the abundance of lakes, rivers, and parks around Minneapolis.
The expansion of American Crystal Sugar into the Red River Valley
Entire families came up from Texas for the sugar beet planting season and harvest, and American Crystal provided housing.
Centro Cultural Chicano, the oldest and largest multi-service Hispanic organization in Minneapolis
Centro’s mission and values are grounded in supporting the well-being of Latine families through a holistic approach to education and family engagement.
